Quotations database

The quotes on the front page of this site are drawn out of a database randomly. This is the contents of that database, again drawn out in a random order. I am going to try and put every nice line I see into this, rather than not keeping a record of them all and missing out later on. I like these for a variety of reasons: some just the language, some the message. And some I much prefer over others - but that won't be revealed due to this random ordering.

What is more important in a library than anything else - than everything else - is the fact that it exists
—Archibald MacLeish

Pleasure is a shadow, wealth is vanity, and power a pageant; but knowledge is ecstatic in enjoyment, perennial in frame, unlimited in space and indefinite in duration.
—De Witt Clinton

Never argue with a philosopher. They'll argue black is white and then next time you go on a zebra crossing you'll get run over.
—M Walsh

Come what, come may: time and the hour flow through the roughest day.
—Macbeth

By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well. That is one of the ends for which they exist.
—Robert Bringhurst

If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it.
—IAR

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
—Summation of Voltaire's beliefs

Your honesty is refreshing, but lace it well with tact.
—Anonymous

He who controls the past commands the future.
He who commands the future conquers the past.
—Kane

A man who hasn't found anything he'd die for doesn't deserve to live.
—Martin Luther King

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with facts for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.
—Ernest Renan

I think, therefore I am.
—Rene Descartes

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.
—The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The road to Auschwitz was built with hate but paved with indifference.
—Ian Kershaw

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
—Albus Dumbledore

Music is just applied physics.
—sineWAVE

The unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates

Philosophy is not about knowing the right answers, it is about understanding why an answer might be right and why it is difficult to know.
—Michael Lacewing

Philosophy is harmonized knowledge making a harmonious life; it is the self-discipline which lifts us to serenity and freedom. Knowledge is power, but only wisdom is liberty.
—Will Durant

Therefore, every rational being must so act as if he were through his maxim always a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends.
—Kant

Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the State.
—Robert Southey