People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence, and they think they have seen something.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1843
Archive
Quotes
The fundamental concept in social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
—Bertrand Russell, 1938The path of social advancement is, and must be, strewn with broken friendships.
—H.G. Wells, 1905The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.
—Joshua Slocum, 1900Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944Just to fill the hour—that is happiness.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844Where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.
—George Santayana, c. 1905Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
—Ulysses S. Grant, 1877There is no happiness like that of a young couple in a little house they have built themselves in a place of beauty and solitude.
—Annie Proulx, 2008Cows are among the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them—and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.
—Thomas De Quincey, 1821Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
—Mark Twain, 1893Everyone 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, 1982A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615