Much money makes a country poor, for it sets a dearer price on every thing.
—George Herbert, 1640
Archive
Quotes
Each night’s new terror drives away the terror of the night before.
—Sophocles, c. 450 BCI find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789I have always found it in mine own experience an easier matter to devise many and profitable inventions than to dispose of one of them to the good of the author himself.
—Hugh Plat, 1595Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780If law and justice do not attain their ends, the people will be unable to move hand or foot.
—Confucius, c. 500’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BCA joke is at most a temporary rebellion against virtue, and its aim is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.
—George Orwell, 1945Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1910Anything one is remembering is a repetition, but existing as a human being that is being, listening, and hearing is never repetition.
—Gertrude Stein, 1935If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.
—Margaret Atwood, 2005Everyone knows about everybody in Hollywood—who sleeps with whom, who doesn’t sleep, who does it standing on his head or in the dentist’s chair.
—Rock Hudson, 1982For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.
—Charles Baudelaire, c. 1865