Quotes

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5465. Weeds are apt to grow faster than good Herbs.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

J. M. Barrie photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“The advice of women, if spontaneous,
Is better than if pondered well, and weighed.”

Molti consigli de le donne sono
Meglio improviso, ch'a pensarvi, usciti.
Canto XXVII, stanza 1 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

“Perhaps misguided moral passion is better than confused indifference.”

The Book and the Brotherhood (1987) p. 248.

Patrick Modiano photo

“A novelist has more talent for written than oral assignments.”

Patrick Modiano (1945) French writer

From Nobel Lecture (2014)

“Yea, Custance, better (they say) a bad excuse than none.”

Gawin Goodluck, Act V, sc. ii.
Ralph Roister Doister (c. 1553)

“The race of armaments is nothing less than a race to mutual suicide.”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

Samuel R. Delany photo

“I came no nearer sleep than I came to the moon.”

Source: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter III (p. 29)

Avner Strauss photo

“A cup of kindness is better than a whole bottle of mercy can be.”

Avner Strauss (1954) Israeli musician

Song

Adolf Hitler photo

“The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

2 April 1945.
Disputed, The Testament of Adolf Hitler (1945)

Luis de Góngora photo

“Longer than a winter's night for a man who is ill-wed.”

Luis de Góngora (1561–1627) Spanish Baroque lyric poet

Más largo
que una noche de Diciembre
para un hombre mal casado.
"Murmuraban los rocines", line 94, cited from Poesias de D. Luis de Gongora y Argote (Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1820) p. 83. Translation from Henry Baerlein The House of the Fighting-cocks (London: Leonard Parsons, 1922) p. 92.

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5711. Who more busy than they that have least to do?”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.”

Ten Novels and Their Authors (1954)

Mark Heard photo

“Life is much more of a compromise than I ever imagined.”

Mark Heard (1951–1992) American musician and record producer

Life in the Industry: A Musician's Diary

Ali al-Hadi photo

“The value and rank of a learned man is more than his knowledge.”

Ali al-Hadi (829–868) imam

Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 3.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, Religious

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

Steve Prefontaine (1951–1975) United States long-distance runner

Tom Jordan, Pre: Americas Greatest Running Legend, Steve Prefontaine, ISBN 0875964575

John Milton photo

“Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

To the Lord General Cromwell (1652)
Quoted by President Benjamin Harrison in his dedication of the Chicago Auditorium, and thereafter inscribed on the building, as reported in Dr. William Carter, "Progress in World's Peace Movement", California Outlook (1913), Vol. 14, p. 11

John Green photo

“Missing her kept him awake more than the coffee.”

Colin Singleton, p. 15
An Abundance of Katherines (2006)