Archive

Quotes

Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1910

The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

—François Guizot, 1830

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

—Plotinus, c. 255

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men, but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

—Joseph Addison, 1711

If parents would only realize how they bore their children!

—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910

It’s only the futility of the first flood that prevents God from sending a second.

—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1794

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

—Tertullian, c. 200

The self is like an infant: given free rein, it craves to suckle.

—al-Busiri, c. 1250

More pernicious nonsense was never devised by man than treaties of commerce.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880

Iron may break gold, but water remains whole.

—Ge Hong, c. 300

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921

I was born without knowing why, I have lived without knowing why, and I am dying without either knowing why or how.

—Pierre Gassendi, 1655

Knowledge is an ancient error reflecting on its youth. 

—Francis Picabia, 1949