The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.
—Hunter S. Thompson, 1971
Archive
Quotes
A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615If the heavens were all parchment, and the trees of the forest all pens, and every human being were a scribe, it would still be impossible to record all that I have learned from my teachers.
—Jochanan ben Zakkai, c. 75Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
—Albert Einstein, 1931A world is sooner destroyed than made.
—Thomas Burnet, 1684The man in constant fear is every day condemned.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCSuperstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962No wise man ever wished to be younger.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706A traveler’s chief aim should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the bad—as well as good—example of what they deliver concerning foreign places.
—Jonathan Swift, 1726We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.
—Aesop, c. 600 BCFor what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
—Frederick Douglass, 1852The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922