Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
—George Eliot, 1857
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Quotes
The deed is everything, the glory naught.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832What harm is there in getting knowledge and learning, were it from a sot, a pot, a fool, a winter mitten, or an old slipper?
—François Rabelais, 1533Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there.
—Susanne K. Langer, 1942Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
—Voltaire, 1770All our enemies are mortal.
—Paul Valéry, 1942It is a luxury to be understood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1831He alone who owns the youth gains the future.
—Adolf Hitler, 1935If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.
—Yoshida Kenko, c. 1330To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.
—Albert Camus, 1951The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.
—Nell Scovell, 1991I am weary of friends, and friendships are all monsters.
—Jonathan Swift, 1710I don’t believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there’s one thing that’s dangerous for an artist, it’s precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
—Federico Fellini, c. 1950