At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1850
Archive
Quotes
Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCHappiness does not dwell in herds, nor yet in gold.
—Democritus, c. 420 BCThere is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665The best moment of love is when the lover leaves in the taxi.
—Michel Foucault, c. 1982Where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.
—George Santayana, c. 1905Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838War is the child of pride, and pride the daughter of riches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1697My ideas are clear. My orders are precise. Within five years, Rome must appear marvelous to all the people of the world—vast, orderly, powerful, as in the time of the empire of Augustus.
—Benito Mussolini, 1929Now there is fame! Of all—hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public—fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation by God of the artist. It is sad. It is true.
—Pablo Picasso, c. 1961We never are definitely right; we can only be sure we are wrong.
—Richard P. Feynman, 1965A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.
—Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1804