Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.
—Erica Jong, 1973
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Quotes
Time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.
—Edith Wharton, 1905If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me.
—Reggie Jackson, 1976They exchange their home and sweet thresholds for exile, and seek under another sun another home.
—Virgil, c. 30 BCThe worship of opinion is, at this day, the established religion of the United States.
—Harriet Martineau, 1839In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.
—Francis Grose, 1787Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCUsually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveler just returned from abroad.
—Jonathan Swift, c. 1730The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.
—Edward, Duke of Windsor, 1957A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.
—David Foster Wallace, 2000One’s friends are divided into two classes, those one knows because one must and those one knows because one mustn’t.
—Sybil Taylor, 1922A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for freedom.
—Amiri Baraka, 1962Scandal begins where the police leave off.
—Karl Kraus, 1909