Peace, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

-Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett
  The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled  The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Mr Wordsworth'sgeniusisa pure emanationofthe Spirit ofthe Age.Had helived inanyother period of the world, he would never have been heard of.

-Hazlitt,William
  Spirit of the Age,'Mr Wordsworth'.

A cricket tour in Australia would be a most delightful period in one's life if one was deaf.

-Larwood, Harold
  Body-line.

The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium.What a very feware acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.

-Levi, Primo
  Other People's Trades,'News from the Sky' (translated by Raymond Rosenthal,1989).

Thus ourdemocracy was, froman early period, themost aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic in the world.

-1st Baron
  History of England,  vol.1, ch.1.

Quantities defined in terms of measurements made at the end of the period in question are referred to as ex post ; quantities defined interms of actionplannedatthe beginning of the period in question are referred to as ex ante.

-Myrdal, (Karl) Gunnar
  Monetary Equilibrium.

   It is impossible to repeat in one period what was done in another.The pointof view isnotthesame, anymorethan are the tools, the ideals, the needs, or the painters' techniques.

-Renoir, Pierre Auguste
From Renoir's notebook, quoted in L Nochlin Impressionism and Post-Impressionism1874^1904 (1966).

Art of all periods teaches us that humanity changes, and that a period, once past, never returns.

-Runge, Philipp Otto
  Letter, Feb. Quoted in L Eitner Neoclassicism and Romanticism1750^1850 (1964).

Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?

-Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl
  'Can a Scientific Community Be Stable?', Lloyd Roberts lecture to the Royal Society of Medicine, 29 Nov.

If he knew where he was going, it is not apparent from this distance. He fell down a great deal during this period, because of a trick he had of walking into himself.

-Thurber,James Grover
  Of his young self. TheThurber Carnival, preface.