Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943
Archive
Quotes
How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843Every man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.
—Sylvia Plath, 1963The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.
—Hunter S. Thompson, 1971Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society.
—Mark Twain, 1873I always think of nature as a great spectacle, somewhat resembling the opera.
—Bernard de Fontenelle, 1686I cannot but bless the memory of Julius Caesar, for the great esteem he expressed for fat men and his aversion to lean ones.
—David Hume, 1751Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
—Tom Robbins, 1976Education—a debt due from present to future generations.
—George Peabody, 1852Curse on all laws but those which love has made.
—Alexander Pope, 1717The future comes like an unwelcome guest.
—Edmund Gosse, 1873If I see something sagging, dragging, or bagging, I’m going to go have the stuff tucked or plucked.
—Dolly Parton, 2003