In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth.
—V.S. Pritchett, 1968
Archive
Quotes
At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851The earth is beautiful and bright and kindly, but that is not all. The earth is also terrible and dark and cruel.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1970Plagues are as certain as death and taxes.
—Richard Krause, 1982My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of a gun.
—P.G. Wodehouse, 1929To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.
—Fernando Pessoa, c. 1935Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.
—J. Paul GettyTo make laws that man cannot and will not obey serves to bring all law into contempt.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1860Give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevist forever.
—Vladimir Lenin, 1923We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back whence we came.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
—George Eliot, 1857