I count myself in nothing else so happy / As in a soul remembering my good friends.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1595
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Quotes
There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.
—Aeschylus, c. 458 BCYou may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.
—Horace, 20 BCWhenever there is excess, an ax remedies it.
—Sumerian proverbIf I lose at play, I blaspheme, and if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So that God is always sure to be the loser.
—John Donne, 1623War to the castles; peace to the cottages.
—Nicolas Chamfort, 1790Once you hear the details of a victory it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1951The people are the foundation of the state. If the foundations are firm, the state will be tranquil.
—Classic of History, c. 400 BCOf all objects that I have ever seen, there is none which affects my imagination so much as the sea or ocean. A troubled ocean, to a man who sails upon it, is, I think, the biggest object that he can see in motion, and consequently gives his imagination one of the highest kinds of pleasure that can arise from greatness.
—Joseph Addison, 1712Water is the readiest means of making friends with nature.
—Ludwig Feuerbach, 1841He who sings frightens away his ills.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605I’ve been bathing in the poem / Of star-infused and milky sea / Devouring the azure greens.
—Arthur Rimbaud, 1871When the abbot throws the dice, the whole convent will play.
—Martin Luther, c. 1540