"I have always been a friend to hero-worship; it is the only rational one, and has always been in use amongst civilized people."

George Borrow Literature See all quotes by George Borrow →

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“Translation is at best an echo.”

“If you must commit suicide – and there is no knowing to what people may be brought – always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.”

“Smoking has a sedative effect upon the nerves, and enables a man to bear the sorrows of this life not only decently, but dignifiedly.”

“I often think I should like to have another rally—one more rally, and then—but there’s a time for all things—youth will be served, every dog has his day, and mine has been a fine one—let me be content.”

“There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that, I would gladly live for ever.”

“Sherry...a silly, sickly compound, the use of which will transform a nation, however bold and warlike by nature, into a race of sketchers, scribblers, and punsters, in fact into what Englishmen are at the present day.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I think of the whole of the city, the people who inhabit its halls, who sleep now and breathe its recycled air and whose activities by day animate this strip of land on the rim of the desert, and I re…"

— Zia Haider Rahman

Literature1969

#time

"The bitterest creature under heaven is the wife who discovers that her husband’s bravery is only bravado, that his strength is only a uniform, that his power is but a gun in the hands of a fool."

— Pearl S. Buck

Literature1892–1973

#courage

"Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. They are relentless survivors. They are the oldest civilized people on earth. Their civilization passes through phases but its basic characteristics …"

— Pearl S. Buck

Literature1892–1973

#nature