Quote collection
433 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I cannot but conclude that the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth."
"Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect."
"Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old."
"May you live all the days of your life."
"I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one, and Judge Such-a-one: so with physicians - I will not speak of my own trade - soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell."
"When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to me to be alive and talking to me."
"Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent."
"He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers."
"Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as to conceive how others can be in want."
"Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy, when great ones are not in the way: for want of a block he will stumble at a straw."
"There is nothing constant in this world but inconsistency."
"We of this age have discovered a shorter, and more prudent method to become scholars and wits, without the fatigue of reading or of thinking."
"War: that mad game the world so loves to play."
"I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed."
"It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another."
"There's none so blind as they that won't see."
"Tell truth, and shame the devil."
"This is every cook's opinion - no savory dish without an onion, but lest your kissing should be spoiled your onions must be fully boiled."
"It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind."
"Cruel people are ever cowards in emergency."