Democracy produces both heroes and villains, but it differs from a fascist state in that it does not produce a hero who is a villain.
—Margaret Halsey, 1946
Archive
Quotes
Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?
—Marcel Marceau, 1958The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.
—Paul Valéry, 1931To know all is not to forgive all. It is to despise everybody.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.
—Rose Macaulay, 1925The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.
—Gore Vidal, 1973A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
—James Joyce, 1922Nature never jests.
—Albrecht von Haller, 1751Avoid the talk of men. For talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even talk is in some ways divine.
—Hesiod, c. 700 BCIf a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.
—Groucho Marx, 1959