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Quotes

Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.

—William Shakespeare, 1603

Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.

—William Empson, 1928

Sex: in America, an obsession; in other parts of the world, a fact.

—Marlene Dietrich, 1962

The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended—and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.

—Robert Frost, 1939

I even gave up, for a while, stopping by the window of the room to look out at the lights and deep, illuminated streets. That’s a form of dying, that losing contact with the city like that.

—Philip K. Dick, 1972

In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.

—Francis Grose, 1787

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

There are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night.

—Madame de Sévigné, 1671

Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live.

—Anatole Broyard, 1989

It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to regard them merely as so much muscle or physical power.

—Pope Leo XIII, 1891

The state dictates and coerces; religion teaches and persuades. The state enacts laws; religion gives commandments. The state is armed with physical force and makes use of it if need be; the force of religion is love and benevolence.

—Moses Mendelssohn, 1783

The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.

—Anaïs Nin, 1935

What one man can invent another can discover.

—Arthur Conan Doyle, 1905