For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813
Archive
Quotes
It is easy to distinguish between the joking that reflects good breeding and that which is coarse—the one, if aired at an apposite moment of mental relaxation, is becoming in the most serious of men, whereas the other is unworthy of any free person, if the content is indecent or the expression obscene.
—Cicero, c. 44 BCHe who travels by sea is nothing but a worm on a piece of wood, a trifle in the midst of a powerful creation. The waters play about with him at will, and no one but God can help him.
—Muhammad as-Saffar, 1846I look for the end of the future, but it never ceases to arrive.
—Zhuangzi, c. 325 BCThe spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.
—Judge Learned Hand, 1944No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law.
—Emma Goldman, 1917We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion if we want to be happy.
—Cyril Connolly, 1944Oil! Our secret god, our secret sharer, our magic wand, fulfiller of our every desire, our coconspirator, the sine qua non in all we do!
—Margaret Atwood, 2015I shall embrace my rival—until I suffocate him.
—Jean Racine, 1669A functioning police state needs no police.
—William S. Burroughs, 1959Don’t ever wear artistic jewelry; it wrecks a woman’s reputation.
—Colette, 1944Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.
—J. Paul GettyIt is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature.
—John Brown, 1904