It is wretched business to be digging a well just as you’re dying of thirst.
—Plautus, c. 193 BC
Archive
Quotes
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.
—W.H. Auden, c. 1940Just as language no longer has anything in common with the thing it names, so the movements of most of the people who live in cities have lost their connection with the earth; they hang, as it were, in the air, hover in all directions, and find no place where they can settle.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903An electoral choice of ten different fascists is like choosing which way one wishes to die.
—George Jackson, 1971Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveler just returned from abroad.
—Jonathan Swift, c. 1730Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963Even a paranoid can have enemies.
—Henry Kissinger, 1977As usual, what we call “progress” is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.
—Havelock Ellis, 1914One’s body, hair, and skin are a gift from one’s parents—do not dare to allow them to be harmed.
—Classic of Filial Piety, c. 200 BCIn tampering with the earth, we tamper with a mystery.
—Jonathan Schell, 2000If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater, suggest that he wear a tail.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
—Samuel Butler, c. 1890