Archive

Quotes

We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!

—Humphrey Gilbert, 1583

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.

—Carl Sandburg, 1934

To know the abyss of the darkness and not to fear it, to entrust oneself to it and whatever may arise from it—what greater gift?

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1975

Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BC

Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1886

Imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith.

—Henry Ward Beecher, 1887

When you drink water, think of its source.

—Chinese proverb

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.

—Edward O. Wilson, 2009

The law looks at no one’s face.

—Gabriel Okara, 1964

All the world is topsy-turvy, and it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.

—Jack London, 1912

Industrialism is the religion with “the machine” as the god going to answer all the prayers. Communism and capitalism were just competing sects.

—Dora Russell, 1983

When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we expected to see an author and find a man.

—Blaise Pascal, c. 1657