It’s easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing—that’s the Lord’s test.
—Mahalia Jackson, 1966
Archive
Quotes
Vox populi, vox humbug.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
—George Eliot, 1876You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCNature is immovable.
—Euripides, c. 415 BCMan is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCIf you steal, do not steal too much at a time. You may be arrested. Steal cleverly, little by little.
—Mobutu Sese Seko, 1991The day unravels what the night has woven.
—Walter Benjamin, 1929Sick, irritated, and the prey to a thousand discomforts, I go on with my labor like a true workingman, who, with sleeves rolled up, in the sweat of his brow, beats away at his anvil, not caring whether it rains or blows, hails or thunders.
—Gustave Flaubert, 1845Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
—Horace Walpole, 1784Seamen are the nearest to death and the furthest from God.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732To be sick is to enjoy monarchal prerogatives.
—Charles Lamb, 1833Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.
—Margaret Mead, 1972