Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
—Mao Zedong, 1938
Archive
Quotes
In life our absent friend is far away: / But death may bring our friend exceeding near.
—Christina Rossetti, 1881No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
—Samuel Johnson, 1776Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1735Before the earth could become an industrial garbage can, it had first to become a research laboratory.
—Theodore Roszak, 1972Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one’s own Trojan horse.
—Rebecca West, 1959The fox knows lots of tricks, the hedgehog only one—but it’s a winner.
—Archilochus, c. 650 BCThe law is established from above but becomes custom below.
—Su Zhe, c. 1100There is a city in which you find everything you desire—handsome people, pleasures, ornaments of every kind—all that the natural person craves. However, you cannot find a single wise person there.
—Rumi, c. 1250No man ever distinguished himself who could not bear to be laughed at.
—Maria Edgeworth, 1809It’s only the futility of the first flood that prevents God from sending a second.
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1794The only places where American medicine can fully live up to its possibilities are the teaching hospitals.
—Bernard De Voto, 1951Happiness does not dwell in herds, nor yet in gold.
—Democritus, c. 420 BC