Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
—E.B. White, 1944
Archive
Quotes
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688Style is the image of character.
—Edward Gibbon, c. 1789It is hard when nature does not respect your intentions, and she never does exactly respect them.
—Wendell Berry, 1985Anything one is remembering is a repetition, but existing as a human being that is being, listening, and hearing is never repetition.
—Gertrude Stein, 1935I never practice, I always play.
—Wanda Landowska, 1953What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains and studying night and day how to fly?
—William Law, 1728Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962If you read somebody’s diary, you get what you deserve.
—David Sedaris, 2004There is no greater disaster than not to know contentment.
—Laozi, c. 550 BCIt is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
—Frederick Douglass, 1852Alas! We are ridiculous animals.
—Horace Walpole, 1777As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection.
—Charles Darwin, 1859