Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867
Archive
Quotes
Religion! How it dominates man’s mind, how it humiliates and degrades his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and blood have ruled the world since gods began.
—Emma Goldman, 1910What man was ever content with one crime?
—Juvenal, c. 125The future comes like an unwelcome guest.
—Edmund Gosse, 1873I’ve seen the future, brother; it is murder.
—Leonard Cohen, 1992Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.
—Shimon Peres, 1995I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1940Spies are of no use nowadays. Their profession is over. The newspapers do their work instead.
—Oscar Wilde, 1895How many desolate creatures on the earth have learnt the simple dues of fellowship and social comfort in a hospital.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1857For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.
—Petronius, c. 60The country only has charms for those not obliged to stay there.
—Édouard Manet, c. 1860Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco pipes of those who diffuse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.
—George Eliot, 1876We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!
—Humphrey Gilbert, 1583