Though a quarrel in the streets is a thing to be hated, the energies displayed in it are fine; the commonest man shows a grace in his quarrel.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
The foolish race of mankind are swarming below in the night; they shriek and rage and quarrel—and all of them are right.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and loss of self control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something—war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings and in their public duties.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
I’m not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Lovers quarrels are the renewal of love.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
The most terrible fight is not when there is one opinion against another, the most terrible is when two men say the same thing—and fight about the interpretation, and this interpretation involves a difference of quality.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
The longer a man lives in this world the more he must be convinced that all domestic quarrels had better never be obtruded on the public; for, let the husband be right, or let him be wrong, there is always a sympathy existing for women which is certain to give the man the worst of it.
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) English Painter, Writer
That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
Let him that is without stone among you cast the first thing he can lay his hands on.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Contemplative and bookish men must of necessity be more quarrelsome than others, because they contend not about matter of fact, nor can determine their controversies by any certain witnesses, nor judges. But as long as they go towards peace, that is Truth, it is no matter which way.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Coarse kindness is, at least, better than coarse anger; and in all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of its dullness.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.
—Mary Harris Jones (Mother Jones) (1837–1930) Irish-American Labor Activist
The course of true love never did run smooth.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.
—Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) (b.1918) American Columnist
The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I against my brother I and my brother against our cousin, my brother and our cousin against the neighbors all of us against the foreigner.
—Arabic Proverb
Wise men do not quarrel with each other.
—Danish Proverb
Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
A quarrel between friends, when made up, adds a new tie to friendship, as … the callosity formed round a broken bone makes it stronger than before.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
The same reason that makes us chide and brawl and fall out with any of our neighbors, causeth a war to follow between Princes.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
You cannot love a thing without wanting to fight for it.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Better be quarrelling than lonesome.
—Irish Proverb
There is no mother like your own mother.
—African Proverb
Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.
—Derek Walcott (1930–2017) West Indian Poet, Dramatist
Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it’s be brave or else be killed.
—Margaret Mitchell (1900–49) American Novelist, Journalist