I 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, 1939
Archive
Quotes
Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582There is no foreign land; it is the traveler only that is foreign.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883Understanding is a very dull occupation.
—Gertrude Stein, 1937Style is the image of character.
—Edward Gibbon, c. 1789It is impossible to translate the poets. Can you translate music?
—Voltaire, c. 1732Fear is the foundation of most governments.
—John Adams, 1776Every adolescent has that dream every century has that dream every revolutionary has that dream, to destroy the family.
—Gertrude Stein, 1940The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.
—Gaston Bachelard, 1960A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615A fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.
—Ovid, c. 1 BCEveryone complains about his memory, and no one complains about his judgment.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1666I do desire we may be better strangers.
—William Shakespeare, 1600