The most fitting occupation for a civilized man is to do nothing.
—Théophile Gautier, c. 1835
Archive
Quotes
Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.
—Malcolm X, 1964Put national causes first and personal grudges last.
—Sima Qian, c. 91 BCConjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns –
Adds poignancy to Winter
The more men are massed together, the more corrupt they become. Disease and vice are the sure results of overcrowded cities.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762In a true democracy, everyone can be upper-class and live in Connecticut.
—Lisa Birnbach, 1980I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.
—Herman Melville, 1853It’s the end of the world every day, for someone.
—Margaret Atwood, 2000Better free in a strange land than a slave at home.
—German proverbThe mansion of modern freedoms stands on an ever-expanding base of fossil-fuel use.
—Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2008Whatever the pace of this technological revolution may be, the direction is clear: the lower rungs of the economic ladder are being lopped off.
—Bayard Rustin, 1965Good fortune is light as a feather, but nobody knows how to hold it up. Misfortune is heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of its way.
—Zhuangzi, c. 300 BCJazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.
—George Gershwin, 1933