The law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.
—Voltairine de Cleyre, 1890
Archive
Quotes
If the heavens were all parchment, and the trees of the forest all pens, and every human being were a scribe, it would still be impossible to record all that I have learned from my teachers.
—Jochanan ben Zakkai, c. 75Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCSeaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
—Samuel Johnson, 1776As usual, what we call “progress” is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.
—Havelock Ellis, 1914Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.
—Theognis, c. 550 BCOur whole life is but one great school; from the cradle to the grave we are all learners; nor will our education be finished until we die.
—Ann Plato, 1841It hurts to watch the fluency of a body acclimated to its shackling.
—Leslie Jamison, 2014I came upon no wine, / So wonderful as thirst.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1923Pride and excess bring disaster for man.
—Xunzi, 250 BCAnyone who has a child should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he’ll escape.
—W.H. Auden, 1947Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.
—J. Paul Getty