A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
—Herman Melville, 1851
Archive
Quotes
The United States has virtually set up an empire on impounded and redistributed water.
—Charles P. Berkey, 1946When law can do no right,
Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong.
Among famous traitors of history, one might mention the weather.
—Ilka Chase, 1969I have loved war too well.
—Louis XIV, 1715To love a woman who scorns you is to lick honey from a thorn.
—Welsh proverbPolitical power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
—George Eliot, 1866Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829I take it as a prime cause of the present confusion of society that it is too sickly and too doubtful to use pleasure frankly as a test of value.
—Rebecca West, 1939Fire destroys that which feeds it.
—Simone Weil, c. 1940The most fitting occupation for a civilized man is to do nothing.
—Théophile Gautier, c. 1835What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.
—Voltaire, 1723