No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958
Archive
Quotes
The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.
—Galen, c. 175They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.
—Martin Luther, c. 1530Laughter always arises from a gaiety of disposition, absolutely incompatible with contempt and indignation.
—Voltaire, 1736Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
—Mark Twain, 1893At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1850Drive out nature with a pitchfork, and she will always come back.
—Horace, c. 25 BCIt is a greater advantage to be honestly educated than honorably born.
—Erasmus, 1518Hunting is all that’s worth living for—all time is lost what is not spent in hunting—it is like the air we breathe—if we have it not we die—it’s the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt.
—Robert Smith Surtees, 1843There’s plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.
—Sylvia Alice Earle, 1995The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878There is no art without Eros.
—Max Frisch, 1983Time’s ruins build eternity’s mansions.
—James Joyce, 1922