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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Classical antiquity71 quotes
I came, I saw, I conquered. — Julius Caesar · 46 BCHope is a waking dream. — Aristotle · 240One soul dwelling in two bodies. — AristotleHappiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BCOld to grow, but ever learning. — Solon · 119Do not speak ill of the dead. — Chilon · 240All 71 quotes →Age of Enlightenment9 quotes
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. — Edward Gibbon · 1781All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance. — Edward Gibbon · 1789Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. — Edward Gibbon · 1776Whoever would lie usefully should lie seldom. — Lord Hervey · 1743The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common, quality of human nature. — Edward Gibbon · 1776There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations in opposition to their inclination and interest. — Edward Gibbon · 1781All 9 quotes →Middle Ages3 quotes
The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail ahead; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. — Venerable Bede · 731No reptiles are found there, and no snake can live there; for, though often carried thither out of Britain, as soon as the ship comes near the shore, and the scent of the air reaches them, they die. — Venerable Bede · 731If history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate what is good. — Venerable Bede · 731Age of Exploration1 quote
There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory. — Francis Drake · 1587Ancient World1 quote
Though bitter, good medicine cures illness. Though it may hurt, loyal criticism will have beneficial effects. — Sima Qian · 109 BC