Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
—Samuel Johnson, 1780
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Quotes
I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.
—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BCWhen man wanted to make a machine that would walk, he created the wheel, which does not resemble a leg.
—Guillaume Apollinaire, 1917Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
—Hebrews, c. 60The young always have the same problem—how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their elders and copying one another.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968A false report rides post.
—English proverbMusic melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.
—Anaïs Nin, 1939Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty, and death of public opinion.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902Fear has a smell, as love does.
—Margaret Atwood, 1972I ride rough waters and shall sink with no one to save me.
—Virginia Woolf, 1931The tune I remember, could I but keep the words.
—Virgil, 38 BCYou can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880