TEXT TRANSLATION / VOCABULARY

source= Collins Concise Dictionary of Quotations, compiled by Donald FRASER,1991.

QUOTATIONS (general)

ALEXANDER the Great (356-323 B.C.): "Heaven can not brook two suns, nor earth two masters".// “If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes”.

ARCHIMEDES (287-212 B.C.): “Give me a firm place to stand, and I will move the earth”.

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.): “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”.// “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies”.// “Our characters are the result of our conduct”.

Walter BAGEHOT (1826-1877): "One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea".

Anton CHEKHOV (1860-1904): “I’m in mourning for my life”.// “When a woman isn’t beautiful, people always say, You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair“.

Julius CAESAR (102-44 B.C.): "Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered".

CONFUCIUS (c.550-c.478 B.C.): “True goodness springs from a man’s own heart. All men are born good”.

René DESCARTES (1596-1650): "Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am".

Charles DICKENS (1812-1870): “There are strings in the human heart that had better not be wibrated”.// "Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families".

Benjamin DISRAELI (1804-1881): “No Government can be long secure without a formidable opposition”.// “There is a moderation even in excess”.

Anthony EDEN (1897-1977): “We are not at war with Egypt. We are in armed conflict”.

Thomas Alva EDISON (1847-1931): "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration".

Albert EINSTEIN (1879-1955): “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding”.// “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile”.

Gerard Didier ERASMUS (1465-1536): "It is well known that among the blind the one-eyed man is king".

Benjamin FRANKLIN (1706-1790): “Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy”.// “To lenghten the life, lessen the meals”.// “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”.

Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE (1749-1832): "Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead a better one".

HERACLITUS (6th century B.C.): "It is impossible to step twice into the same river".

Niccolo di Bernardo MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527): "Titles do not reflect honour on men, but rather men on their titles".

Franklin Delano ROOSEVELT: “I pledged you—I pledged myself— to a new deal for the American people”.// “We must be the great arsenal of democracy”.// “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made”.

William SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616): Hamlet: “To be, or not to be: that is the question”.

Oscar WILDE (1854-1900): “Art never expresses anything but itself”.// “In matter of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing”.// “Experience, the name men give to their mistakes”.

Woodrow WILSON (1856-1924): “Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates”.// “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view” (“Fourteen Points”, 1918).