Is it a fact—or have I dreamed it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851
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Quotes
I had rather be in a state of misery and envied for my supposed happiness than in a state of happiness and pitied for my supposed misery.
—Elizabeth Inchbald, 1793Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
—Paul Valéry, 1943Hatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization.
—Rebecca West, 1912The world is made of the very stuff of the body.
—Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1961You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCOne of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.
—Iris Murdoch, 1978Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion.
—John Berger, 1972The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit has made permanent.
—Marcel Proust, 1919Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Best is water.
—Pindar, 476 BCI want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1774