Think not that guilt requires the burning torches of the furies to agitate and torment it.—Frauds, crimes, remembrances of the past and terrors of the future, these are the domestic furies that are ever present to the minds of the impious.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)
How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
—Herodotus (Ancient Greek Historian)
The most intangible, and therefore the worst kind of a lie, is a half-truth.—This is the peculiar device of the “conscientious” detractor.
—Washington Allston (American Artist, Writer)
Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It avoids the crude requirement of polygamy. So long as you have one good wife you are sure to have a spiritual harem.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)
Romance has been elegantly defined as the offspring of fiction and love.
—Isaac D’Israeli (English Writer, Scholar)
There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.
—Edgar Allan Poe (American Poet)
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (French Writer)
The life of reality is confused, disorderly, almost always without apparent purpose, whereas in the artist’s imaginative life there is purpose. … Most people are afraid to trust their imaginations and the artist is not.
—Sherwood Anderson (American Fiction Writer)
The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force.
—George Bancroft (American Historian)
People must not do things for fun. We are not here for fun. There is no reference to fun in any act of Parliament.
—A. P. Herbert (English Humorist, Politician)
Sometimes you are aware when your great moments are happening, and sometimes they rise from the past. Perhaps it’s the same with people.
—James Salter (American Fiction Writer)
My sad conviction is that people can only agree about what they’re not really interested in.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)