Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890Quotes
What are men anyway but balloons on legs, a lot of blown-up bladders?
—Gaius Petronius Arbiter, c. 64One’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 BCIf I see something sagging, dragging, or bagging, I’m going to go have the stuff tucked or plucked.
—Dolly Parton, 2003Celibacy goes deeper than the flesh.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920As the saying goes, an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
—Chinua Achebe, 1958There is only one antidote to mental suffering and that is physical pain.
—Karl Marx, 1860Very shy people don’t even want to take up the space that their body actually takes up.
—Andy Warhol, 1975The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.
—Anaïs Nin, 1935The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit has made permanent.
—Marcel Proust, 1919Your body is the church where nature asks to be reverenced.
—Marquis de Sade, 1797My face looks like a wedding cake left out in the rain.
—W.H. Auden, c. 1967Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still perseveres.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 170