A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.
—W.H. Auden, 1946
Archive
Quotes
Carnal embrace is the practice of throwing one’s arms around a side of beef.
—Tom Stoppard, 1993I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.
—Albert Camus, 1957A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
—Walter Scott, 1823Who hears the fishes when they cry?
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849Kill 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, 1939The drunken man is a living corpse.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390An electoral choice of ten different fascists is like choosing which way one wishes to die.
—George Jackson, 1971He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.
—Emperor Francis Joseph, c. 1850I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902The merchant always has fresh losses to expect, and the dread of base poverty forbids his rest.
—Decimus Magnus Ausonius, c. 390If parents would only realize how they bore their children!
—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910