The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy, and temperamental: it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chawing a hunk of melon in the dust.
—Elizabeth Bowen, 1955
Archive
Quotes
Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up.
—George Eliot, 1876The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.
—Archilochus, c. 650 BCTo cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885Friendship is a plant that loves the sun—thrives ill under clouds.
—Bronson Alcott, 1872No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.
—Magna Carta, 1215France has neither winter, summer, nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
—Mark Twain, 1879We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us but for ours to amuse them.
—Evelyn Waugh, 1963When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.
—St. Jerome, 395The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117To be too conscious is an illness—a real thoroughgoing illness.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.
—Jean Genet, 1986When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
—Winston Churchill, 1945