Archive

Quotes

In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.

—Francis Grose, 1787

There is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943

The king times are fast finishing. There will be blood shed like water, and tears like mist; but the peoples will conquer in the end.

—Lord Byron, 1821

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

—John Wilkes Booth, 1865

France has neither winter, summer, nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

—Mark Twain, 1879

If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

—Margaret Atwood, 2005

Time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters, but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.

—Edith Wharton, 1905

Under all speech that is good for anything, there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time.

—Thomas Carlyle, 1838

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

—Arthur Miller, 1961

What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.

—Erasmus, 1515

To hide and feel guilty would be the beginning of defeat.

—Milan Kundera, 1978

Anyone who in discussion quotes authority uses his memory rather than his intellect.

—Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1500

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

—Dorothy Parker