Every gift has a personality—that of its giver.
—Nuruddin Farah, 1992
Archive
Quotes
In the Middle Ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion.
—Robert Runcie, 1988The sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts—navigation.
—Samuel Purchas, 1613We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.
—Anna Sewell, 1877The mansion of modern freedoms stands on an ever-expanding base of fossil-fuel use.
—Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2008It is impossible to live pleasurably without living wisely, well, and justly, and impossible to live wisely, well, and justly without living pleasurably.
—Epicurus, c. 300 BCMedication alone is not to be relied on. In one half the cases medicine is not needed, or is worse than useless. Obedience to spiritual and physical laws—hygiene of the body and hygiene of the spirit—is the surest warrant for health and happiness.
—Harriot K. Hunt, 1856A hick town is one where there is no place to go where you shouldn’t go.
—Alexander Woollcott, c. 1935Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.
—Jane Austen, 1818The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.
—Carl Sandburg, 1934I cannot bear a parent’s tears.
—Virgil, c. 25 BCAs the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
—Pope John Paul II, 1986Pushing someone toward liberty does not set her free; taking the chains off a prisoner does not give him freedom.
—Ken Bugul, 1982