Archive

Quotes

All the daughters of music shall be brought low.

—Ecclesiastes, c. 400 BC

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

—Oscar Wilde, 1890

Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a diamond.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605

When the physician said to him, “You have lived to be an old man,” he said, “That is because I never employed you as my physician.”

—Pausanias, c. 450 BC

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off—see, it doesn’t bite.

—Epictetus, c. 110

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

—Walt Whitman, 1855

However harmless a thing is, if the law forbids it, most people will think it wrong.

—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896

In a true democracy, everyone can be upper-class and live in Connecticut.

—Lisa Birnbach, 1980

Rewards and punishment are the lowest form of education.

—Zhuangzi, c. 286 BC

I never even saw the use of the sea. Many a sad heart has it caused, and many a sick stomach has it occasioned! The boldest sailor climbs on board with a heavy soul and leaps on land with a light spirit.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1827

The brain is an unreliable organ, it is monstrously great, monstrously developed. Swollen, like a goiter.

—Aleksandr Blok, c. 1920

A person who sees only fashion in fashion is a fool.

—Honoré de Balzac, 1830

Luck, in the great game of war, is undoubtedly lord of all.

—Arthur Griffiths, 1899