Now there is fame! Of all—hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public—fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation by God of the artist. It is sad. It is true.
—Pablo Picasso, c. 1961
Archive
Quotes
Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave.
—Thomas Browne, 1658Despotism achieves great things illegally; democracy doesn’t even take the trouble to achieve small things legally.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1831By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCAnything one is remembering is a repetition, but existing as a human being that is being, listening, and hearing is never repetition.
—Gertrude Stein, 1935Divine nature gave the fields; human art built the cities.
—Marcus Terentius Varro, c. 70 BCShow me someone who never gossips, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t interested in people.
—Barbara Walters, 1975The brightest light burns the quickest.
—Olive Beatrice Muir, 1900One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCA world is sooner destroyed than made.
—Thomas Burnet, 1684Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
—Horace Walpole, 1784I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.
—Margaret Atwood, 1976In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
—Herodotus, 440 BC