The merchant always has fresh losses to expect, and the dread of base poverty forbids his rest.
—Decimus Magnus Ausonius, c. 390
Archive
Quotes
Can you draw sweet water from a foul well?
—Brooks Atkinson, 1940Men were born to lie, and women to believe them.
—John Gay, 1728I curse the night, yet doth from day me hide.
—William Drummond, 1616What 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, 1728The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.
—Nell Scovell, 1991I can’t see (or feel) the conflict between love and religion. To me they’re the same thing.
—Elizabeth Bowen, c. 1970Conjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns –
Adds poignancy to Winter
God is making commerce his missionary.
—Joseph Cook, c. 1877The ability to store our data externally helps us imagine that our time is limitless, our space infinite.
—Carina Chocano, 2012Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of these two has the grander view?
—Victor Hugo, 1862Friendship! Sir, there can be no such thing without an equality.
—George Farquhar, 1702Reality is always the foe of famous names.
—Petrarch, 1337