#decline

I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty. ↗

— George Santayana

#adorn #among #any #away #beautiful

Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth. Is life kind or cruel? Yes, Literature answers. Are people good or bad? You bet, says Literature. But unlike other systems of knowing, Literature declines to eradicate one truth in favor of another. ↗

— George Saunders

#answers #bad #bet #cruel #declines

When a noble life has prepared for old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality. ↗

— Anne Louise Germaine de Stael

#days #decline #first #immortality #life

Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline. ↗

— Harriet Beecher Stowe

#decline #dose #double #like #sensibilities

I definitely believe that the so-called American decline is greatly exaggerated. ↗

— Al-Waleed bin Talal

#believe #decline #definitely #exaggerated #greatly

What is at a peak is certain to decline. He who shows his hand will surely be defeated. He who can prevail in battle by taking advantage of his enemy's doubts is invincible. ↗

— Cao Cao

#battle #certain #decline #defeated #doubts

Not surprisingly, some of the super-rich declined to join the Patriotic Millionaires when the Agenda Project reached out to them. At least two airily dismissed the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and above - which will cost well over $700 billion over the coming decade - as small potatoes. ↗

— Joe Conason

#agenda #billion #bush #bush tax cuts #coming

This cream will help one's nature strengthen and grow, The diet gives support in my decline. ↗

— Du Fu

#decline #diet #gives #grow #help

I am studying ancient civilizations, trying to find what happened to them, finding out why they went into a decline, why they died. ↗

— L. Ron Hubbard

#ancient #civilizations #decline #died #find

It will take a long time, and certainly the West will remain the dominant civilization well into the next century, but the decline is occurring. ↗

— Samuel P. Huntington

#certainly #civilization #decline #dominant #into