The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.

Wise people say nothing in dangerous times.

John Selden

One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct.

Laurence Sterne

But in modern war you will die like a dog for no good reason.

Ernest Hemingway

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.

Aristotle

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.

Friedrich von Schiller

Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia.

William Kirby

Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it, you have grasped it.

Abbas Kiarostami

There are many of our so-called captains on industry who, if the truth were told, and a shorter and uglier word were not unpermissible, are little better than malefactors of great wealth.

James Branch Cabell

The foremost watchman on the peak announces his news. It is the truest word ever spoken, and the phrase will be th fittest, most musical, and the unerring voice of the world for that time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow is our destined way, but to act that each tomorrow may find us further than today.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Cursed be he above all others Who's enslaved by love of money. Money takes the place of brothers, Money takes the place of parents, Money brings us war and slaughter.

Anacreon

They were married before they were friends, which is another way of saying:Their marriage was the occasion of their friendship.They were married before they noticed many small differences in background, aspiration, education, ambition. (...)Noting such differences, Leah was in some sense disappointed in herself that they did not cause real conflict between them. It was hard to get used to the fact that the pleasure her body found in his, and vice versa, should so easily overrule the many objections she had, or should have had, or thought she should have had.

Zadie Smith