The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
William Shakespeare8 quotes
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite. — William Shakespeare · 1597Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. — William Shakespeare · 1616How apt the poor are to be proud! — William Shakespeare · 1602Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. — William Shakespeare · 1595I must be cruel only to be kind. — William Shakespeare · 1616The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. — William Shakespeare · 1598All 8 quotes →Jesus4 quotes
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. — Jesus · 60But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. — Jesus · 60He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. — Jesus · 60Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. — Jesus · 61Lao Tzu3 quotes
The sage does not accumulate for himself.
The more he uses for others, the more he has himself.
The more he gives to others, the more he possesses of his own.
The Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure.
The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete. — Lao Tzu · 400 BCIf you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it. — Lao Tzu · 400 BCThe pursuit of learning is to increase day after day.
The pursuit of Tao is to decrease day after day.
It is to decrease and further decrease until one reaches the point of taking no action.
No action is undertaken, and yet nothing is left undone. — Lao Tzu · 400 BCJonathan Swift2 quotes
Every man desires to live long; but no man would be old. — Jonathan Swift · 1727There is nothing in this World constant, but Inconstancy. — Jonathan Swift · 1711Juvenal2 quotes
We are now suffering the evils of a long peace. Luxury, more deadly than war, broods over the city, and avenges a conquered world. — Juvenal · 127The less we indulge our pleasures the more we enjoy them. — Juvenal · 127Mark Twain2 quotes
In order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. — Mark Twain · 1876The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become. — Mark Twain · 1895Oscar Wilde2 quotes
It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution. — Oscar Wilde · 1890It is difficult not to be unjust to what one loves. — Oscar Wilde · 1891William Blake2 quotes
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. — William Blake · 1793He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise. — William Blake · 1792Agatha Christie1 quote
It is completely unimportant... That is why it is so interesting. — Agatha Christie · 1926Agathon1 quote
One might perhaps say that this very thing is probable, that many things happen to men that are not probable. — AgathonAlain de Botton1 quote
Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way - towards a busy street or terminal - before they run out of their burrows. — Alain de Botton · 2010Albert Camus1 quote
There is no love of life without despair of life. — Albert Camus · 1937Albert Einstein1 quote
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility. — Albert Einstein · 1936Aldous Huxley1 quote
Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. — Aldous Huxley · 1937Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn1 quote
You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1968Alexander Pope1 quote
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. — Alexander Pope · 1727Alexander Pushkin1 quote
A woman's love for us increases
The less we love her, sooth to say-
She stoops, she falls, her struggling ceases;
Caught fast, she cannot get away. — Alexander Pushkin · 1837Alfred Tennyson1 quote
There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds. — Alfred Tennyson · 1850Alphonse Karr1 quote
The more things change, the more they are the same. — Alphonse Karr · 1849Andre Gide1 quote
The most decisive actions of our life-I mean those that our most likely to decide the whole course of our future-are more often than not, unconsidered. — Andre Gide · 1926Andy Warhol1 quote
The most exciting thing is not-doing-it. If you fall in love with someone and never do it, it's much more exciting. — Andy Warhol · 1975Aristotle1 quote
Make war that we may live in peace. — Aristotle · 322 BCBenjamin Disraeli1 quote
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1845Benjamin Franklin1 quote
Success has ruin’d many a Man. — Benjamin Franklin · 1752Blaise Pascal1 quote
The skeptical are the most credulous. — Blaise Pascal · 1662Bodhi1 quote
Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true. So, it's simple, you project strength to avoid conflict. — Bodhi · 1991Booker T. Washington1 quote
The best way to lift one's self up is to help someone else. — Booker T. Washington · 1900Carl Jung1 quote
The secret is that only that which can destroy itself is truly alive. — Carl Jung · 1944Charles d'Orleans1 quote
I am dying of thirst by the side of the fountain. — Charles d'Orleans · 1440Colleen McCullough1 quote
There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain. — Colleen McCullough · 1977