Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented.
—Willem de Kooning, 1949
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Quotes
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
—Genesis, c. 900 BCEverything that has wings is beyond the reach of the law.
—Joseph Joubert, 1791Hang work! I wish that all the year were holiday; I am sure that Indolence—indefeasible Indolence—is the true state of man.
—Charles Lamb, 1805In every human breast, God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom; it is impatient of oppression and pants for deliverance.
—Phillis Wheatley, 1774I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
—Samuel Johnson, 1773Once you hear the details of a victory it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1951I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal, but if you think about him carefully, you will find that his nonvulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine nature—not in his insensitive hide, nor in his clumsy foot, but in the way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way; and in his sensitive trunk, and still more sensitive mind, and capability of pique on points of honor.
—John Ruskin, 1860A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than a change of the moon.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1732Thou art not to learn the humors and tricks of that old bald cheater, time.
—Ben Jonson, 1601Man has here two and a half minutes—one to smile, one to sigh, and half a one to love; for in the midst of this minute he dies.
—Jean Paul, 1795Can you draw sweet water from a foul well?
—Brooks Atkinson, 1940Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784