And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade.
—Lord Byron, 1822
Archive
Quotes
An exile with no home anywhere is a corpse without a grave.
—Publilius Syrus, 50 BCLanguage is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1817Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.
—Francis Bacon, 1597All the world is topsy-turvy, and it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.
—Jack London, 1912You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCI’m at an age when my back goes out more than I do.
—Phyllis Diller, 1981A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69If the people be the governors, who shall be governed?
—John Cotton, c. 1636No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand Russell, 1961This is not a clash between civilizations. It is a clash about civilization.
—Tony Blair, 2006“Work” does not exist in a nonliterate world. The primitive hunter or fisherman did no work, any more than does the poet, painter, or thinker of today. Where the whole man is involved there is no work.
—Marshall McLuhan, 1964The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967