One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours.
—William Faulkner, 1958
Archive
Quotes
If we pretend to respect the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.
—Henry James, 1884People who’ve drunk neat wine don’t care a damn.
—Hipponax, c. 550 BCIf men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1843Some men never recover from education.
—Oliver St. John Gogarty, 1954To live outside the law, you must be honest.
—Bob Dylan, 1966A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.
—W.H. Auden, 1946Memory is the only
afterlife I can understand.
Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe—though we didn’t know it at the time.
—Susan Sontag, 1973Nature never jests.
—Albrecht von Haller, 1751Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.
—Pericles, c. 431 BCOn no other stage are the scenes shifted with a swiftness so like magic as on the great stage of history when once the hour strikes.
—Edward Bellamy, 1888However harmless a thing is, if the law forbids it, most people will think it wrong.
—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896