It’s the educated barbarian who is the worst: he knows what to destroy.
—Helen MacInnes, 1963
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Quotes
The ceaseless, senseless demand for original scholarship in a number of fields, where only erudition is now possible, has led either to sheer irrelevancy, the famous knowing of more and more about less and less, or to the development of a pseudo-scholarship which actually destroys its object.
—Hannah Arendt, 1972I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill, 1943Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
—Gore Vidal, 1981Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings.
—Anna Quindlen, 2012When I do a show, the whole show revolves around me, and if I don’t show up, they can just forget it.
—Ethel Merman, c. 1955The right to the pursuit of happiness is nothing else than the right to disillusionment phrased in another way.
—Aldous Huxley, 1956Let us make our own mistakes, but let us take comfort in the knowledge that they are our own mistakes.
—Tom Mboya, 1958Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
—Jerome K. Jerome, 1889Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
—E.B. White, 1944