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Quotes

When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.

—St. Jerome, 395

It would seem that in history it’s never a tooth for a tooth, but a thousand, a hundred thousand for one.

—Sybille Bedford, 1963

I cannot but bless the memory of Julius Caesar, for the great esteem he expressed for fat men and his aversion to lean ones.

—David Hume, 1751

Without virtue, both riches and honor, to me, seem like the passing cloud.

—Confucius, c. 350 BC

A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.

—Susan Sontag, 1977

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

—Samuel Johnson, 1751

There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.

—Catullus, c. 60 BC

I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.

—Terence, 163 BC

Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feasts. 

—Aldous Huxley, 1929

Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer.

—William Cecil, Lord Burghley, c. 1555

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

—Jerome K. Jerome, 1889

My own experience is that a certain kind of genius among students is best brought out in bed.

—Allen Ginsberg, 1981

When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him.

—Francis Bacon, 1625