Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1911
Archive
Quotes
The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.
—Paul Valéry, 1931We have to ask ourselves whether medicine is to remain a humanitarian and respected profession or a new but depersonalized science in the service of prolonging life rather than diminishing human suffering.
—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 1969None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.
—Pearl S. Buck, 1943Once suspicion is aroused, everything feeds it.
—Amelia Edith Barr, 1885The sea hath fish for every man.
—William Camden, 1605In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.
—Michel Foucault, 1975Anyone who’s never watched somebody die is suffering from a pretty bad case of virginity.
—John Osborne, 1956A false report rides post.
—English proverbSex: in America, an obsession; in other parts of the world, a fact.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in / A minute to smile and an hour to weep in.
—Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1895How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”
—Persius, c. 60Secrecy lies at the very core of power.
—Elias Canetti, 1960