Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930
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Quotes
The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
—Tacitus, c. 117Whatsoever is, is in God.
—Benedict de Spinoza, 1677Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.
—George Washington, 1781Our whole life is but one great school; from the cradle to the grave we are all learners; nor will our education be finished until we die.
—Ann Plato, 1841Speak without regard for the consequences, and it is too late for silence when disaster strikes.
—Huan Kuan, 81 BCA man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
—James Joyce, 1922Time, 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, 1905If it were not for the intellectual snobs who pay in solid cash—the tribute which philistinism owes to culture, the arts would perish with their starving practitioners. Let us thank heaven for hypocrisy.
—Aldous Huxley, 1926What is outside my mind means nothing to it.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 170The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994I hate the whole race. There is no believing a word they say—your professional poets, I mean—there never existed a more worthless set than Byron and his friends for example.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1810My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968