The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.
—Victor Hugo, 1862
Archive
Quotes
Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCNothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985To endeavor to forget anyone is a certain way of thinking of nothing else.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Spit not in the well; you may have to drink its water.
—French proverbLaughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582Curse on all laws but those which love has made.
—Alexander Pope, 1717For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1816Fate leads the willing and drags along those who hang back.
—Cleanthes, c. 250 BCKnowledge is an ancient error reflecting on its youth.
—Francis Picabia, 1949I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him.
—Book of Revelations, c. 90