Archive

Quotes

The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, / And drinks, and gapes for drink again.

—Abraham Cowley, 1656

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

Sex is the last refuge of the miserable.

—Quentin Crisp, 1968

Anything one is remembering is a repetition, but existing as a human being that is being, listening, and hearing is never repetition.

—Gertrude Stein, 1935

If the people be the governors, who shall be governed?

—John Cotton, c. 1636

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

—Albert Camus, 1951

Very shy people don’t even want to take up the space that their body actually takes up.

—Andy Warhol, 1975

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases. We go on a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences—to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others.

—William Hazlitt, 1822

What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn.

—Henry Adams, 1907

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.

—Herbert Hoover, 1936

Time’s violence rends the soul; by the rent eternity enters.

—Simone Weil, 1947

After midnight the moon set and I was alone with the stars. I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, and I need no other flight to convince me that the reason flyers fly, whether they know it or not, is the aesthetic appeal of flying.

—Amelia Earhart, 1935

The more laws, the more lawbreakers.

—Tao Te Ching, c. 500 BC