The civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841
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Quotes
Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1939And then, sir, there is this consideration: that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
—Samuel Johnson, 1791Cities are the abyss of the human species.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.
—Edmund Burke, 1790Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.
—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896Knowledge is an ancient error reflecting on its youth.
—Francis Picabia, 1949As matron and mistress will differ in temper and tone, so will the friend be distinct from the faithless parasite.
—Horace, c. 20 BCThe basis of optimism is sheer terror.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.
—Quintus Fabius Maximus, c. 203 BCMan is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.
—Thomas Carlyle, 1836I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.
—Clarence Darrow, 1932One need merely visit the marketplace and the graveyard to determine whether a city is in both physical and metaphysical order.
—Ernst Jünger, 1977