I have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974
Archive
Quotes
Children are all foreigners. We treat them as such.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1839Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
—Anacharsis, c. 550 BCTelevision is democracy at its ugliest.
—Paddy Chayefsky, 1976Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Most men employ the first years of their life in making the last miserable.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688There is a demon who puts wings on certain tales and launches them like eagles out into space.
—Alexandre Dumas, 1846Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment.
—Charles Lamb, 1833There is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.
—Horace, 20 BCI shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.
—Catherine the Great, c. 1796If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.
—Jonathan Swift, 1706The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1776