Archive

Quotes

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?

—William Law, 1728

Alcohol is the monarch of liquids.

—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825

Worry over what has not occurred is a serious malady.

—Solomon ibn Gabirol, 1050

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

—George Eliot, 1876

On no other stage are the scenes shifted with a swiftness so like magic as on the great stage of history when once the hour strikes.

—Edward Bellamy, 1888

In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.

—Julius Caesar, 52 BC

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

—Bertrand Russell, 1961

He who has nothing has no friends.

—Greek proverb

A jest breaks no bones.

—Samuel Johnson, 1781

Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.

—Voltaire, 1770

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.

—John Paul Jones, 1778

What is outside my mind means nothing to it.

—Marcus Aurelius, c. 170