Quotes

Theodor W. Adorno photo

“Words of the jargon sound as if they said something higher than what they mean.”

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society

Source: Jargon der Eigentlichkeit [Jargon of Authenticity] (1964), p. 9

Robert Greene (dramatist) photo

“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown.”

Robert Greene (dramatist) (1558–1592) English author

Song, "Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content", line 1, from Farewell to Folly (1591); Dyce p. 309.

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5442. We have all forgot more, than we remember.”

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

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

“But it is better to be destroyed on strange frontiers than to live in a prison of ignorance and fear.”

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

Sea-horse in the Sky (1969)

Jacques Prevért photo

“There aren't six or seven wonders of the world
There is no more than one: it is love.”

Jacques Prevért (1900–1977) French poet, screenwriter

Attributed

E.E. Cummings photo

“hugest whole creation may be less
incalculable than a single kiss”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

37
73 poems (1963)

Ennius photo

“No sooner said than done—so acts your man of worth.”
Dictum factumque facit frux.

Ennius (-239–-169 BC) Roman writer

As quoted by Priscianus in Ars Prisciani, Book VI

Adolphe Quetelet photo

“I am less desirous to explain phenomena than to establish their existence.”

Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist

Preface of M. Quetelet
A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842)

Sarah Bakewell photo

“From now on, Montaigne would live for himself rather than for duty.”

describing Montaigne’s retirement at age 38, p. 24.
How to Live, or, A Life of Montaigne in one Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (2010)

Livy photo

“There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.”

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Book XXXIX, sec. 16
History of Rome

Plutarch photo

“Xenophon says that there is no sound more pleasing than one's own praises.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Whether an Aged Man ought to meddle in State Affairs
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Democritus photo

“The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus

Anton Chekhov photo

“It’s easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.S. Suvorin (January 2, 1894)
Letters

Jacques Maritain photo

“Nothing is more vain than to seek to unite men by a philosophic minimum.”

Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) French philosopher

Integral Humanism, (1936, Notre Dame Edition), p. 262.

Eric R. Kandel photo

“Nothing is more stimulating for self-education than working in a new area.”

Eric R. Kandel (1929) American neuropsychiatrist

In Search of Memory (2006)

Catherine the Great photo

“It is better to be subject to the Laws under one Master, than to be subservient to many.”

Catherine the Great (1729–1796) Empress of Russia

Proposals for a New Law Code (1768)

Larry Wall photo

“True, it returns ' ' for false, but ' ' is an even more interesting number than 0.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“Folly is often more cruel in the consequence, than malice can be in the intent.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections

“There are more whooping cranes in the United States of America than there are women in Congress.”

Joanna Russ (1937–2011) American author

Part 4, Chapter 8 (p. 61)
Fiction, The Female Man (1975)