The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615Quotes
The elephant, although a gross beast, is yet the most decent and most sensible of any other upon earth. Although he never changes his female, and hath so tender a love for her whom he hath chosen, yet he never couples with her but at the end of every three years, and then only for the space of five days.
—St. Francis de Sales, 1609The first requisite to happiness is that a man be born in a famous city.
—Euripides, c. 415 BCTo outwit an enemy is not only just and glorious but profitable and sweet.
—Plutarch, c. 100The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon, 1788I have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974All people have the common desire to be elevated in honor, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.
—Mencius, c. 330 BCA fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.
—Ovid, c. 1 BCWe are as near to heaven by sea as by land!
—Humphrey Gilbert, 1583Fear has a smell, as love does.
—Margaret Atwood, 1972If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
—Aeschylus, 458 BCRepetition is the mother of education.
—Jean Paul, 1807Life isn’t all beer and skittles, but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman’s education.
—Thomas Hughes, 1857