If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.
—Henry Clay, 1812
Archive
Quotes
When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1678A fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.
—Ovid, c. 1 BCHonesty, for me, is usually the worst policy imaginable.
—Patricia Highsmith, 1960Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1947None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
—Pearl S. Buck, 1943Pictures made in childhood are painted in bright hues.
—Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1886Familiarity breeds contempt—and children.
—Mark Twain, c. 1900I never know quite when I’m not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, Dammit, Thurber, stop writing. She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph. Or my daughter will look up from the dinner table and ask, Is he sick? No, my wife says, he’s writing something.
—James Thurber, 1955You are dust, and to dust you shall return.
—Book of Genesis, c. 800 BCGod is making commerce his missionary.
—Joseph Cook, c. 1877