He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.
—Plautus, c. 200 BC
Archive
Quotes
It was lonesome, the leaving.
—Wetatonmi, c. 1877Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
—Albert Einstein, 1931I had rather be in a state of misery and envied for my supposed happiness than in a state of happiness and pitied for my supposed misery.
—Elizabeth Inchbald, 1793Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
—Herman Melville, 1851Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.
—Julie Burchill, 1986Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.
—Cormac McCarthy, 1992Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.
—Jean de Joinville, c. 1305Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Whenever in history equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.
—Mary McCarthy, 1971Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.
—Epictetus, c. 100Keep away from physicians. It is all probing and guessing and pretending with them. They leave it to nature to cure in her own time, but they take the credit. As well as very fat fees.
—Anthony Burgess, 1964