Sourced and curated.

One who is serious all day will never have a good time, while one who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.

Ptahhotep

The Maxims of Ptahhotep · 2375 BC

★ 1.2

Man is a child of the customs and the things he has become used to. He is not the product of his natural disposition and temperment. The conditions to which he has become accustomed, until they have become for him a quality of character and matters of habit and custom, have replaced his natural disposition.

Ibn Khaldun

1377

★ 1.2

Be cheerful while you are alive.

Ptahhotep

The Maxims of Ptahhotep · 2375 BC

★ 1.3

Philosophical literature

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

Plotinus

Enneads · 270

★ 1.3

Interview · TV program

You will never be free until we are free.

Desmond Tutu

1999

★ 1.3

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

Fernando Pessoa

1935

★ 1.9

Novel · Philosophical literature

We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all costs, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself.

The liberal must understand that the days of the Noble Savage are gone; that the blacks do not need a go-between in this struggle for their own emancipation. No true liberal should feel any resentment at the growth of black consciousness. Rather, all true liberals should realize that the place for their fight for justice is within their white society.

The Fall · 1956

★ 1.9

Essay

Steve Biko

1970

★ 1.9

Essay

Exile is predicated on the existence of, love for, and a real bond with one's native place; the universal truth of exile is not that one has lost that love or home, but that inherent in each is an unexpected, unwelcome loss. Regard experiences then as if they were to disappear.

Edward Said

1993

★ 1.9

Interview

Art allows you to imbue the truth with a sort of magic, so it can infiltrate the psyches of more people, including those who don't believe the same things as you.

Wangechi Mutu

2014

★ 1.9

Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant man as with the learned... Good speech is more hidden than malachite, yet it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones.

Ptahhotep

The Maxims of Ptahhotep · 2375 BC

★ 1.9

Do not set your heart on wealth… Do not strain to seek increase, What you have, let it suffice you. If riches come by theft, They will not stay the night with you…. They made themselves wings like geese, And flew away to the sky.

Amenemope

1075 BC

★ 1.9

The Lord says in the gospel; "I am the Truth." He does not say "I am custom." Therefore, when the truth is made manifest, custom must give way to truth.

Libosus of Vaga

Augustine of Hippo, On Baptism, Against the Donatists · 400

★ 1.9

Personal journal

Politics, and the fate of mankind, are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness.

The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.

1962

★ 1.9

Autobiography and memoir

Wole Soyinka

1972

★ 1.9

Speech · Commencement address

The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you they are not big enough.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

2011

★ 1.9

The Dead Sea in the Middle East receives freshwater, but it has no outlet, so it doesn't pass the water out. It receives beautiful water from the rivers, and the water goes dank. I mean, it just goes bad. And that's why it is the Dead Sea. It receives and does not give. In the end, generosity is the best way of becoming more, more, and more joyful.

Desmond Tutu

2016

★ 1.9

I know the disposition of women: when you will, they won't; when you won't, they set their hearts upon you of their own inclination.

Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the generality of men.

The Eunuch · 161 BC

★ 2.0

Philosophical literature

Ptolemy

Tetrabiblos · 168

★ 2.0

It should be known that at the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of a dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.

Ibn Khaldun

1377

★ 2.0

Novel

There was never a great man who had not a great mother.

Olive Schreiner

The Story of an African Farm · 1883

★ 2.0

Essay

There is no love of life without despair of life.

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself 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 har¬ mony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Love of Life · 1937

★ 2.0

Courtroom speech · Speech

Nelson Mandela

1964

★ 2.0

What I know most surely about morality and the duty of man I owe to sport.

I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change.

1979

★ 2.0

Essay · Feminist literature

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists · 2014

★ 2.0

Lovers' quarrels are the renewal of love.

The Girl from Andros · 166 BC

★ 2.1

Some people ask, "What if the sky were to fall?"

Nothing has yet been said that's not been said before.

The Self-Tormentor · 163 BC

★ 2.1

Play · Comedy (play)

The Eunuch · 161 BC

★ 2.1

There are vicissitudes in all things.

The Eunuch · 161 BC

★ 2.1

Out of the frying pan into the fire.

Tertullian

On the Flesh of Christ · 206

★ 2.1

It is to believed because it is absurd.

Tertullian

On the Flesh of Christ · 206

★ 2.1

Philosophical literature

One principle must make the universe a single complex living creature, one from all.

Plotinus

Enneads · 270

★ 2.1