Archive

Quotes

Only the little people pay taxes.

—Leona Helmsley, 1989

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy, manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie knife.

—James Russell Lowell, 1873

Disease makes men more physical, it leaves them nothing but body.

—Thomas Mann, 1924

Those who believe in freedom of the will have never loved and never hated.

—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1893

I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.

—Aldous Huxley, 1925

Play, wherein persons of condition, especially ladies, waste so much of their time, is a plain instance to me that men cannot be perfectly idle; they must be doing something, for how else could they sit so many hours toiling at that which generally gives more vexation than delight to people whilst they are actually engaged in it?

—John Locke, 1693

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

The law looks at no one’s face.

—Gabriel Okara, 1964

Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.

—Charles Kuralt, c. 1980

When one has a famishing thirst for happiness, one is apt to gulp down diversions wherever they are offered.

—Alice Hegan Rice, 1917

Keep away from physicians. It is all probing and guessing and pretending with them. They leave it to nature to cure in her own time, but they take the credit. As well as very fat fees.

—Anthony Burgess, 1964

The United States has virtually set up an empire on impounded and redistributed water.

—Charles P. Berkey, 1946

Put national causes first and personal grudges last.

—Sima Qian, c. 91 BC