Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water.
—Zadie Smith, 2000
Archive
Quotes
Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.
—Malcolm X, 1964Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.
—Pericles, c. 431 BCJests and scoffs do lessen majesty and greatness and should be far from great personages and men of wisdom.
—Henry Peacham, 1622When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him.
—Francis Bacon, 1625What a glut of books! Who can read them? As already, we shall have a vast chaos and confusion of books; we are oppressed with them, our eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning.
—Robert Burton, 1621Water is the first principle of everything.
—Thales of Miletus, c. 600 BCHappiness does not dwell in herds, nor yet in gold.
—Democritus, c. 420 BCThe poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCMen worry over the great number of diseases, while doctors worry over the scarcity of effective remedies.
—Bian Qiao, c. 500 BCI would delight in music, but the music is discordant.
—Xie Lingyun, c. 425The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty, and death of public opinion.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1902A functioning police state needs no police.
—William S. Burroughs, 1959