The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
—Charles Darwin, 1871Quotes
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665How sickness enlarges the dimension of a man’s self to himself! He is his own exclusive object.
—Charles Lamb, 1833We must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.
—John Winthrop, 1630The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
—Maya Angelou, 1986The bathing was so delightful this morning, and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself, that I believe I stayed in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired. I shall be more careful another time, and shall not bathe tomorrow as I had before intended.
—Jane Austen, 1804The earth is beautiful and bright and kindly, but that is not all. The earth is also terrible and dark and cruel.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1970I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him.
—Book of Revelations, c. 90Put national causes first and personal grudges last.
—Sima Qian, c. 91 BCWhat a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
—Voltaire, 1723Home is the girl’s prison and the woman’s workhouse.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903All technologies should be assumed guilty until proven innocent.
—David Brower, 1992One has to spend so many years in learning how to be happy.
—George Eliot, 1844