It is more blessed to give than to receive.
—Acts of the Apostles, c. 80
Archive
Quotes
You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCEvery fool becomes a philosopher after ten days of rain.
—Clover Adams, 1882The human mind is an evolutionary product, just like the human body.
—Tetsuro Matsuzawa, 2010The sadness of the end of a career of an older athlete, with the betrayal of his body, is mirrored in the rest of us. Consciously or not, we know: there, soon, go I.
—Ira Berkow, 1987He knows the water best who has waded through it.
—Danish proverbWater has many ways of reminding us that when we are in it we are out of our element.
—Christopher Hitchens, 2008Does anybody really want to attend to cities other than to flee, fleece, privatize, butcher, or decimate them?
—Jane Holtz Kay, 1992The past is always tense and the future, perfect.
—Zadie Smith, 2000When poets don’t know what to say and have completely given up on the play, just like a finger, they lift the machine and the spectators are satisfied.
—Antiphanes, c. 350 BCNowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1664Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise.
—Jean Baudrillard, c. 1987