I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.
—Ray Bradbury, 1992
Archive
Quotes
The self is like an infant: given free rein, it craves to suckle.
—al-Busiri, c. 1250Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
—James Madison, 1794Man and animals are really the conduit of food, the sepulcher of animals, and resting place of the dead, one causing the death of the other, making themselves the covering for the corruption of other dead bodies.
—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
—Herman Melville, 1851We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!
—Humphrey Gilbert, 1583All the married heiresses I have known have shipwrecked.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880There is no greater disaster than not to know contentment.
—Laozi, c. 550 BCThe worship of opinion is, at this day, the established religion of the United States.
—Harriet Martineau, 1839What are men anyway but balloons on legs, a lot of blown-up bladders?
—Gaius Petronius Arbiter, c. 64From a man’s face, I can read his character. If I can see him walk, I know his thoughts.
—Gaius Petronius Arbiter, c. 60All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.
—Max Born, 1968I’d like to be a machine, wouldn’t you?
—Andy Warhol, 1963