The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
—Plato, c. 375 BC
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Quotes
Recreations should be as sauces to your meat, to sharpen your appetite unto the duties of your calling, and not to glut yourselves with them.
—Thomas Gouge, 1672The drunken man is a living corpse.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCMemories are hunting horns
whose noise dies away in the wind.
Anyone who’s never watched somebody die is suffering from a pretty bad case of virginity.
—John Osborne, 1956Drink does not drown care but waters it, and makes it grow faster.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1749A change in the weather is sufficient to create the world and oneself anew.
—Marcel Proust, c. 1920A 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. 100To escape its wretched lot, the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The first two are the rum shop and the church; the third is the social revolution.
—Mikhail Bakunin, 1871Don’t hit a man at all if you can avoid it, but if you have to hit him, knock him out.
—Theodore Roosevelt, 1916These useless men ought to be cut up and served at a banquet. I really believe that athletes have less intelligence than swine.
—Dio Chrysostom, c. 95To live outside the law you must be honest.
—Bob Dylan, 1966