I 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
Archive
Quotes
As far as I can see, the history of experimental art in the twentieth century is intimately bound up with the experience of intoxification.
—Will Self, 1994One who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2400 BCRidicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823A passion for horses, players, and gladiators seems to be the epidemic folly of the times. The child receives it in his mother’s womb; he brings it with him into the world, and in a mind so possessed, what room for science, or any generous purpose?
—Tacitus, c. 100Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men, but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
—Joseph Addison, 1711It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
—The BibleWhen the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
—Desmond Tutu, 1984Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth but not its twin.
—Barbara Kingsolver, 1990Language is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1817I have been ever of the opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.
—James Baldwin, 1953The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943