Who hears the fishes when they cry?
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849Quotes
It hurts to watch the fluency of a body acclimated to its shackling.
—Leslie Jamison, 2014If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me.
—Reggie Jackson, 1976Imagination is the secret and marrow of civilization. It is the very eye of faith.
—Henry Ward Beecher, 1887Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1939I imagine that one of the first forms of behavior, like one of the first signals, may be reduced to this: “Keep me warm.”
—Michel Serres, 1982I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.
—Giuseppe Verdi, 1900The world is wearied of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1870An honest man is all right even if he’s an idiot…but a crook must have brains.
—Maxim Gorky, 1902Traveling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.
—Fanny Burney, 1782In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.
—Voltaire, 1764It is noble to die before doing anything that deserves death.
—Anaxandrides, c. 376The mind is not, I know, a highway but a temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left open.
—Margaret Fuller, 1844