Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements.
—Agnes Repplier, 1916
Archive
Quotes
After each night we are emptier: our mysteries and our griefs have leaked away into our dreams.
—E.M. Cioran, 1949To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
—John Buchan, 1940A machine is a slave that neither brings nor bears degradation.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844Memories are hunting horns
whose noise dies away in the wind.
Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962Never make a defense or apology before you be accused.
—Charles I, 1636I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.
—Giuseppe Verdi, 1900The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.
—Anaïs Nin, 1935When we define democracy now, it must still be as a thing hoped for but not seen.
—Pearl S. Buck, 1941The best moment of love is when the lover leaves in the taxi.
—Michel Foucault, c. 1982A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCHealth care delivery is one of the tragedies still in America.
—Jewel Plummer Cobb, 1989