Archive

Quotes

Appearances are a glimpse of the obscure.

—Anaxagoras, c. 450 BC

I am a living symbol of the white man’s fear.

—Winnie Mandela, 1985

In the name of Hippocrates doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival.

—Luis Buñuel, 1983

Health care delivery is one of the tragedies still in America.

—Jewel Plummer Cobb, 1989

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing—the rest is mere sheep herding.

—Ezra Pound, 1934

To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.

—Georges Bataille, 1957

I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That’s what sitting on your ass does to your face.

—Leonard Cohen, 1970

Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.

—Erica Jong, 1973

Drive out nature with a pitchfork, and she will always come back. 

—Horace, c. 25 BC

The drunken man is a living corpse.

—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390

Friendship itself will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long.

—Robert Wilson Lynd, 1924

What touches all shall be approved by all.

—Edward I, 1295

I was born at a very early age. Before I had time to regret it, I was four and a half years old.

—Groucho Marx, 1959