Archive

Quotes

I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.

—Albert Camus, 1957

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921

A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.

—Stendhal, 1822

Vox populi, vox humbug.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863

A bad reputation is easy to come by, painful to bear, and difficult to clear.

—Hesiod, c. 700 BC

It’s only the futility of the first flood that prevents God from sending a second.

—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1794

We never are definitely right; we can only be sure we are wrong.

—Richard P. Feynman, 1965

The happiness of society is the end of government.

—John Adams, 1776

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896

When one has a famishing thirst for happiness, one is apt to gulp down diversions wherever they are offered.

—Alice Hegan Rice, 1917

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.

—The Dhammapada, c. 400 BC

I do desire we may be better strangers.

—William Shakespeare, 1600

Your mind’s got to eat, too.

—Dambudzo Marechera, 1978