Archive

Quotes

Hospitality consists in a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856

I do not amuse myself by thinking of dead people.

—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1807

For, say they, when cruising in an empty ship, if you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.

—Herman Melville, 1851

Survivors look back and see omens, messages they missed.

—Joan Didion, 2005

Health in all lands is among the indispensable guarantees of human progress.

—Helen Keller, 1936

Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.

—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1480

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

—George Eliot, 1866

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

—Jonathan Swift, 1706

No real friendship without absolute liberty.

—George Sand, 1866

Take back your golden fiddles, and we’ll beat to open sea.

—Rudyard Kipling, 1892

Honest commerce is the great civilizer. We exchange ideas when we exchange fabrics.

—Robert G. Ingersoll, 1882

One’s body, hair, and skin are a gift from one’s parents—do not dare to allow them to be harmed.

—Classic of Filial Piety, c. 200 BC