Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.
—Plato, c. 375 BC
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Quotes
He who is afraid of his own memories is cowardly, really cowardly.
—Elias Canetti, 1954My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Some folks want their luck buttered.
—Thomas Hardy, 1886For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.
—George Ade, 1902Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
—Horace Walpole, 1784An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.
—Epicurus, c. 250 BCThat which the sober man keeps in his breast, the drunken man lets out at the lips. Astute people, when they want to ascertain a man’s true character, make him drunk.
—Martin Luther, 1569The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
—Donald Barthelme, 1964Be courteous to all but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
—George Washington, 1783If the human race wants to go to hell in a basket, technology can help it get there by jet.
—Charles M. Allen, 1967