Archive

Quotes

If the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar, and will not leave it, why keep the door so very carefully shut?

—Olive Schreiner, 1883

The day unravels what the night has woven.

—Walter Benjamin, 1929

There’s folks ’ud hold a sieve under the pump and expect to carry away the water.

—George Eliot, 1859

Dreams have always been my friend, full of information, full of warnings.

—Doris Lessing, 1994

Everyone who is sick is someone else’s patient zero.

—Leslie Jamison, 2020

A functioning police state needs no police.

—William S. Burroughs, 1959

Put national causes first and personal grudges last.

—Sima Qian, c. 91 BC

A dead enemy always smells good.

—Aulus Vitellius, 69

Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.

—Joseph Joubert, 1811

There are some who, if a cat accidentally comes into the room, though they neither see it nor are told of it, will presently be in a sweat and ready to die away.

—Increase Mather, 1684

If I see something sagging, dragging, or bagging, I’m going to go have the stuff tucked or plucked.

—Dolly Parton, 2003

Speak without regard for the consequences, and it is too late for silence when disaster strikes.

—Huan Kuan, 81 BC

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

—Virginia Woolf, 1929