Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings.
—Anna Quindlen, 2012
Archive
Quotes
Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.
—John Wilkes Booth, 1865Once you hear the details of a victory it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1951Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them; it is destiny which makes them prudent.
—Voltaire, 1764Laughter always arises from a gaiety of disposition, absolutely incompatible with contempt and indignation.
—Voltaire, 1736Casting lots causes contentions to cease, and keeps the mighty apart.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCIn Washington, the first thing people tell you is what their job is. In Los Angeles you learn their star sign. In Houston you’re told how rich they are. And in New York they tell you what their rent is.
—Simon Hoggart, 1990Education has become a prisoner of contemporaneity. It is the past, not the dizzy present, that is the best door to the future.
—Camille Paglia, 1992Health can make money, but money cannot make health.
—Maria Edgeworth, 1833For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
—Richard Feynman, 1986To put one’s trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890When we define democracy now, it must still be as a thing hoped for but not seen.
—Pearl S. Buck, 1941