Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780Quotes
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
—Samuel Johnson, 1780Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829Love is giving something you haven’t got to someone who doesn’t exist.
—Jacques LacanA true German can’t stand the French, / Yet willingly he drinks their wines.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
—William Morris, 1882One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Health care delivery is one of the tragedies still in America.
—Jewel Plummer Cobb, 1989Brains are the only things worth having in this world.
—L. Frank Baum, 1899Communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1863War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1697Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
—Alfred Hitchcock, 1962The brightest light burns the quickest.
—Olive Beatrice Muir, 1900