Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men’s minds are also injured by them.
—Mencius, 300 BC
Archive
Quotes
There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175Man has here two and a half minutes—one to smile, one to sigh, and half a one to love; for in the midst of this minute he dies.
—Jean Paul, 1795My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin.
—Karl Kraus, c. 1910Think rich. Look poor.
—Andy Warhol, 1975Happiness, whether in business or private life, leaves very little trace in history.
—Fernand Braudel, 1979“Work” does not exist in a nonliterate world. The primitive hunter or fisherman did no work, any more than does the poet, painter, or thinker of today. Where the whole man is involved there is no work.
—Marshall McLuhan, 1964When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.
—Eugene V. Debs, 1918Despotism achieves great things illegally; democracy doesn’t even take the trouble to achieve small things legally.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1831Unexemplary words and unfounded doctrines are avoided by the noble person. Why utter them?
—Dong Zhongshu, c. 120 BCDo what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
—Aleister Crowley, 1904Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.
—Marty Feldman, 1969One who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2400 BC