The seeds of civilization are in every culture, but it is city life that brings them to fruition.
—Susanne K. Langer, 1962
Archive
Quotes
Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.
—Virginia Woolf, 1899Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.
—Joseph Stalin, 1934What reason weaves, by passion is undone.
—Alexander Pope, 1972The civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841Why is a ship under sail more poetical than a hog in a high wind? The hog is all nature, the ship is all art.
—Lord Byron, 1821The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1886We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.
—Oscar Wilde, 1887The man in constant fear is every day condemned.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCRevolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871Shamelessness is the shame of being without shame.
—Mencius, c. 290 BCDisobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made—through disobedience and through rebellion.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891