Nothing is more narrow-minded than chauvinism or racial hatred. To me all men are equal; there are flatheads everywhere and I despise them all equally.
—Karl Kraus, 1909
Archive
Quotes
Tomorrow never comes, man. It’s all the same fucking day.
—Janis Joplin, 1972A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.
—George Ade, 1902After each night we are emptier: our mysteries and our griefs have leaked away into our dreams.
—E.M. Cioran, 1949Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.
—Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1897The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 500 BCThe spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830The young always have the same problem—how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their elders and copying one another.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.
—Georges Bataille, 1957A large city cannot be experientially known; its life is too manifold for any individual to be able to participate in it.
—Aldous Huxley, 1934It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself… it seems unfair. You can’t assume the responsibility for everything you do—or don’t do.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1966To hold a throne is luck; to bestow it, virtue.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 45The sick man is the parasite of society.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889