The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty, and death of public opinion.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902
Archive
Quotes
Good fortune turns aside destruction by a great god.
—Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy, c. 100 BCThe doctor should be opaque to his patients and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him.
—Sigmund Freud, 1912The greatest veneration one can show the law is to keep a watch on it.
—Nadine Gordimer, 1971If the people be the governors, who shall be governed?
—John Cotton, c. 1636Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it.
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1821A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.
—Susan Sontag, 1977One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
—E.B. White, 1958The life of the city never lets you go, nor do you ever want it to.
—Wallace Stevens, 1952The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590The drunken man is a living corpse.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 500 BCA large city cannot be experientially known; its life is too manifold for any individual to be able to participate in it.
—Aldous Huxley, 1934