The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967
Archive
Quotes
That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.
—Willa Cather, 1918I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
—Maya Angelou, 1993I cannot bear a parent’s tears.
—Virgil, c. 25 BCNo poems can please long, nor live, that are written by water drinkers.
—Horace, 35 BCTime, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.
—Edith Wharton, 1905We must confess that at present the rich predominate, but the future will be for the virtuous and ingenious.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688That which is evil is soon learned.
—John Ray, 1670The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
—Genesis, c. 900 BCAnyone who has passed through the regular gradations of a classical education, and is not made a fool by it, may consider himself as having had a very narrow escape.
—William Hazlitt, 1821One’s body, hair, and skin are a gift from one’s parents—do not dare to allow them to be harmed.
—Classic of Filial Piety, c. 200 BCThere are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866