In tampering with the earth, we tamper with a mystery.
—Jonathan Schell, 2000
Archive
Quotes
A dead enemy always smells good.
—Aulus Vitellius, 69I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.
—Thomas Malory, c. 1470As to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was married to it. It is the creation of omnipotence, which is not of humankind and understandable, and so the springs of its behavior are hidden.
—H.M. Tomlinson, 1912There’s plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.
—Sylvia Alice Earle, 1995The 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 BCAll civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921The drunken man is a living corpse.
—St. John Chrysostom, c. 390You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.
—Aristophanes, c. 424 BCI have given up considering happiness as relevant.
—Edward Gorey, 1974There is a vital force in rumor. Though crushed to earth, to all intents and purposes buried, it can rise again without apparent effort.
—Eleanor Robson Belmont, 1957The fundamental concept in social science is power, in the same sense in which energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
—Bertrand Russell, 1938A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.
—George Ade, 1902