#ruins

Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies. ↗

— Charles de Montesquieu

#monarchies #poverty #republics #ruins

We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings. ↗

— Alfred Jarry

#demolish #doing #everything #fine #i

Success produces confidence; confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins the reputation which accuracy had raised. ↗

— Ben Jonson

#confidence #had #industry #negligence #produces

The Russian drama began at the end of 1991, when the Soviet Union mercifully ended. Russia and 14 other new countries emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union. Every one of those 15 new states faced a profound historical, economic, financial, social and political challenge. ↗

— Jeffrey Sachs

#challenge #countries #drama #economic #emerged

But aren't all great quests folly? El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth and the search for intelligent life in the cosmos-- we know what's out there. It's what isn't that truly compels us. ↗

— Jess Walter

#jess-walter #quests #beauty

The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism. ↗

— George Santayana

#any #anywhere #evil #existence #optimism

Jewish and Palestinian nationalism are virtually contemporaneous, and grew out of the disruptions that created new national movements from the ruins of the old empires / i. ↗

— Jack Schwartz

#disruptions #empires #grew #i #jewish

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall. ↗

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca

#fall #like #ruins #smash #themselves

When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#came #civilization #evolved #existence #french

The wise hero must realise how terrible it will be, when all the wealth of this world lies waste, as now in various places throughout this middle-earth walls stand, blown by the wind covered with frost, the buildings storm-swept. The halls decay, their lords lie deprived of joy, the whole hearth-troop has fallen, proud by the wall. from THE WANDERER, lines 73-80 ↗

— Anonymous

#beautiful-writing #destruction #futility #haunting #middle-earth