The past is always tense and the future, perfect.
—Zadie Smith, 2000
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Quotes
Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BCThe civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841Years are nothing to me—they should be nothing to you. Who asked you to count them or to consider them? In the world of wild nature, time is measured by seasons only—the bird does not know how old it is—the rose tree does not count its birthdays!
—Marie Corelli, 1911Men are what their mothers made them.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860What reason weaves, by passion is undone.
—Alexander Pope, 1972Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
—Gore Vidal, 1981It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515Yes to a market economy, no to a market society.
—Lionel Jospin, 1998Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the grand climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.
—Jean Baudrillard, 1987Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.
—Francis Bacon, 1597How can we bear misfortune most easily? If we see our enemies faring worse.
—Thales of Miletus, c. 585 BCWe possess art lest we perish of the truth.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1887