War has silenced all laws.
—Lucan, c. 65
Archive
Quotes
I am sure of this: that if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would not be half the disorders in the world there are now.
—Jane Austen, c. 1798There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665A self-made man is one who believes in luck and sends his son to Oxford.
—Christina Stead, 1938The bathing was so delightful this morning, and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself, that I believe I stayed in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired. I shall be more careful another time, and shall not bathe tomorrow as I had before intended.
—Jane Austen, 1804In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.
—Francis Grose, 1787Ocean. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man—who has no gills.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
—E.B. White, 1944Modern life is often a mechanical oppression, and liquor is the only mechanical relief.
—Ernest Hemingway, 1935We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink, for dining alone is leading the life of a lion or wolf.
—Epicurus, c. 300 BCWhere happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.
—George Santayana, c. 1905