Archive

Quotes

I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.

—Samuel Butler, c. 1902

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

—Jerome K. Jerome, 1889

Oh, democracy! Whither are you leading us?

—Aristophanes, 414 BC

Never greet a stranger in the night, for he may be a demon.

—Babylonian Talmud, c. 600

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1919

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

—Voltaire, 1764

If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.

—Fran Lebowitz, 1981

All people have the common desire to be elevated in honor, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.

—Mencius, c. 330 BC

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.

—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1977

Cooking is the most massive rush. It’s like having the most amazing hard-on, with Viagra sprinkled on top of it, and it’s still there twelve hours later.

—Gordon Ramsey, 2003

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BC

Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.

—Samuel Johnson, 1771

The gods play games with men as balls.

—Plautus, c. 200 BC