Archive

Quotes

Water astonishing and difficult altogether makes a meadow and a stroke.

—Gertrude Stein, 1914

I have been a stranger here in my own land all my life.

—Sophocles, c. 441 BC

As the saying goes, an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.

—Chinua Achebe, 1958

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

—Saint Augustine, c. 390

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work.

—Carl Sandburg, 1959

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

—Wendell Phillips, 1859

The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.

—Eugene V. Debs, 1905

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.

—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780

A 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, 2000

Trade is a social act.

—John Stuart Mill, 1859

A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

—Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850

Most people who sneer at technology would starve to death if the engineering infrastructure were removed.

—Robert A. Heinlein, 1984