We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706
Archive
Quotes
If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981Fear has a smell, as love does.
—Margaret Atwood, 1972I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.
—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BCThe human body is the best picture of the human soul.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, c. 1947A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.
—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1513Man must be doing something, or fancy that he is doing something, for in him throbs the creative impulse; the mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural, but an abnormal man.
—Henry George, 1879Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world.
—Hans Zinsser, 1935The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.
—John Nance Garner, c. 1967Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
—Arthur C. Clarke, 1973Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.
—The Dhammapada, c. 400 BCOne of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.
—Iris Murdoch, 1978