Archive

Quotes

I went [to war] because I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done.

—Louisa May Alcott, 1863

Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.

—Francis Bacon, 1597

Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

—Herman Melville, 1851

I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.

—Clarence Darrow, 1932

No woman needs intercourse; few women escape it.

—Andrea Dworkin, 1978

The belly is the teacher of the arts and bestower of invention.

—Persius, c. 55

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

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

—George Orwell, 1944

The misfortune of the man of color is having been enslaved. The misfortune and inhumanity of the white man are having killed man somewhere.

—Frantz Fanon, 1952

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.

—Chinese proverb

As is the face, so is the mind.

—Roman proverb

Plagues are as certain as death and taxes.

—Richard Krause, 1982

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

—Theodore Roosevelt, 1903