Archive

Quotes

The mere existence of nuclear weapons by the thousands is an incontrovertible sign of human insanity.

—Isaac Asimov, 1988

A garden must be looked into, and dressed as the body.

—George Herbert, 1640

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

—Denis Diderot, 1774

To love a woman who scorns you is to lick honey from a thorn.

—Welsh proverb

Enemies to me are the sauce piquant to my dish of life.

—Elsa Maxwell, 1955

At the start there’s always energy.

—Suzan-Lori Parks, 2006

People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.

—James Baldwin, 1953

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

—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1794

Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

It hurts to watch the fluency of a body acclimated to its shackling.

—Leslie Jamison, 2014

The more sifted, the finer the flour; the more often repeated, the rougher the gossip.

—Korean proverb

Honest commerce is the great civilizer. We exchange ideas when we exchange fabrics.

—Robert G. Ingersoll, 1882

Every gift has a personality—that of its giver.

—Nuruddin Farah, 1992