#era

The passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the Government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves. ↗

— James K. Polk

#among #congress #create #disreputable #embarrasses

After all, the universe required ten billion years of evolution before life was even possible; the evolution of the stars and the evolving of new chemical elements in the nuclear furnaces of the stars were indispensable prerequisites for the generation of life. ↗

— John Polkinghorne

#before #billion #chemical #elements #even

In setting out the walls of a city the choice of a healthy situation is of the first importance: it should be on high ground, neither subject to fogs nor rains; its aspects should be neither violently hot nor intensely cold, but temperate in both respects. ↗

— Marcus V. Pollio

#both #choice #city #cold #first

To be successful in life what you need is education, not literacy and degrees. ↗

— Munshi Premchand

#education #life #literacy #need #successful

Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly. ↗

— Joseph Epstein

#envy #feels #general #kind #least

A general loathing of a gang or sect usually has some sound basis in instinct. ↗

— Ezra Pound

#gang #general #instinct #loathing #sect

Some people accuse the new generation of being ignorant, maybe ignorant for the old generation, but it's a new language. ↗

— Domenico Dolce

#being #generation #ignorant #language #maybe

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility. ↗

— Colin Powell

#any #anyone #be prepared #become #country

To achieve lasting literature, fictional or factual, a writer needs perceptive vision, absorptive capacity, and creative strength. ↗

— Lawrence Clark Powell

#capacity #creative #factual #fictional #lasting

In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a character; there was nothing particularly new about this - death has featured in art and literature since medieval times, and for centuries we have had a fascination with the Grim Reaper. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#ago #art #book #centuries #character