Divine nature gave the fields; human art built the cities.
—Marcus Terentius Varro, c. 70 BC
Archive
Quotes
He who dies of epidemic disease is a martyr.
—Muhammad, c. 630Yes to a market economy, no to a market society.
—Lionel Jospin, 1998I hate the present modes of living and getting a living. Farming and shopkeeping and working at a trade or profession are all odious to me. I should relish getting my living in a simple, primitive fashion.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1855Your body is the church where nature asks to be reverenced.
—Marquis de Sade, 1797There never is absolute birth nor complete death, in the strict sense, consisting in the separation of the soul from the body. What we call births are developments and growths, while what we call deaths are envelopments and diminutions.
—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1714Exile lacks the grandeur, the majesty, of expatriation.
—Bharati Mukherjee, 1999Nothing is as obnoxious as other people’s luck.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1938You can put wings on a pig, but you don’t make it an eagle.
—Bill Clinton, 1996If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
—Mark Twain, 1894Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets.
—Andy Warhol, 1975The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
—Wendell Berry, 1983Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665