Everybody says it; and what everybody says must be true.
—James Fenimore Cooper, 1844
Archive
Quotes
In a court of fowls, the cockroach never wins its case.
—Rwandan proverbWhen they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957The sea is mother-death, and she is a mighty female, the one who wins, the one who sucks us all up.
—Anne Sexton, 1971Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
—Pablo Neruda, 1924Whoever expects to walk peacefully in the world must be money’s guest.
—Norman O. Brown, 1959All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921Never make a defense or apology before you be accused.
—Charles I, 1636Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.
—Jean Rostand, 1939In 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, 1787I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.
—Susan Sontag, 1977Time, 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, 1905Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1847