The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.
—George Eliot, 1876
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Quotes
The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835Avoid the talk of men. For talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even talk is in some ways divine.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BCI doubt that we have any right to pity the dead for their own sakes.
—Lord Byron, 1817The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.
—Paul Johnson, 1989The play is the tragedy “Man,” And its hero the conqueror worm.
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1843Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
—Book of Job, c. 600 BCA criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.
—George Mikes, 1946The sole business of a seaman onshore who has to go to sea again is to take as much pleasure as he can.
—Leigh Hunt, 1820Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the grand climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.
—Jean Baudrillard, 1987He that will cheat you at play, will cheat you any way.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.
—Archilochus, c. 650 BCPower is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
—Henry Kissinger, 1972