A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.
—Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947
Archive
Quotes
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
—Chinese proverbWe call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.
—Anna Sewell, 1877Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations—wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
—Edmund Burke, 1795A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
—Cicero, 44 BCSome are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.
—George Washington, 1781Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1910And to our age’s drowsy blood / Still shouts the inspiring sea.
—James Russell Lowell, 1848Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
—Horace Walpole, 1784Play, wherein persons of condition, especially ladies, waste so much of their time, is a plain instance to me that men cannot be perfectly idle; they must be doing something, for how else could they sit so many hours toiling at that which generally gives more vexation than delight to people whilst they are actually engaged in it?
—John Locke, 1693Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930