Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943
Archive
Quotes
All of the great musicians have borrowed from the songs of the common people.
—Antonín Dvořák, 1893A hick town is one where there is no place to go where you shouldn’t go.
—Alexander Woollcott, c. 1935We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back whence we came.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962In time history must become a fairy tale—it will become again what it was in the beginning.
—Novalis, c. 1798Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
—Albert Camus, 1951Every fool becomes a philosopher after ten days of rain.
—Clover Adams, 1882There is no foreign land; it is the traveler only that is foreign.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King Jr., c. 1967After each night we are emptier: our mysteries and our griefs have leaked away into our dreams.
—E.M. Cioran, 1949I do desire we may be better strangers.
—William Shakespeare, 1600Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up.
—Vladimir Lenin, 1918Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883