Once you hear the details of a victory it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1951
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Quotes
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
—Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891The 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. 1400Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.
—Carl Sandburg, 1936If there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from A to Z that I abominate, it is energy.
—Charles Dickens, 1865Anyone who has passed through the regular gradations of a classical education, and is not made a fool by it, may consider himself as having had a very narrow escape.
—William Hazlitt, 1821Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.
—Jean Genet, 1986It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street.
—Mary Lease, c. 1890People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence, and they think they have seen something.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them.
—Denis Diderot, 1777Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.
—Homer, c. 750 BCI prefer liberty with unquiet to slavery with quiet.
—Sallust, c. 35 BCI have learned much from disease which life could never have taught me anywhere else.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1830