"All men and women are born, live, suffer……" — Joseph Epstein
"All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live."
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Joseph Epstein
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46 Quotes by Joseph Epstein
Joseph Epstein has 46 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful…
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A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of…
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One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes…
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What all great teachers appear to have in common is love of their subject, an obvious satisfaction in rousing this…
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Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
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I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.
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In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly…
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Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.
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High standards generally -- about workmanship and creation of objects, about what is owed in friendship, about the quality of…
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I was recently asked what it takes to become a writer. Three things, I answered: first, one must cultivate incompetence…
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I am afraid I am one of those people who continues to read in the hope of sometime discovering in…
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I should prefer to die laughing, and, on more than one occasion, thought I might.
See all 46 quotes by Joseph Epstein »
More All Quotes
This quote is filed under All Quotes,
one of 128,558 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally…
— Hannah Arendt
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No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our…
— Hannah Arendt
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
— Hannah Arendt
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The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes…
— Hannah Arendt
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Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of…
— Hannah Arendt
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We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and…
— Hannah Arendt
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I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is…
— Pietro Aretino
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We must all make peace so that we can all live in peace.
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela,…
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we…
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
— Aristophanes
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
— Aristotle
See all 128,558 All Quotes »
