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.
The Renaissance15 quotes
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare · 1616There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. — William Shakespeare · 1599Time’s the king of men.
He’s both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave. — William Shakespeare · 1608And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale. — William Shakespeare · 1616The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. — William Shakespeare · 1616Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580All 15 quotes →Classical antiquity12 quotes
Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCNaked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. — Job · 500 BCOne might perhaps say that this very thing is probable, that many things happen to men that are not probable. — AgathonAs for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. — Heraclitus · 480 BCI was shipwrecked before I got on board. — Seneca · 65All 12 quotes →Age of Enlightenment8 quotes
Of all the animals, with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercis'd more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities, with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means, which she affords to the relieving these necessities. — David Hume · 1739All human misfortune comes from this one thing: man's being unable to sit still in a room. — Blaise Pascal · 1662Do you believe that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools? — Voltaire · 1759How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! — Oliver Goldsmith · 1765O Life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I! — Robert Burns · 1786Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! — Alexander Pope · 1733All 8 quotes →Old Testament Era6 quotes
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. — Ecclesiastes 9:11 · 931 BCIn the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. — God · 1405 BCAs for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. — Psalm 103:15-16 · 450 BCOne generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. — Ecclesiastes 1:4 · 931 BCFor we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. — David · 430 BCFor what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. — Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 · 931 BCNew Testament Era5 quotes
He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. — Jesus · 60For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. — 1st Timothy 6:7 · 64For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. — Apostle Paul · 56What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? — Apostle Paul · 56Ye are fallen from grace. — Apostle Paul · 50Ancient World2 quotes
The Noble Truth of Suffering is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorror and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering-in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering. — Pali Tipitaka · 100 BCBirth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. — Gautama Buddha · 510 BC