It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
—Frederick Douglass, 1852
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Quotes
A multitude of small delights constitute happiness.
—Charles Baudelaire, 1897What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?
—William Law, 1728God sells us all things at the price of labor.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500There are people whom one loves immediately and forever. Even to know they are alive in the world with one is quite enough.
—Nancy Spain, 1956It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to regard them merely as so much muscle or physical power.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1891Modern life is often a mechanical oppression, and liquor is the only mechanical relief.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1935The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCTo blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCWhoever gulps down wine as a horse gulps down water is called a Scythian.
—Athenaeus, c. 230Among all nations, through the darkest polytheism glimmer some faint sparks of monotheism.
—Immanuel Kant, 1781Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.
—Edward, Duke of Windsor, 1957