But look, our seas are what we make of them, full of fish or not, opaque or transparent, red or black, high or smooth, narrow or bankless—and we are ourselves sea, sand, coral, seaweed, beaches, tides, swimmers, children, waves.
—Hélène Cixous, 1976
Archive
Quotes
The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.
—LaoziWhat is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.
—Erasmus, 1515To make laws that man cannot and will not obey serves to bring all law into contempt.
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1860Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.
—Jean de Joinville, c. 1305I am sure of this: that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now.
—Jane Austen, c. 1798Every memory everyone has ever had will eventually be underwater.
—Anthony Doerr, 2006The fundamental concept in social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
—Bertrand Russell, 1938Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.
—Max Born, 1968We are to go to law never to revenge, but only to repair.
—Samuel Pepys, 1661It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
—Frederick Douglass, 1852Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable desire to seek the truth.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 45 BC