Quotes to inspire and reflect

Call me Ishmael.

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

I [Death] was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter … a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism.

The class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat.

All I know is that I am not a Marxist.

Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in world history reappear in one fashion or another. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

Religion is … the opium of the people.

PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.

I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.

it s cheerio

Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.

an optimist is a guy

Is it not passing brave to be a king,

BARNARDINE : Thou hast committed—

I count religion but a childish toy,

Thus methinks should men of judgement frame

Where both deliberate, the love is slight;

My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,

O lente lente currite noctis equi .

Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,

Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.

I shot the sheriff

Get up, stand up

Whenever I prepare for a journey I prepare as though for death. Should I never return, all is in order.

We come out of the dark and go into the dark again, and in between lie the experiences of our life.

A man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own.

Speech is civilisation itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

True reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past.

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.

I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realized. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

L’art est un anti-destin.

La condition humaine.

La chair est triste, hélas! et j’ai lu tous les livres.

Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

The prince must be a fox, therefore, to recognize the traps and a lion to frighten the wolves.