My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968
Archive
Quotes
Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies.
—H.L. Mencken, 1925The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615I look for the end of the future, but it never ceases to arrive.
—Zhuangzi, c. 325 BCI like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
—Jerome K. Jerome, 1889When one has a famishing thirst for happiness, one is apt to gulp down diversions wherever they are offered.
—Alice Hegan Rice, 1917Fire destroys that which feeds it.
—Simone Weil, c. 1940Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water.
—Zadie Smith, 2000Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be breakthrough.
—R.D. Laing, 1967No time to marry, no time to settle down, I’m a young woman, and ain’t done runnin’ round.
—Bessie Smith, 1926Like a broken gong be still, be silent. Know the stillness of freedom where there is no more striving.
—Siddhartha Gautama, c. 500 BCA regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992