Recommended quotes
page 87

Edward Gibbon photo
Edward Gibbon photo

“The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Vol. 1, Chap. 68. Compare: "On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons" (translated: "It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions"), Voltaire, Letter to M. le Riche. 1770; "J'ai toujours vu Dieu du coté des gros bataillons (translated: "I have always noticed that God is on the side of the heaviest battalions"), De la Ferté to Anne of Austria.
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire: Volume 1 (1776)

Edward Gibbon photo
Novalis photo

“Where are we really going? Always home.”

Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer

Mae West photo

“It's not the men in your life that matters, it's the life in your men.”

Mae West (1893–1980) American actress and sex symbol

I'm No Angel (1933)

Al Franken photo

“If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they'll tell you that the difference between them and us is that conservatives love America and liberals hate America. … They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way.”

Al Franken (1951) American comedian and politician

Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (2003)
Context: If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they'll tell you that the difference between them and us is that conservatives love America and liberals hate America.... They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America like a 4-year-old loves his mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world.
That's why we liberals want America to do the right thing. We know America is the hope of the world, and we love it and want it to do well.

Simón Bolívar photo

“The United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.”

Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) Venezuelan military and political leader, South American libertador

Statement of 1829, as quoted in The Great Fear : The Reconquest of Latin America by Latin Americans (1963) by John Gerassi
Variant translations:
[The United States] appears destined by Providence to plague America with miseries in the name of Freedom.
As quoted in Simón Bolívar : Essays on the Life and Legacy of the Liberator (2008) by David Bushnell and Lester D. Langley, p. 135
The United States seems destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.
As quoted in Latin American Evangelical Theology in the 1970's : The Golden Decade (2009) by J. D. S. Salinas and Daniel Salinas, p. 38

Herodotus photo

“I know that human happiness never remains long in the same place.”

Herodotus book Histories

Book 1, Ch.5.
The Histories

Dante Alighieri photo

“She is the sum of nature's universe.
To her perfection all of beauty tends.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XIV, lines 49–50 (tr. Barbara Reynolds)

“I am less than what you tell about me but more than what you think about me”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha
Context: A man sarcastically started praising Imam Ali, though he had no faith in him and Imam Ali hearing these praises from him said "I am less than what you tell about me but more than what you think about me."

Al-Farabi photo

“A just city should favor justice and the just, hate tyranny and injustice, and give them both their just desserts.”

Al-Farabi (872–951) Philosopher in 10th century Central Asia

H. Gibb et al., eds., "Mazalim", The Dictionary of Islam vol. IV (Leiden: Brill, 1991)

“It would be hard to name a more certain sign of poor self-esteem than the need to perceive some other group as inferior.”

Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) Canadian–American psychotherapist and writer

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem (1994)

Kim Jong-il photo

“It's all a lie. They're just pretending to praise me.”

Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea

Remark to kidnapped South Korean director Shin Sang-ok (7 March 1983); quoted in Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader

Henri Matisse photo
Henri Matisse photo
Edmund Burke photo
John Winthrop photo

“We must delight in each other, make other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.”

John Winthrop (1588–1649) Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, author of "City upon a Hill"

A Model of Christian Charity, a sermon delivered onboard the Arbella (1630)

Franz Kafka photo
Franz Kafka photo