What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
—Voltaire, 1723
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Quotes
There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665I love everyone now that I have gray hair.
—Polatkin, c. 1855It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
—Frederick Douglass, 1852A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong.
—Ecclesiasticus, c. 180 BCGambling is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.
—George Washington, 1783Industrialism is the religion with “the machine” as the god going to answer all the prayers. Communism and capitalism were just competing sects.
—Dora Russell, 1983The Founding Fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called an education. School is where you go between when your parents can’t take you and industry can’t take you.
—John Updike, 1963The hatred of relatives is the bitterest.
—Tacitus, 117Man and animals are really the conduit of food, the sepulcher of animals, and resting place of the dead, one causing the death of the other, making themselves the covering for the corruption of other dead bodies.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500Man punishes the action, but God the intention.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732No time to marry, no time to settle down, I’m a young woman, and ain’t done runnin’ round.
—Bessie Smith, 1926Speak without regard for the consequences, and it is too late for silence when disaster strikes.
—Huan Kuan, 81 BC