‘Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860
Archive
Quotes
Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.
—Margaret Mead, 1972It is wretched business to be digging a well just as you’re dying of thirst.
—Plautus, c. 193 BCMen were born to lie, and women to believe them.
—John Gay, 1728You must not grow used to making money out of everything. One sees more people ruined than one has seen preserved by shameful gains.
—Sophocles, c. 442 BCThe criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1911Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
—Socrates, c. 430 BCCasting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCDo not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?
—Marcel Marceau, 1958A passion for horses, players, and gladiators seems to be the epidemic folly of the times. The child receives it in his mother’s womb; he brings it with him into the world, and in a mind so possessed, what room for science, or any generous purpose?
—Tacitus, c. 100A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.
—Pericles, c. 450 BCAh, there are no children nowadays.
—Molière, 1673I tell you, there is such a thing as creative hate!
—Willa Cather, 1915