Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.
—Blaise Pascal, 1658
Archive
Quotes
Every thought is, strictly speaking, an afterthought.
—Hannah Arendt, 1978Traveling is like gambling: it is ever connected with winning and losing, and generally where least expected we receive more or less than we hoped for.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1797It costs a lot of money to be rich.
—Peter Boyle, 2002Health in all lands is among the indispensable guarantees of human progress.
—Helen Keller, 1936As matron and mistress will differ in temper and tone, so will the friend be distinct from the faithless parasite.
—Horace, c. 20 BCGod is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.
—Pablo Picasso, 1964If we pretend to respect the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.
—Henry James, 1884The law is not the same at morning and at night.
—George Herbert, c. 1633One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580Nobody, sir, dies willingly.
—Antiphanes, c. 370 BCSecrecy lies at the very core of power.
—Elias Canetti, 1960O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1599