The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy, and temperamental: it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chawing a hunk of melon in the dust.
—Elizabeth Bowen, 1955
Archive
Quotes
Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.
—Thomas Carlyle, 1836Everyone knows about everybody in Hollywood—who sleeps with whom, who doesn’t sleep, who does it standing on his head or in the dentist’s chair.
—Rock Hudson, 1982Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
—Aleister Crowley, 1904Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable desire to seek the truth.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 45 BCI have often been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
—Thucydides, c. 404 BCMen were born to lie, and women to believe them.
—John Gay, 1728Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCI 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. 1902Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688It is more blessed to give than to receive.
—Acts of the Apostles, c. 80I will never again command an army in America if we must carry along paid spies. I will banish myself to some foreign country first.
—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1863If you steal, do not steal too much at a time. You may be arrested. Steal cleverly, little by little.
—Mobutu Sese Seko, 1991