The screech and mechanical uproar of the big city turns the citified heads, fills citified ears—as the song of birds, wind in the trees, animal cries, or as the voices and songs of his loved ones once filled his heart. He is sidewalk happy.
—Frank Lloyd Wright, 1958Quotes
Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”
—Evelyn Waugh, 1938There is no work of human hands which time does not wear away and reduce to dust.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 46 BCIn tampering with the earth, we tamper with a mystery.
—Jonathan Schell, 2000Every ass thinks himself worthy to stand with the king’s horses.
—Gnomologia, 1732The newspaper is the natural enemy of the book, as the whore is of the decent woman.
—Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, 1858To endeavor to forget anyone is a certain way of thinking of nothing else.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Human happiness never remains long in the same place.
—Herodotus, c. 430 BCA change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than a change of the moon.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1732I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Happiness is not something you can catch and lock up in a vault like wealth. Happiness is nothing but everyday living seen through a veil.
—Zora Neale Hurston, 1939Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
—Roald Dahl, 1990