Spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of birdsong.
—Rachel Carson, 1962
Archive
Quotes
I’ve seen the future, brother; it is murder.
—Leonard Cohen, 1992Conjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns –
Adds poignancy to Winter
Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.
—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746We seek with our human hands to create a second nature in the natural world.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 45 BCI like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1816Modern life is often a mechanical oppression, and liquor is the only mechanical relief.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1935A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.
—Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947I 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, 1939To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
—Desmond Tutu, 1984Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment.
—Charles Lamb, 1833The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
—Donald Barthelme, 1964