The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Classical antiquity22 quotes
The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates · 399 BCI know that I do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCCui bono? — Cicero · 52 BCWe are lovers of beauty without extravagance, and lovers of wisdom without unmanliness. Wealth is to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degradation to make no effort to overcome. — Pericles · 430 BCCarthage must be destroyed. — Cato the Elder · 149 BCLaws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCAll 22 quotes →Age of Enlightenment7 quotes
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. — Edmund Burke · 1784Individuals pass like shadows; but the commonwealth is fixed and stable. — Edmund Burke · 1780Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. — Edmund Burke · 1774There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, — the Law of Nature and of Nations. — Edmund Burke · 1794The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. — Edmund Burke · 1771The slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and to the rights of men. — David Hartley (the Younger) · 1776All 7 quotes →American Revolutionary Period5 quotes
Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775Every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. — Edmund Burke · 1775The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered. — Edmund Burke · 1775The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own... The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect-We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. — George Washington · 1776What a glorious morning is this. — Samuel Adams · 1775The Renaissance2 quotes
I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king. — Elizabeth I · 1588I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will. — James I · 1621Civil Rights Era (US)1 quote
Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever! — George Wallace · 1963Red Scare (McCarthy era)1 quote
I have here in my hand a list of 205... A list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. — Joseph McCarthy · 1950