Power is so apt to be insolent, and Liberty to be saucy, that they are very seldom upon good terms.
—George Savile, c. 1690
Archive
Quotes
I’ve a grand memory for forgetting.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886Family! Thou art the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children.
—August Strindberg, 1886There is nothing worse for mortals than a wandering life.
—Homer, c. 750 BCThere is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Democracy, like the human organism, carries within it the seed of its own destruction.
—Veronica Wedgwood, 1946What the brain does by itself is infinitely more fascinating and complex than any response it can make to chemical stimulation.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1971A criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.
—George Mikes, 1946A regime which combines perpetual surveillance with total indulgence is hardly conducive to healthy development.
—P.D. James, 1992It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing.
—Charles Darwin, 1871Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live.
—Anatole Broyard, 1989It is permitted to learn even from an enemy.
—Ovid, c. 8The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of a gun.
—P.G. Wodehouse, 1929