We must not always talk in the marketplace of what happens to us in the forest.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850Quotes
From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
—Herman Melville, 1851Whoever expects to walk peacefully in the world must be money’s guest.
—Norman O. Brown, 1959I went [to war] because I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want the glory or the pay; I wanted the right thing done.
—Louisa May Alcott, 1863I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1816Don’t you find it a beautiful clean thought, a world empty of people, just uninterrupted grass, and a hare sitting up?
—D.H. Lawrence, 1920Do not fear the clatter of wheels, the bumps and slops in corridors. It is only turbulence.
—Romalyn Ante, 2020I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.
—Giuseppe Verdi, 1900The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922Water astonishing and difficult altogether makes a meadow and a stroke.
—Gertrude Stein, 1914Guard more faithfully the secret which is confided to you than the money which is entrusted to your care.
—Isocrates, c. 370 BCI don’t believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there’s one thing that’s dangerous for an artist, it’s precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
—Federico Fellini, c. 1950Too often, where we need water we find guns.
—Ban Ki-moon, 2008