Echoes

That though the radiance which was once so bright be now for ever taken from my sight, though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; we will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.

He who remembers the evils he has undergone, and those that have threatened him, and the slight causes that have changed him from one state to another, prepares himself in that way for future changes and for recognizing his condition. The life of Caesar has no more to show us than our own; an emperor's or an ordinary man's, it is still a life subject to all human accidents.

For in all adversity of fortune, the most unfortunate kind of misfortune is to have been happy.

History is only a record of crimes and misfortunes.

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; our hour of triumph is what brings the void. Not the Jews of the captivity, but those of the days of Solomon's glory are those from whom the pessimistic utterances in our Bible come.

Bear in mind, that if through toil you accomplish a good deed, that toil will quickly pass from you, the good deed will not leave you so long as you live; but if through pleasure you do anything dishonourable, the pleasure will quickly pass away, that dishonourable act will remain with you for ever.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on Earth.

Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.

There is not love of life without despair about life.

The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key!

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others.

There is nothing new under the sun.

That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.

I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning.

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.

The present of things past is memory; the present of things present is sight; and the present of things future is expectation.

It is not things that disturb us, but our judgments about things. For example, death is nothing terrible, for if it were, it would have appeared so to Socrates; but the judgment that death is terrible — that is the terrible thing.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

Human nature being what it is, events which happened in the past will at some time or other and in much the same ways be repeated in the future.