I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789
Archive
Quotes
A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
—Victor Hugo, 1862A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
—Herman Melville, 1851A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the state.
—William Blake, 1807You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882New things are always ugly.
—Willa Cather, 1921Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991Even a paranoid can have enemies.
—Henry Kissinger, 1977If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706It is a luxury to be understood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1831My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain.
—W.H. Auden, c. 1967I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.
—Terence, 163 BCIt 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, 1776