Archive

Quotes

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

—Anatole France, 1881

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.

—Sammy Davis Jr., 1965

Good fortune is light as a feather, but nobody knows how to hold it up. Misfortune is heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of its way.

—Zhuangzi, c. 300 BC

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad. 

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

—Lorraine Hansberry, 1965

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off—see, it doesn’t bite.

—Epictetus, c. 110

When you drink water, think of its source.

—Chinese proverb

Journalists belong in the gutter, because that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets.

—Gerald Priestland, 1988

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

—Confucius, c. 500 BC

Make human nature your study wherever you reside—whatever the religion or the complexion, study their hearts.

—Ignatius Sancho, 1778

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, 1905

Great cities must ever be centers of light and darkness, the home of the best and the worst of our race, holding within themselves the highest talent for good and evil.

—Matthew Hale Smith, 1868

To know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have an enthusiastic soul.

—George Eliot, 1872