There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.
—Anthony Trollope, 1862
Archive
Quotes
Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world.
—Hans Zinsser, 1935In the country gossip is a pastime; in the city it is a warfare.
—W.M.L. Jay, 1870A true German can’t stand the French, / Yet willingly he drinks their wines.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
—Steve Biko, 1971A bull contents himself with one meadow, and one forest is enough for a thousand elephants; but the little body of a man devours more than all other living creatures.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 64We die of comfort and by conflict live.
—May Sarton, 1953To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
—Frank Zappa, 1989The art of invention grows young with the things invented.
—Francis Bacon, 1605If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
—Mark Twain, 1894Secrecy lies at the very core of power.
—Elias Canetti, 1960They exchange their home and sweet thresholds for exile, and seek under another sun another home.
—Virgil, c. 30 BC