Educate people without religion and you make them but clever devils.
—Arthur Wellesley, c. 1830
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Quotes
A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.
—Amiri Baraka, 1962Vox populi, vox humbug.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1678The life of spies is to know, not be known.
—George Herbert, c. 1621I never know quite when I’m not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, Dammit, Thurber, stop writing. She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph. Or my daughter will look up from the dinner table and ask, Is he sick? No, my wife says, he’s writing something.
—James Thurber, 1955Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1640Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
—Albert Einstein, 1931Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883What harm is there in getting knowledge and learning, were it from a sot, a pot, a fool, a winter mitten, or an old slipper?
—François Rabelais, 1533Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
—William Morris, 1882Childhood has no forebodings—but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.
—George Eliot, 1860The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590