Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.
—James Baldwin, 1961
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Quotes
Governments are not overthrown by the poor, who have no power, but by the rich—when they are insulted by their inferiors and cannot obtain justice.
—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, c. 20 BCEvery man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1910I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.
—Albert Camus, 1957Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.
—Edmund Burke, 1790Shamelessness is the shame of being without shame.
—Mencius, c. 290 BCThank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
—Sydney Smith, 1855Once suspicion is aroused, everything feeds it.
—Amelia Edith Barr, 1885Among all nations, through the darkest polytheism glimmer some faint sparks of monotheism.
—Immanuel Kant, 1781It is noble to die before doing anything that deserves death.
—Anaxandrides, c. 376If we pretend to respect the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.
—Henry James, 1884Rivalry is the whetstone of talent.
—Roman proverbWhat touches all shall be approved by all.
—Edward I, 1295