Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.
—Homer, c. 750 BC
Archive
Quotes
Freedom of the press is only guaranteed to those who own one.
—A.J. Liebling, 1960Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCDread attends the unknown.
—Nadine Gordimer, 1998It was funny how I could feel all alone and under surveillance at the same time.
—Cory Doctorow, 2013Friendship is a plant that loves the sun—thrives ill under clouds.
—Bronson Alcott, 1872We don’t have the option of turning away from the future. No one gets to vote on whether technology is going to change our lives.
—Bill Gates, 1995A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy till they die!
—Philip Roth, 1969We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.
—Marcel Proust, c. 1922Can you draw sweet water from a foul well?
—Brooks Atkinson, 1940To gaze upon a drop of water is to behold the nature of all the waters of the universe.
—Huangbo Xiyun, c. 850The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835It is a greater advantage to be honestly educated than honorably born.
—Erasmus, 1518