Death from the bubonic plague is rated, with crucifixion, among the nastiest human experiences of all.
—Guy R. Williams, 1975
Archive
Quotes
People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.
—Edmund Burke, 1790Water its living strength first shows, / When obstacles its course oppose.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1815We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves.
—John Locke, 1690Pushing someone toward liberty does not set her free; taking the chains off a prisoner does not give him freedom.
—Ken Bugul, 1982Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Jesters do oft prove prophets.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1605While gossip among women is universally ridiculed as low and trivial, gossip among men, especially if it is about women, is called theory, or idea, or fact.
—Andrea Dworkin, 1983These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession.
—Claude Monet, 1908Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
—Voltaire, 1770I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1789In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.
—Michel Foucault, 1975The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson, 1787