"I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar."

William Congreve Literature See all quotes by William Congreve →

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“Retired to their tea and scandal, according to their ancient custom.”

“They come together like the Coroner's Inquest, to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week.”

“Thou liar of the first magnitude.”

“It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.”

“Eternity was in that moment.”

“I nauseate walking; 'tis a country diversion, I loathe the country.”

Resonant Thoughts

"We inhabit a complex world. Some boundaries are sharp and permit clean and definite distinctions. But nature also includes continua that cannot be neatly parceled into two piles of unambiguous yeses a…"

— Stephen Jay Gould

Science1941–2002

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"The crop of spiritual talent that is born to you, of human nobleness and intellect and heroic faculty, this is infinitely more important than your crops of cotton or corn, or wine or herrings or whale…"

— Thomas Carlyle

Philosophy1795–1881

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"I forgive the stillborn hopes,"

— Paulo Coelho

Science1947–1985

#life

"The method of viewing things which proceeds in accordance with the principle of sufficient reason is the rational method, and it alone is valid and of use in practical life and in science. The method …"

— Arthur Schopenhauer

Philosophy1788–1860

#life