We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.
—Marcel Proust, c. 1922
Archive
Quotes
If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.
—George W. Bush, 2005To make laws that man cannot and will not obey serves to bring all law into contempt.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1860The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117The law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.
—Voltairine de Cleyre, 1890Do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2350 BCGood fortune is light as a feather, but nobody knows how to hold it up. Misfortune is heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of its way.
—Zhuangzi, c. 300 BCHumiliation is the beginning of sanctification.
—John Donne, c. 1629He who commands the sea has command of everything.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600Whoever expects to walk peacefully in the world must be money’s guest.
—Norman O. Brown, 1959The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.
—Nell Scovell, 1991Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.
—Joan Didion, 2005I think heaven will not be as good as earth, unless it bring with it that sweet power to remember, which is the staple of heaven here.
—Emily Dickinson, 1879