Archive

Quotes

“Abroad,” that large home of ruined reputations.

—George Eliot, 1866

The life of the dead consists in the recollection cherished of them by the living.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 43 BC

What the brain does by itself is infinitely more fascinating and complex than any response it can make to chemical stimulation.

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1971

If there is a technological advance without a social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase in human misery.

—Michael Harrington, 1962

All God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.

—Fran Lebowitz, 1978

I have yet, I believe, some years in store, for I have a good state of health and a happy mind, and I take care of both by nourishing the first with temperance and the latter with abundance. This, I believe, you will allow to be the true philosophy of life.

—Thomas Paine, 1803

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.

—Plato, c. 378 BC

Time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.

—Edith Wharton, 1905

There’s plenty of fire in the coldest flint!

—Rachel Field, 1939

So many men, so many opinions.

—Terence, 161 BC

Traveling is like flirting with life. It’s like saying, “I would stay here and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.”

—Lisa St. Aubin de Terán, 1989

Friendship’s a noble name, ’tis love refined.

—Susanna Centlivre, 1703