There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580
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Quotes
Those from whom we were born have long since departed, and those with whom we grew up exist only in memory. We, too, through the approach of death, become, as it were, trees growing on the sandy bank of a river.
—Bhartrihari, c. 400The Mediterranean has the colors of a mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet—you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray.
—Vincent van Gogh, 1888Alcohol is the monarch of liquids.
—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825Peace is a natural effect of trade.
—Montesquieu, 1748So many men, so many opinions.
—Terence, 161 BCAn irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.
—Epicurus, c. 250 BCOnly the little people pay taxes.
—Leona Helmsley, 1989Scandal begins where the police leave off.
—Karl Kraus, 1909Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up.
—Vladimir Lenin, 1918A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.
—Charles Baudelaire, 1852Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962