Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865
Archive
Quotes
I’m doomed to die, right? Why should I care if I go to Hades either with gout in my leg or a runner’s grace? Plenty of people will carry me there.
—Nicharchus, c. 90Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.
—Vladimir Nabokov, 1941Lord! I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
—Jonathan Swift, 1738Happiness is a warm puppy.
—Charles Schulz, 1971Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.
—Margaret Mead, 1972I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789The law looks at no one’s face.
—Gabriel Okara, 1964Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it, and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, c. 1790If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me.
—Reggie Jackson, 1976Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
—Winston Churchill, 1939Don’t you find it a beautiful clean thought, a world empty of people, just uninterrupted grass, and a hare sitting up?
—D.H. Lawrence, 1920