Archive

Quotes

We cannot say what the woman might be physically, if the girl were not allowed all the freedom of the boy in romping, climbing, swimming, playing whoop and ball.

—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1848

Nature never jests.

—Albrecht von Haller, 1751

France has neither winter, summer, nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

—Mark Twain, 1879

Do you suppose it possible to know democracy without knowing the people?

—Xenophon, c. 370 BC

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

—Samuel Johnson, 1773

The god of music dwelleth out of doors.

—Edith M. Thomas, 1887

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

—Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

—Edmund Burke, 1765

Oil dependency is not just an economic attachment but appears as a kind of cognitive compulsion.

—Peter Hitchcock, 2010

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.

—Henry Miller, 1945

Slang 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, 1859

The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.

—Paul Valéry, 1931