Archive

Quotes

Understanding is a very dull occupation.

—Gertrude Stein, 1937

Every creature in the world is like a book and a picture, to us, and a mirror.

—Alain de Lille, c. 1200

Men are merriest when they are from home.

—William Shakespeare, 1599

Among famous traitors of history, one might mention the weather.

—Ilka Chase, 1969

Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe—though we didn’t know it at the time.

—Susan Sontag, 1973

Just to fill the hour—that is happiness.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

The mansion of modern freedoms stands on an ever-expanding base of fossil-fuel use.

—Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2008

I hate the sight of monkeys; they remind me so of poor relations.

—Henry Luttrell, 1820

Towns oftener swamp one than carry one out onto the big ocean of life.

—D.H. Lawrence, 1908

’Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.

—William Shakespeare, c. 1595

A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.

—Susan Sontag, 1977

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

—Lorraine Hansberry, 1965

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

—Samuel Johnson, 1751