amor vincit omnia chest tattoo

Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? ~Plutarch


It would be impossible to "love" anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object. ~Paul Valery, Tel quel, 1943


If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn. ~Andrew Mason


Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious. ~Saint Thomas Aquinas


I hate handing over money for what I could just as easily do myself, it makes me nervous. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Chapter 5


I felt like a race horse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like a date on a tombstone. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar


We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles. ~Mark Twain


God is a sort of burglar. As a young man you knock him down; as an old man you try to conciliate him, because he may knock you down. ~H. Beerbohm-Tree


The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William A. Ward


You will find that if you really try to be a father, your child will meet you halfway. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com


In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults. ~Thomas Szasz


Not believing has a sickness which is believing a little. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


All religions must be tolerated... for... every man must get to heaven his own way. ~Frederick the Great


We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice. ~Henry David Thoreau


When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part. ~G.B. Shaw, Getting Married, 1908


The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to. ~Dodie Smith


Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. ~William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 1604


God has no power over the past except to cover it with oblivion. ~Pliny the Elder


He who makes a paradise of his bread makes a hell of his hunger. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


Dick Cheney had a mild heart attack, but they say he'll soon be able to resume his regular activities. I thought having heart attacks was his regular activity. Anyway, since he's a Republican, the heart isn't a major organ. ~Jay Leno