When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969
Archive
Quotes
For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.
—Charles Baudelaire, c. 1865To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation.
—Oliver Sacks, 2012The ceaseless, senseless demand for original scholarship in a number of fields, where only erudition is now possible, has led either to sheer irrelevancy, the famous knowing of more and more about less and less, or to the development of a pseudo-scholarship which actually destroys its object.
—Hannah Arendt, 1972It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap.
—Dolly Parton, 1994Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1910No man will take counsel, but every man will take money: therefore money is better than counsel.
—Jonathan Swift, 1702The sea hath fish for every man.
—William Camden, 1605Fate leads the willing and drags along those who hang back.
—Cleanthes, c. 250 BCSome of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.
—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746I quit life as from an inn, not as from a home.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44 BCThe real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.
—Edward O. Wilson, 2009Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BC