What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?
—William Law, 1728
Archive
Quotes
If I had the use of my body I would throw it out of the window.
—Samuel Beckett, 1951Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
—William Shakespeare, 1592Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
—Hebrews, c. 60Oil! Our secret god, our secret sharer, our magic wand, fulfiller of our every desire, our coconspirator, the sine qua non in all we do!
—Margaret Atwood, 2015In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1880The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1908In my dreams I sleep with everybody.
—Anaïs Nin, 1933More and more I like to take a train. I understand why the French prefer it to automobiling—it is so much more sociable, and of course these days so much more of an adventure, and the irregularity of its regularity is fascinating.
—Gertrude Stein, 1943The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is better, only the god knows.
—Socrates, 399 BCThe three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.
—Nell Scovell, 1991Each night’s new terror drives away the terror of the night before.
—Sophocles, c. 450 BCMemory is more indelible than ink.
—Anita Loos, 1974