“Birth, n. The first and direst of all disasters.”
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Ambrose Bierce204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914Related quotes
“[N]o man hates God without first hating himself.”
Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter
Source: Peace of Soul (1949), Ch. 1, p. 11 http://books.google.com/books?id=ho40AAAAMAAJ&q=%22No+man+hates+God+without+first+hating+himself%22&pg=PA11#v=onepage
“And now cruel famine came – famine that is ever first in the train of great disasters.”
Jamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum<br/>saeva fames aderat.
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus book Pharsalia
Jamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum
saeva fames aderat.
Book IV, line 93 (tr. J. D. Duff).
Pharsalia
Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
Speaking to the press following a "postively productive" meeting http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=50688 with Bill Clinton (24 October 1995) <br class="br">Alternative translation: those anticipating a failure of the meeting "have failed" ("вы провалились"). <br class="br">1990s
Kathy Acker (1947–1997) American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet
Source: Pussy, King of the Pirates
Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
Book I, 1.78-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I
John Buchan (1875–1940) British politician
This has appeared on the internet attributed to Buchan, but is actually John Bunyan, as quoted in The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations (2001) by Martin H. Manser
Misattributed