Archive

Quotes

I’ve a grand memory for forgetting.

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886

To know the abyss of the darkness and not to fear it, to entrust oneself to it and whatever may arise from it—what greater gift?

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1975

A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.

—Cicero, 44 BC

Just to fill the hour—that is happiness.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

There is a vital force in rumor. Though crushed to earth, to all intents and purposes buried, it can rise again without apparent effort.

—Eleanor Robson Belmont, 1957

Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so shall you come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

The more sifted, the finer the flour; the more often repeated, the rougher the gossip.

—Korean proverb

What is the hardest task in the world? To think.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

Better no law than no law enforced.

—Danish proverb

I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.

—Roald Dahl, 1984

The law’s made to take care o’ raskills.

—George Eliot, 1860