A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind, but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind.
—Samuel Johnson, 1773
Archive
Quotes
Death from the bubonic plague is rated, with crucifixion, among the nastiest human experiences of all.
—Guy R. Williams, 1975The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
—John Berger, 1984Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1915When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we expected to see an author and find a man.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1657Knowledge is an ancient error reflecting on its youth.
—Francis Picabia, 1949The self is like an infant: given free rein, it craves to suckle.
—al-Busiri, c. 1250There are times when reality becomes too complex for oral communication. But legend gives it a form by which it pervades the whole world.
—Jean-Luc Godard, 1965Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
—Gore Vidal, 1981A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.
—Ralph Nader, 2000Play, wherein persons of condition, especially ladies, waste so much of their time, is a plain instance to me that men cannot be perfectly idle; they must be doing something, for how else could they sit so many hours toiling at that which generally gives more vexation than delight to people whilst they are actually engaged in it?
—John Locke, 1693Lord, I do not ask that thou shouldst give me wealth; only show me where it is, and I will attend to the rest.
—Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1898I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.
—Thomas Hobbes, 1679