Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it “the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the soul.” The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of “artist.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1849
Archive
Quotes
Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCAll the married heiresses I have known have shipwrecked.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world: it gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. The picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.
—Susan B. Anthony, 1896Communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1863Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.
Idolatry is the mother of all games.
—Novatian, c. 255I wonder whether if I had an education I should have been more or less a fool than I am.
—Alice James, 1889The sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts—navigation.
—Samuel Purchas, 1613Friendship is not possible between two women, one of whom is very well dressed.
—Laurie Colwin, 1978If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
—Aeschylus, 458 BC’Tis not a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at tables?
—Thomas Browne, 1642For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879