Humorous Sayings

462 sayings found from 462 authors

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

— John Locke 1689
General

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by epigrams.

— Voltaire c. 1760s
General

The life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

— David Hume 1739-1740
Food & Drink

All that is real is rational; and all that is rational is real.

— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1821
General

Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.

— Thomas Hobbes 1651
Work & Money

Absoluteness of power is the most seductive of all illusions.

— John Stuart Mill 1861
General

I think I have been very careful to avoid saying that power is a bad thing. I’m just saying it’s a difficult thing.

— Michel Foucault 1982
Self-Deprecating

If you want to achieve something, you build a structure. If you want to prevent something, you mess it up.

— Noam Chomsky Unknown
General

The greatest evil in the world is the evil which is done by nobody, the evil which is done by all of us.

— Hannah Arendt 1964
Food & Drink

The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.

— Marcus Aurelius c. 161-180 AD
General

Life is like a play: it matters not how long it is, but how good it is.

— Seneca c. 65 AD
Life & Aging

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things.

— Epictetus c. 108 AD
Life & Aging

Never venture, never win!

— Sun Tzu c. 5th century BC
General

Men are always more easily deceived when they are trying to deceive others.

— Machiavelli 1531
General

I have always observed that to succeed in the world, one has to seem a fool, but be wise.

— Montesquieu 1721
Self-Deprecating

Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.

— Adam Smith 1776
General

I am not arguing for the rights of women but for the rights of humanity.

— Mary Wollstonecraft 1792
Self-Deprecating

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson 1844
Food & Drink

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

— Henry David Thoreau 1849
General

The English working class is, after all, only a branch of the German working class.

— Friedrich Engels 1870 (July 26th)
Work & Money
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