“There is nothing more ancient than the truth.”
René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
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“Reproduction is more pleasurable than death.”
Herman E. Daly (1938) American economist
“911. Better late than never.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Creating is more fun than consuming.”
Paul Glover (1947) Community organizer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; American politician
http://www.paulglover.org/1111.html (Deep Green Jobs, book), 2011
“Zeal will do more than knowledge.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
" On the Difference Between Writing and Speaking http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/DiffWritSpeak.htm" <br class="br">The Plain Speaker (1826)
“The whole is simpler than its parts.”
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) physicist
Quoted by Irving Fisher in "The Applications of Mathematics to the Social Sciences," Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 36, 225-243 (1930). Full article http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183493954 <br class="br">Attributed
“It is better to will the good than to know the truth.”
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet
As quoted in The Renaissance : Essays in Interpretation (1982) by André Chastel , p 107
“Kindness effects more than severity.”
Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.
Plus fait douceur que violence.
Book VI (1678-1679), fable 3.
Fables (1668–1679)
“Relearning and more difficult than learning.”
François-Noël Babeuf (1760–1797) French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period
Réapprendre et plus difficile qu'apprendre.
[in Gracchus Babeuf avec les Egaux, Jean-Marc Shiappa, Les éditions ouvrières, 1991, 79, 27082 2892-7, ; Tribun du peuple, fructidor an II, 1794]
On Maximilien de Robespierre
“It's easier to be faithful to a restaurant than it is to a woman.”
Federico Fellini (1920–1993) Italian filmmaker
"Fidelity"
I'm a Born Liar (2003)
“There is more done with pens than with swords.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) Abolitionist, author
This is very similar in theme to "Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword." by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
Attributed
“Better to be cheated by the price than by the merchandise.”
Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Más vale ser engañado en el precio que en la mercadería.
Maxim 157 (p. 89)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
“What is more arrogant than honesty?”
Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle
Source: Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Chapter 15 “To the Ice” (p. 213)
“Nothing is harder than to accept oneself.”
Max Frisch (1911–1991) Swiss playwright and novelist
I'm not Stiller (1955)
“There are some remedies worse than the disease.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 301
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
“There's hopeless smiles better than mine”
Daniel Johns (1979) Australian musician
Without You
Song lyrics, Diorama (2002)
“Nothing is more natural than to marry.”
Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet (1554–1625) English politician
Lord Hobart's Rep. 342.
Sheffield v. Ratcliffe (1615)
“I drink no more than a sponge.”
Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 5.
“Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
Wars I Have Seen (1945)