Never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.
—Lucretius, c. 60 BC
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Quotes
A joke is at most a temporary rebellion against virtue, and its aim is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.
—George Orwell, 1945A school without grades must have been concocted by someone who was drunk on nonalcoholic wine.
—Karl Kraus, 1909The law looks at no one’s face.
—Gabriel Okara, 1964Time will reveal everything. It is a babbler and speaks even when not asked.
—Euripides, c. 425 BCSuffering has its limit, but fears are endless.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 108The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.
—B.F. Skinner, 1969Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.
—Samuel Johnson, 1771Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.
—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BCEven diseases have lost their prestige, there aren’t so many of them left.
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1960The United States has virtually set up an empire on impounded and redistributed water.
—Charles P. Berkey, 1946What a man does abroad by night requires and implies more deliberate energy than what he is encouraged to do in the sunshine.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1852Journalists belong in the gutter, because that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets.
—Gerald Priestland, 1988