Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
A conservative is a man who will not look at the new moon out of respect for that 'ancient institution' the old one.
He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine, would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.
Lovers, like dying men, may well At first disorder'd be, Since none alive can truly tell What Fortune they must see.
We are not forced into unpleasant activities. We either allow them to come about or we encourage them to come about.
I realized later how much my acting experience influenced my writing and how it helped me to write for other actors.
Overly persuasive a woman's ordinance spreads far, traveling fast; but fast dying a rumor voiced by a woman perishes.
The gods at will can shape a gladder strain, and from the lamentations at the graveside, a song of triumph may arise.
That perfect tranquillity of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library.
... when all the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that are not heaven.
There is none to tell the rich to go on striving, for a rich man makes the law that hallows and hollows his own life.
You can remember the second and the third and the fourth time, but there's no time like the first. It's always there.
Saturday afternoon, although occurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always takes this railway by surprise.
See how the Fates their gifts allot, For A is happy-B is not. Yet B is worthy, I dare say, Of more prosperity than A.
No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living.
Is is true that dictators never dream because they can change their smallest fantasies into realities if they want to?
The knowledge that we have about what it is to be human that we have as a child is something we necessarily must lose.
Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity... but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'.
'Twas for the good of my country that I should be abroad. Anything for the good of one's country-I'm a Roman for that.
Well, there's no one at all, they do be saying, but is deserving of some punishment from the very minute of his birth.
One awakens, one rises, one dresses, and one goes forth; One returns, one dines, one sups, one retires and one sleeps.
I'm really very sorry for you all, but it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.
Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
Who knows but we may count among our intellectual chickens Like them an Earl of Thackeray and p'raps a Duke of Dickens
For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.
Nothing is more capable of troubling our reason, and consuming our health, than secret notions of jealousy in solitude.
Death has to be waiting at the end of the ride before you truly see the earth, and feel your heart, and love the world.
I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe The bosom of a friend will hold a secret Mine own could not contain.
Every brave man is a man of his word; to such base vices he cannot stoop, and shuns more than death the shame of lying.
My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.
Armenag Saroyan. A good man of whom the worst that anybody was willing to say, was that he was too good for this world.
A lively retrospect summons back to us once more our youth, with vivid reflex of its early joys and unstained pleasures.
The strangest thing that human speech and human writing can do is create a metaphor. That is an amazing leap, is it not?
That man is thought a dangerous knave, Or zealot plotting crime, Who for advancement of his kind Is wiser than his time.
'Tis a strange thing, Sam, that among us people can't agree the whole week, because they go different ways upon Sundays.
Life is a wonderful thing to talk about, or to read about in history books - but it is terrible when one has to live it.
In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air.
Life is full of strange absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible, since they are true.
Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book.
To the King, one must give his possessions and his life; but honour is a possession of soul, and the soul is only God's.
If we must part for ever, Give me but one kind word to think upon, And please myself withal, whilst my heart's breaking!
Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.
It is a pity, in my opinion, that no prize exists for the writer who best refrains from adding to the world's bad books.
When we sleep the soul is lit up... by many eyes, and with them, we can see everything that we cannot see in the daytime.
But I will place this carefully fed pig Within the crackling oven; and, I pray, What nicer dish can e'er be given to man.
Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer, / Conspired against our God with Lucifer, / And are for ever damned with Lucifer.
I courted fame but as a spur to brave and honest deeds; who despises fame will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it.
As a piece of literacy criticism, Freud's best writing is about Dostoyevsky. It's a kind of displaced literacy criticism.
Our entire life, with our fine moral code and our precious freedom, consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.
Sometimes the most intelligent thing is not to do anything, certainly nothing loaded with the imbecility of emotionality.
Lionel whispered because he was under the impression that it was out of respect for books, not consideration for readers.