Archive

Quotes

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

—Wendell Phillips, 1859

A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.

—Cicero, 44 BC

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

—Thomas Jefferson, 1787

In every ill turn of fortune, the most unhappy sort of unfortunate man is the one who has been happy.

—Boethius, c. 520

There are places one comes home to that one has never been to.

—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, 1989

Whoever expects to walk peacefully in the world must be money’s guest.

—Norman O. Brown, 1959

Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.

—Voltaire, 1764

It is a luxury to be understood.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1831

Oil! Our secret god, our secret sharer, our magic wand, fulfiller of our every desire, our coconspirator, the sine qua non in all we do!

—Margaret Atwood, 2015

Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.

—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615

Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

—Lucretius, c. 58 BC

Man is no man, but a wolf, to a stranger.

—Plautus, c. 200 BC

The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.

—Salvador Dalí, 1953