Archive

Quotes

Luck takes the step that no one sees.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BC

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.

—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BC

Shamelessness is the shame of being without shame.

—Mencius, c. 290 BC

Fate leads the willing and drags along those who hang back.

—Cleanthes, c. 250 BC

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

—Wendell Phillips, 1859

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.

—W.H. Auden, 1946

He who commands the sea has command of everything.

—Francis Bacon, c. 1600

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

—St. Jerome, 395

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1776

The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.

—Jean Genet, 1983

Men are generally more pleased with a widespread than with a great reputation.

—Pliny the Younger, c. 110

Pictures made in childhood are painted in bright hues.

—Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1886

Democracy, like the human organism, carries within it the seed of its own destruction.

—Veronica Wedgwood, 1946