Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
—Samuel Johnson, 1751
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Quotes
Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
—Toni Morrison, 1987Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it “the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the soul.” The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of “artist.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1849Nature’s rules have no exceptions.
—Herbert Spencer, 1851If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BCOne should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
—Aeschylus, 458 BCNo great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law.
—Emma Goldman, 1917Travelers, poets, and liars are three words all of one significance.
—Richard Brathwaite, 1631Worry over what has not occurred is a serious malady.
—Solomon ibn Gabirol, 1050