One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.
—George Santayana, c. 1914Quotes
Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one’s home.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1939Knowledge is an ancient error reflecting on its youth.
—Francis Picabia, 1949The things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1929The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 500 BCYou never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.
—Cormac McCarthy, 2005The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCHappiness (as the mathematicians might say) lies on a curve, and we approach it only by asymptote.
—Christopher Morley, 1919It’s only the futility of the first flood that prevents God from sending a second.
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort, c. 1794The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.
—Rose Macaulay, 1925When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
—Desmond Tutu, 1984