Secrets define us, they mark us, they set us apart from all the others. The secrets which we preserve provide a key to who we are, deep down.
—Nuruddin Farah, 1998
Archive
Quotes
A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong.
—Ecclesiasticus, c. 180 BCRevolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829Slang is as old as speech and the congregating together of people in cities. It is the result of crowding and excitement and artificial life.
—John Camden Hotten, 1859It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.
—Thomas Hardy, 1874Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
—William Morris, 1882Disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body.
—Thomas Mann, 1924Well now, there’s a remedy for everything except death.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.
—B.F. Skinner, 1969I take it as a prime cause of the present confusion of society that it is too sickly and too doubtful to use pleasure frankly as a test of value.
—Rebecca West, 1939All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1655An old man is twice a child, and so is a drunken man.
—Plato, c. 360 BCTo be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BC