Guard more faithfully the secret which is confided to you than the money which is entrusted to your care.
—Isocrates, c. 370 BC
Archive
Quotes
The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972For, say they, when cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.
—Herman Melville, 1851What is the hardest task in the world? To think.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841When the abbot throws the dice, the whole convent will play.
—Martin Luther, c. 1540A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.
—W.H. Auden, 1946No lyric poems live long or please many people which are written by drinkers of water.
—Horace, 20 BCWhatsoever is, is in God.
—Benedict de Spinoza, 1677A change in the weather is sufficient to create the world and oneself anew.
—Marcel Proust, c. 1920To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885If I had the use of my body I would throw it out of the window.
—Samuel Beckett, 1951One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
—E.B. White, 1958Ours is an age which consciously pursues health, and yet only believes in the reality of sickness.
—Susan Sontag, 1963