Fire destroys that which feeds it.
—Simone Weil, c. 1940
Archive
Quotes
Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.
—Jean Genet, 1949If a king loves music, there is little wrong in the land.
—Mencius, c. 330 BCRepetition is the mother of education.
—Jean Paul, 1807A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk.
—Samuel Johnson, 1779Give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevist forever.
—Vladimir Lenin, 1923Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.
—Homer, c. 750 BCYou can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.
—George Ade, 1902One of the things men should most strive to do is win a good reputation and see that no one questions it.
—Juan Manuel, 1335Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832Gossip isn’t scandal and it’s not merely malicious. It’s chatter about the human race by lovers of the same.
—Phyllis McGinley, 1957