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
Archive
Quotes
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, 1597Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
—Herman Melville, 1851I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.
—Clarence Darrow, 1932No woman needs intercourse; few women escape it.
—Andrea Dworkin, 1978The belly is the teacher of the arts and bestower of invention.
—Persius, c. 55When 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 BCLanguage ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.
—George Orwell, 1944The 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, 1952When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
—Chinese proverbAs is the face, so is the mind.
—Roman proverbPlagues are as certain as death and taxes.
—Richard Krause, 1982Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
—Theodore Roosevelt, 1903