Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.
—Jean Genet, 1986
Archive
Quotes
Divine nature gave the fields; human art built the cities.
—Marcus Terentius Varro, c. 70 BCMen are generally more pleased with a widespread than with a great reputation.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 110I even gave up, for a while, stopping by the window of the room to look out at the lights and deep, illuminated streets. That’s a form of dying, that losing contact with the city like that.
—Philip K. Dick, 1972What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn.
—Henry Adams, 1907Avoid the law—the first loss is generally the least.
—Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee, 1844The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
—Maya Angelou, 1986By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCWhere it is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.
—John Morley, 1872Revolutions are always verbose.
—Leon Trotsky, 1933A wise woman never yields by appointment. It should always be an unforeseen happiness.
—Stendhal, 1822I ride rough waters and shall sink with no one to save me.
—Virginia Woolf, 1931We do not suffer by accident.
—Jane Austen, 1813