Hospitality consists in a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856
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Quotes
There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
—Donald Barthelme, 1964Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.
—George Gershwin, 1933People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue.
—Margot Asquith, 1922In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
—Voltaire, 1764It is the little causes, long continued, which are considered as bringing about the greatest changes of the earth.
—James Hutton, 1795Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 150 BCThe snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922