Archive

Quotes

The first mistake of art is to assume that it’s serious.

—Lester Bangs, 1971

It hurts to watch the fluency of a body acclimated to its shackling.

—Leslie Jamison, 2014

Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring.

—Marlene Dietrich, 1962

It is one thing to slander, another to accuse.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 56 BC

The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.

—Anaïs Nin, 1935

To live exiled from a place you have known intimately is to experience sensory deprivation. A wide-awake coma.

—Gretel Ehrlich, 1994

One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity.

—John Ruskin, 1856

Every fool becomes a philosopher after ten days of rain.

—Clover Adams, 1882

I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.

—Ray Bradbury, 1992

The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.

—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but most important, it finds homes for us everywhere.

—Hazel Rochman, 1995

What is the city but the people?

—William Shakespeare, 1608