Whenever in history equality appeared on the agenda, it was exported somewhere else, like an undesirable.
—Mary McCarthy, 1971
Archive
Quotes
Our allotted time is the passing of a shadow.
—Book of Wisdom, c. 100 BCWhen 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 BCCommerce has made all winds her ministers.
—John Sterling, 1843I’ve been bathing in the poem / Of star-infused and milky sea / Devouring the azure greens.
—Arthur Rimbaud, 1871Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one’s home.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981Communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1863Human happiness never remains long in the same place.
—Herodotus, c. 430 BCEnvy and hatred are apt to blind the eyes and render them unable to behold things as they are.
—Margaret of Valois, c. 1600People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence, and they think they have seen something.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843Attend to earth,
for it is to earth that kings are truly wedded.
One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1664As he brews, so shall he drink.
—Ben Jonson, 1598