He who sings frightens away his ills.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605
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Quotes
Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.
—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746Memory is necessary for all operations of reasoning.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1658Memory is the only
afterlife I can understand.
Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.
—Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947Time is a veil interposed between God and ourselves, as our eyelid is between our eye and the light.
—François-René de Chateaubriand, c. 1820The civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.
—Jean de Joinville, c. 1305Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it, and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, c. 1790It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter.
—Lewis Strauss, 1954I have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.
—Willa Cather, 1918