Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.
—Noël Coward, 1930
Archive
Quotes
Night is torment. That is why people go to sleep. To avoid clear sight and torment.
—Dorothy M. Richardson, 1923The law looks at no one’s face.
—Gabriel Okara, 1964All moanday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday till the fear of the Law.
—James Joyce, 1939You are dust, and to dust you shall return.
—Book of Genesis, c. 800 BCMan is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
—William Hazlitt, 1819The human working stock is of interest only insofar as it is profitable.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1970Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1640Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823God never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them.
—The Qur’an, c. 620Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all.
—Eva Perón, 1949There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
—Mark Twain, 1876The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
—John Berger, 1984