A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992
Archive
Quotes
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
—John Locke, 1695Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—Anatole France, 1881Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up.
—George Eliot, 1876To call a fashion wearable is the kiss of death. No new fashion worth its salt is ever wearable.
—Eugenia Sheppard, 1960The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.
—Germaine Greer, 1970Water has many ways of reminding us that when we are in it we are out of our element.
—Christopher Hitchens, 2008Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200It 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, 1776Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear it!
—Cotton Mather, 1728Alas! We are ridiculous animals.
—Horace Walpole, 1777No law is sufficiently convenient to all.
—Roman proverbWhy is not a rat as good as a rabbit? Why should men eat shrimps and neglect cockroaches?
—Henry Ward Beecher, 1862