Archive

Quotes

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

—William Morris, 1882

To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.

—Jean Genet, 1949

Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.

—D.H. Lawrence, 1911

“I think, therefore I am” is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches.

—Milan Kundera, 1990

The period of a [Persian] boy’s education is between the ages of five and twenty, and he is taught three things only: to ride, to use the bow, and to speak the truth.

—Herodotus, c. 440 BC

The waters are nature’s storehouse, in which she locks up her wonders.

—Izaak Walton, 1653

He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.

—Plautus, c. 200 BC

The Church says that the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in the shadow than in the Church.

—Ferdinand Magellan, c. 1510

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.

—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1977

The unknown is the largest need of the intellect.

—Emily Dickinson, 1876

Happiness is not something you can catch and lock up in a vault like wealth. Happiness is nothing but everyday living seen through a veil.

—Zora Neale Hurston, 1939

Who sleepeth with dogs shall rise with fleas.

—John Florio, 1578

The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.

—Salvador Dalí, 1953