Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.
—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746
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Quotes
Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Years are nothing to me—they should be nothing to you. Who asked you to count them or to consider them? In the world of wild nature, time is measured by seasons only—the bird does not know how old it is—the rose tree does not count its birthdays!
—Marie Corelli, 1911That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.
—Willa Cather, 1918Gossip isn’t scandal and it’s not merely malicious. It’s chatter about the human race by lovers of the same.
—Phyllis McGinley, 1957There is no work of human hands which time does not wear away and reduce to dust.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 46 BCGive me chastity and continence, but not just now.
—Saint Augustine, 397And to our age’s drowsy blood / Still shouts the inspiring sea.
—James Russell Lowell, 1848It was funny how I could feel all alone and under surveillance at the same time.
—Cory Doctorow, 2013I would delight in music, but the music is discordant.
—Xie Lingyun, c. 425It is the little causes, long continued, which are considered as bringing about the greatest changes of the earth.
—James Hutton, 1795Fear has a smell, as love does.
—Margaret Atwood, 1972We do not suffer by accident.
—Jane Austen, 1813