Archive

Quotes

The past is always tense and the future, perfect.

—Zadie Smith, 2000

Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BC

The civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

Years are nothing to me—they should be nothing to you. Who asked you to count them or to consider them? In the world of wild nature, time is measured by seasons only—the bird does not know how old it is—the rose tree does not count its birthdays!

—Marie Corelli, 1911

Men are what their mothers made them.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860

What reason weaves, by passion is undone.

—Alexander Pope, 1972

Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.

—Gore Vidal, 1981

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515

Yes to a market economy, no to a market society.

—Lionel Jospin, 1998

Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the grand climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.

—Jean Baudrillard, 1987

Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.

—Francis Bacon, 1597

How can we bear misfortune most easily? If we see our enemies faring worse.

—Thales of Miletus, c. 585 BC

We possess art lest we perish of the truth.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1887