#class

It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired that there were whispers about him from those who had found little that it was necessary to whisper about in this world. ↗

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

#inspirational

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." [On British Labour politician Stafford Cripps.] ↗

— Winston Churchill

#classic-insult #vice #virtue #leadership

Whether life finds us guilty or not guilty, we ourselves know we are not innocent. ↗

— Sándor Márai

#divorce #love #life

But the older he grew and the more intimately he came to know his brother, the oftener the thought occurred to him that the power of working for the general welfare – a power of which he felt himself entirely destitute – was not a virtue but rather a lack of something: not a lack of kindly honesty and noble desires and tastes, but a lack of the power of living, of what is called heart – the aspiration which makes a man choose one out of all the innumerable paths of life that present themselves, and desire that alone. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#romances #russian-literature #life

Being stubborn won't make you fluent. Practicing will! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn not to. ↗

— Thanhha Lai

#classic #hope #hope-and-despair #insideoutandbackagain #learning

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors ... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same. ↗

— George Orwell

#oligarchy #ruling-class #life

The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#class #irrationality #nirvana #reason #society

And when long years and seasons wheeling brought around that point of time ordained for him to make his passage homeward, trials and dangers, even so, attended him even in Ithaca, near those he loved. ↗

— Homer

#journey #odyssey #love

Thy's bleeding heart confides in the With one's thoughts and troubles Let the kiss thy's lips To ease thou's pain Thy am thou's comfort Lie thou's head on mine pillow Of soft consolation And let the drown Thou's sorrow Away ↗

— Solange nicole

#emotional #poetry-love #love

396. Patience is a Virtue every where; but it shines with great Lustre in the Men of Government. 397. Some are so Proud or Testy, they won't hear what they should redress. 398. Others so weak, they sink or burst under the weight of their Office, though they can lightly run away with the Salary of it. ↗

— William Penn

#men