Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of these two has the grander view?
—Victor Hugo, 1862
Archive
Quotes
These useless men ought to be cut up and served at a banquet. I really believe that athletes have less intelligence than swine.
—Dio Chrysostom, c. 95A machine is a slave that neither brings nor bears degradation.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing’s as eternal as the dishes.
—Margaret Mahy, 1985There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891A fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.
—Ovid, c. 1 BCThere is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.
—Francis Bacon, 1625Scandal begins where the police leave off.
—Karl Kraus, 1909Without doubt God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it. He directs angels, man, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things—but each according to its nature—and man having been created free, he is freely led. This rule is truly the eternal law and in it we must believe.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1821Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.
—E.M. Forster, 1910Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.
—Malcolm X, 1964There are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night.
—Madame de Sévigné, 1671You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
—Mario Cuomo, 1985