The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
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 antiquity7 quotes
Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCThe character which results from wealth is that of a prosperous fool. — Aristotle · 322 BCFor he does not wish to appear the bravest, but to be the bravest. — Aeschylus · 467 BCA man's character is his fate. — HeraclitusNo one ever suddenly became depraved. — Juvenal · 127So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains. — Lucretius · 55 BCAll 7 quotes →The Renaissance3 quotes
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. — John Milton · 1644His life was gentle and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world “This was a man.” — William Shakespeare · 1599Men should be what they seem. — William Shakespeare · 1604Age of Enlightenment2 quotes
Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love. — Adam Smith · 1759An honest man's the noblest work of God. — Alexander Pope · 1733Colonial America2 quotes
He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas. — Benjamin Franklin · 1733Success has ruin’d many a Man. — Benjamin Franklin · 1752Middle Ages1 quote
For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand. — Boethius · 523Old Testament Era1 quote
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. — Proverbs 24:10 · 686 BC