One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1664
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Quotes
No man ever distinguished himself who could not bear to be laughed at.
—Maria Edgeworth, 1809Do not fear the clatter of wheels, the bumps and slops in corridors. It is only turbulence.
—Romalyn Ante, 2020Love is giving something you haven’t got to someone who doesn’t exist.
—Jacques LacanEvery man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851Ashore it’s wine, women, and song; aboard it’s rum, bum, and concertina.
—British naval saying, c. 1800All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.
—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BCLike a broken gong be still, be silent. Know the stillness of freedom where there is no more striving.
—Siddhartha Gautama, c. 500 BCI came upon no wine, / So wonderful as thirst.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1923As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
—Abraham Lincoln, c. 1858The waters are nature’s storehouse, in which she locks up her wonders.
—Izaak Walton, 1653To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.
—Georges Bataille, 1957All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890