It is far, far better and much safer to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1958
Archive
Quotes
Fear is a poor guarantor of a long life.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
—Ulysses S. Grant, 1877The diseases of the present have little in common with the diseases of the past save that we die of them.
—Agnes Repplier, 1929The law looks at no one’s face.
—Gabriel Okara, 1964Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.
—William Empson, 1928Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be breakthrough.
—R.D. Laing, 1967The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972Under all speech that is good for anything, there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time.
—Thomas Carlyle, 1838An unjust law is no law at all.
—Saint Augustine, 395The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.
—Marianne Moore, 1935Life is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt, c. 1817Idolatry is the mother of all games.
—Novatian, c. 255