Many a man who thinks to found a home discovers that he has merely opened a tavern for his friends.
—Norman Douglas, 1917
Archive
Quotes
Bright youth passes as quickly as thought.
—Theognis, c. 550 BCThose who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Ours is an age which consciously pursues health, and yet only believes in the reality of sickness.
—Susan Sontag, 1963To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.
—Georges Bataille, 1957The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.
—Vladimir Nabokov, 1941All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
—Toni Morrison, 1987The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.
—Marianne Moore, 1935The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.
—Edward O. Wilson, 2009I think that to get under the surface and really appreciate the beauty of any country, one has to go there poor.
—Grace Moore, 1944Your body is the church where nature asks to be reverenced.
—Marquis de Sade, 1797Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.
—Malcolm X, 1964Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.
—Louis Brandeis, 1928