If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330
Archive
Quotes
One form of loneliness is to have a memory and no one to share it with.
—Phyllis Rose, 1991Exile lacks the grandeur, the majesty, of expatriation.
—Bharati Mukherjee, 1999Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.
—William Penn, 1693I think that to get under the surface and really appreciate the beauty of any country, one has to go there poor.
—Grace Moore, 1944Diseases, at least many of them, are like human beings. They are born, they flourish, and they die.
—David Riesman, 1937There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.
—Sylvia Plath, 1963Language is the archives of history.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844Cows are among the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them—and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.
—Thomas De Quincey, 1821He who travels by sea is nothing but a worm on a piece of wood, a trifle in the midst of a powerful creation. The waters play about with him at will, and no one but God can help him.
—Muhammad as-Saffar, 1846Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1774All the married heiresses I have known have shipwrecked.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880