Every house: temple, empire, school.
—Joseph Joubert, 1800Quotes
I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.
—Maximilien Robespierre, 1792Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665Hang work! I wish that all the year were holiday; I am sure that Indolence—indefeasible Indolence—is the true state of man.
—Charles Lamb, 1805Hatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization.
—Rebecca West, 1912The smell of rain is rich with life.
—Estela Portillo Trambley, 1975There is a demon who puts wings on certain tales and launches them like eagles out into space.
—Alexandre Dumas, 1846It’s only the futility of the first flood that prevents God from sending a second.
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1794Nothing is hidden from the eyes of the observing world.
—Aleksandr Pushkin, 1837No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes.
—Hannah Arendt, 1963The various modes of religion which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.
—Edward Gibbon, 1776Great cities must ever be centers of light and darkness, the home of the best and the worst of our race, holding within themselves the highest talent for good and evil.
—Matthew Hale Smith, 1868Animals hear about death for the first time when they die.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1819