Time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.
—Edith Wharton, 1905
Archive
Quotes
Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
—Book of Job, c. 600 BCNature’s rules have no exceptions.
—Herbert Spencer, 1851Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCSome nights are like honey—and some like wine—and some like wormwood.
—L.M. Montgomery, 1927I have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974It’s easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing—that’s the Lord’s test.
—Mahalia Jackson, 1966The right to the pursuit of happiness is nothing else than the right to disillusionment phrased in another way.
—Aldous Huxley, 1956The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.
—Germaine Greer, 1970The period of a [Persian] boy’s education is between the ages of five and twenty, and he is taught three things only: to ride, to use the bow, and to speak the truth.
—Herodotus, c. 440 BCDon’t ever wear artistic jewelry; it wrecks a woman’s reputation.
—Colette, 1944The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.
—Theodor Adorno, 1951An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
—George Eliot, 1866