Even members of the nobility, let alone persons of no consequence, would do well not to have children.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330
Archive
Quotes
The law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.
—Voltairine de Cleyre, 1890Before the earth could become an industrial garbage can, it had first to become a research laboratory.
—Theodore Roszak, 1972People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence, and they think they have seen something.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843Every creature in the world is like a book and a picture, to us, and a mirror.
—Alain de Lille, c. 1200For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BCIn the country gossip is a pastime; in the city it is a warfare.
—W.M.L. Jay, 1870Under the wide and starry sky, / Dig the grave and let me lie.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1887I’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. 90Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules, and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence; in other words it is war minus the shooting.
—George Orwell, 1945The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
—James Fenimore Cooper, 1838Man is the one name belonging to every nation upon earth: there is one soul and many tongues, one spirit and various sounds; every country has its own speech, but the subjects of speech are common to all.
—Tertullian, c. 217