The unknown is the largest need of the intellect.
—Emily Dickinson, 1876
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Quotes
We possess art lest we perish of the truth.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1887Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations—wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
—Edmund Burke, 1795He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.
—Coretta Scott King, 1994When the physician said to him, “You have lived to be an old man,” he said, “That is because I never employed you as my physician.”
—Pausanias, c. 450 BCIf we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare.
—George W. Bush, 2005The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.
—Joshua Slocum, 1900The human working stock is of interest only insofar as it is profitable.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1970To know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have an enthusiastic soul.
—George Eliot, 1872Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.
—Catullus, c. 60 BCThere is something stirring in the way civilization gapes like a savage at the achievements of nature.
—Karl Kraus, 1909