To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation.
—Oliver Sacks, 2012
Archive
Quotes
Art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.
—Flannery O’Connor, 1964The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.
—George Eliot, 1876Democracy produces both heroes and villains, but it differs from a fascist state in that it does not produce a hero who is a villain.
—Margaret Halsey, 1946The world is wearied of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1870Avoid the law—the first loss is generally the least.
—Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee, 1844Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCWorldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, now that, and changes names as it changes in direction.
—Dante Alighieri, c. 1315I’ve dreamed enough to have a drink.
—François Rabelais, 1546All pain is one malady with many names.
—Antiphanes, c. 400 BCThe 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, 1970Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809We are a commercial people. We cannot boast of our arts, our crafts, our cultivation; our boast is in the wealth we produce.
—Ida M. Tarbell, 1904