Everyone else is represented in Washington by a rich and powerful lobby, it seems. But there is no lobby for the people.
—Shirley Chisholm, 1970
Archive
Quotes
The happy ending is our national belief.
—Mary McCarthy, 1947Men argue, nature acts.
—Voltaire, 1764A passion for horses, players, and gladiators seems to be the epidemic folly of the times. The child receives it in his mother’s womb; he brings it with him into the world, and in a mind so possessed, what room for science, or any generous purpose?
—Tacitus, c. 100He that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600To know the abyss of the darkness and not to fear it, to entrust oneself to it and whatever may arise from it—what greater gift?
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1975New things are always ugly.
—Willa Cather, 1921Friendship’s a noble name, ’tis love refined.
—Susanna Centlivre, 1703It’s the end of the world every day, for someone.
—Margaret Atwood, 2000I hate the present modes of living and getting a living. Farming and shopkeeping and working at a trade or profession are all odious to me. I should relish getting my living in a simple, primitive fashion.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1855Where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.
—George Santayana, c. 1905Man is a troublesome animal and therefore is not very manageable.
—Plato, c. 349 BCIn the society of men, the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are so ugly if seen in the light of exiled truth, and beauty is almost no longer possible if it is not a lie.
—R.D. Laing, 1967