The various modes of religion which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.
—Edward Gibbon, 1776
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Quotes
The only equals are those who are equally rich.
—Burundian proverbWithout virtue, both riches and honor, to me, seem like the passing cloud.
—Confucius, c. 350 BCThe best moment of love is when the lover leaves in the taxi.
—Michel Foucault, c. 1982The first requisite to happiness is that a man be born in a famous city.
—Euripides, c. 415 BCAny sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
—Arthur C. Clarke, 1973A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run.
—Ouida, 1880If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.
—George W. Bush, 2005He who commands the sea has command of everything.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600Attend to earth,
for it is to earth that kings are truly wedded.
The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
—Herodotus, c. 425 BCJourneys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will—whatever we may think.
—Lawrence Durrell, 1957You can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880