To escape its wretched lot, the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The first two are the rum shop and the church; the third is the social revolution.
—Mikhail Bakunin, 1871
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Quotes
Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.
—Epictetus, c. 100Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.
—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BCWorry over what has not occurred is a serious malady.
—Solomon ibn Gabirol, 1050The greatest veneration one can show the law is to keep a watch on it.
—Nadine Gordimer, 1971Human happiness never remains long in the same place.
—Herodotus, c. 430 BCIf the world were good for nothing else, it is a fine subject for speculation.
—William Hazlitt, 1823Play, wherein persons of condition, especially ladies, waste so much of their time, is a plain instance to me that men cannot be perfectly idle; they must be doing something, for how else could they sit so many hours toiling at that which generally gives more vexation than delight to people whilst they are actually engaged in it?
—John Locke, 1693He who laugheth too much, hath the nature of a fool; he that laugheth not at all, hath the nature of an old cat.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732Those things are better which are perfected by nature than those which are finished by art.
—Cicero, c. 45 BCAll men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1655The men of today are born to criticize; of Achilles they see only the heel.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1880Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811