Everybody says it; and what everybody says must be true.
—James Fenimore Cooper, 1844
Archive
Quotes
The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.
—Galen, c. 175The sea receives us in a proper way only when we are without clothes.
—Pliny the Elder, 77Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
—Pablo Neruda, 1924What reason weaves, by passion is undone.
—Alexander Pope, 1972Memories are like corks left out of bottles. They swell. They no longer fit.
—Harriet Doerr, 1978The misfortune of the man of color is having been enslaved. The misfortune and inhumanity of the white man are having killed man somewhere.
—Frantz Fanon, 1952The beginning of health lies in knowing the disease.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615Even though counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it is better than breaking them.
—Learned Hand, 1932Scandal begins where the police leave off.
—Karl Kraus, 1909Music sweeps by me as a messenger / Carrying a message that is not for me.
—George Eliot, 1868I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.
—Terence, 163 BCA crust of bread and a corner to sleep in / A minute to smile and an hour to weep in.
—Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1895