I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962
Archive
Quotes
Of all the creatures that breathe and creep on the surface of the earth, none is more to be pitied than man.
—Homer, c. 750 BCDespotism achieves great things illegally; democracy doesn’t even take the trouble to achieve small things legally.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1831Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895Every thought is, strictly speaking, an afterthought.
—Hannah Arendt, 1978There are some who, if a cat accidentally comes into the room, though they neither see it nor are told of it, will presently be in a sweat and ready to die away.
—Increase Mather, 1684If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper that did his job well.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1954Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.
—Willa Cather, 1918Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.
Rewards and punishment are the lowest form of education.
—Zhuangzi, c. 286 BCMen are generally more pleased with a widespread than with a great reputation.
—Pliny the Younger, c. 110It is noble to die before doing anything that deserves death.
—Anaxandrides, c. 376