Once you hear the details of a victory it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1951
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Quotes
God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.
—Martin LutherWriting cannot express words fully; words cannot express thoughts fully.
—The Book of Changes, c. 350 BCTo love a woman who scorns you is to lick honey from a thorn.
—Welsh proverbAs far as I can see, the history of experimental art in the twentieth century is intimately bound up with the experience of intoxification.
—Will Self, 1994Music sweeps by me as a messenger / Carrying a message that is not for me.
—George Eliot, 1868You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.
—Cormac McCarthy, 2005Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1910The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
—Erich Fromm, 1941Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
—Gore Vidal, 1981Darkness endows the small and ordinary ones among mankind with poetical power.
—Thomas Hardy, 1874The sea hath no king but God alone.
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1881People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing’s as eternal as the dishes.
—Margaret Mahy, 1985