’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BC
Archive
Quotes
The fact is certain because it is impossible.
—Tertullian, c. 200A world is sooner destroyed than made.
—Thomas Burnet, 1684What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?
—William Law, 1728The sea hath fish for every man.
—William Camden, 1605Appearances often are deceiving.
—Aesop, c. 550 BCMore and more I like to take a train. I understand why the French prefer it to automobiling—it is so much more sociable, and of course these days so much more of an adventure, and the irregularity of its regularity is fascinating.
—Gertrude Stein, 1943Good fortune is light as a feather, but nobody knows how to hold it up. Misfortune is heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of its way.
—Zhuangzi, c. 300 BCTo put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890He who would have clear water should go to the fountainhead.
—Italian proverbThe sole business of a seaman onshore who has to go to sea again is to take as much pleasure as he can.
—Leigh Hunt, 1820The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty, and death of public opinion.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902I wants to make your flesh creep.
—Charles Dickens, 1837