Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them; it is destiny which makes them prudent.
—Voltaire, 1764
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Quotes
Those who go overseas find a change of climate, not a change of soul.
—Horace, c. 20 BCTo know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have an enthusiastic soul.
—George Eliot, 1872I never know quite when I’m not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, Dammit, Thurber, stop writing. She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph. Or my daughter will look up from the dinner table and ask, Is he sick? No, my wife says, he’s writing something.
—James Thurber, 1955The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
—Plato, c. 375 BCOnce a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
—Tacitus, c. 100The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.
—André Gide, 1927One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
—E.B. White, 1977Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.
—George Washington, 1781Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
—Sydney Smith, 1855If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don’t teach him to subtract—teach him to deduct.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981The more laws, the more lawbreakers.
—Tao Te Ching, c. 500 BCFame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.
—Julie Burchill, 1986