Why is a ship under sail more poetical than a hog in a high wind? The hog is all nature, the ship is all art.
—Lord Byron, 1821
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Quotes
In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, 52 BCHospitality consists in a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
—James Fenimore Cooper, 1838A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated has not the art of getting drunk.
—Samuel Johnson, 1779None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
—Pearl S. Buck, 1943If you have any soul worth expressing, it will show itself in your singing.
—John Ruskin, 1865Time’s violence rends the soul; by the rent eternity enters.
—Simone Weil, 1947When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969The future is no more uncertain than the present.
—Walt Whitman, 1856Cheating is more honorable than stealing.
—German proverbAny sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
—Arthur C. Clarke, 1973Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live.
—Anatole Broyard, 1989