Archive

Quotes

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500

The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

—John Lennon, 1970

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1903

The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.

—Abraham the Jew, c. 1400

Everyone complains about his memory, and no one complains about his judgment.

—La Rochefoucauld, 1666

An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.

—Epicurus, c. 250 BC

When we define democracy now, it must still be as a thing hoped for but not seen.

—Pearl S. Buck, 1941

What is food to one is to others bitter poison.

—Lucretius, 50 BC

Knowledge is an ancient error reflecting on its youth. 

—Francis Picabia, 1949

Writing cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.

—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BC

Lord! I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.

—Jonathan Swift, 1738

It is not my design to drink or sleep; my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.

—Oliver Cromwell, 1658