In the society of men, the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are so ugly if seen in the light of exiled truth, and beauty is almost no longer possible if it is not a lie.
—R.D. Laing, 1967
Archive
Quotes
The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
—John Berger, 1984A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.
—Susan Sontag, 1977No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation.
—Woodrow Wilson, 1915So long as one believes in God, one has the right to do the Good in order to be moral.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, c. 1950The whole secret of fencing consists but in two things, to give and not to receive.
—Molière, 1670The past is always tense and the future, perfect.
—Zadie Smith, 2000No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink.
—Booth Tarkington, 1914There be beasts that, at a year old, observe more, and pursue that which is for their good more prudently, than a child can do at ten.
—Thomas Hobbes, 1651In every man is a wild beast; most of them don’t know how to hold it back, and the majority give it full rein when they are not restrained by terror of law.
—Frederick the Great, 1759I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.
—Clarence Darrow, 1932Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, 1531