It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
—Upton Sinclair, 1935
Archive
Quotes
The world is made of the very stuff of the body.
—Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1961The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon, 1788Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809Scandal begins where the police leave off.
—Karl Kraus, 1909All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.
—Albert Camus, 1951There is a vital force in rumor. Though crushed to earth, to all intents and purposes buried, it can rise again without apparent effort.
—Eleanor Robson Belmont, 1957It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interest.
—Adam Smith, 1776Friendship’s a noble name, ’tis love refined.
—Susanna Centlivre, 1703Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but most important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
—Hazel Rochman, 1995The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of a gun.
—P.G. Wodehouse, 1929The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774I have often said that if I wish to name-drop, I have only to list my ex-friends.
—Norman Podhoretz, 1999