Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
—Herman Melville, 1851Quotes
Art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.
—Flannery O’Connor, 1964What keeps the democracy alive at all but the hatred of excellence, the desire of the base to see no head higher than their own?
—Mary Renault, 1956Worry over what has not occurred is a serious malady.
—Solomon ibn Gabirol, 1050The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin.
—Heinrich Heine, 1827Language is the archives of history.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844I am not Athenian or Greek but a citizen of the world.
—Socrates, c. 420 BCOne need merely visit the marketplace and the graveyard to determine whether a city is in both physical and metaphysical order.
—Ernst Jünger, 1977Opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion for enmity.
—Sigmund Freud, 1930Man is the one name belonging to every nation upon earth: there is one soul and many tongues, one spirit and various sounds; every country has its own speech, but the subjects of speech are common to all.
—Tertullian, c. 217The beginning of health lies in knowing the disease.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615The atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure.
—John Steinbeck, 1941Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.
—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BC