The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972
Archive
Quotes
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1755That which is evil is soon learned.
—John Ray, 1670I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843An exile with no home anywhere is a corpse without a grave.
—Publilius Syrus, 50 BCYears are nothing to me—they should be nothing to you. Who asked you to count them or to consider them? In the world of wild nature, time is measured by seasons only—the bird does not know how old it is—the rose tree does not count its birthdays!
—Marie Corelli, 1911To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1949Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1939If parents would only realize how they bore their children!
—George Bernard Shaw, c. 1910I don’t believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there’s one thing that’s dangerous for an artist, it’s precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
—Federico Fellini, c. 1950Today’s city is the most vulnerable social structure ever conceived by man.
—Martin Oppenheimer, 1969Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.
Misfortune, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1906