Archive

Quotes

It is hard when nature does not respect your intentions, and she never does exactly respect them.

—Wendell Berry, 1985

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

—Walt Whitman, 1855

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

—William Blake, c. 1803

Though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.

—Bion of Smyrna, c. 100 BC

Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a diamond.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1605

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.

—Iris Murdoch, 1978

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

Tell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of.

—Robert Benchley, 1935

The envious die not once, but as often as the envied win applause.

—Baltasar Gracián, 1647

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

—Jeremy Bentham, c. 1832

A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615

What hath night to do with sleep?

—John Milton, 1637

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

—E.B. White, 1944