Archive

Quotes

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

—Derek Walcott, 1986

It is a luxury to be understood.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1831

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

—Joseph Conrad, 1899

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

—Alexander Pope, 1738

Time’s violence rends the soul; by the rent eternity enters.

—Simone Weil, 1947

Towns oftener swamp one than carry one out onto the big ocean of life.

—D.H. Lawrence, 1908

The tune I remember, could I but keep the words.

—Virgil, 38 BC

Alas! We are ridiculous animals.

—Horace Walpole, 1777

The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.

—Eugene V. Debs, 1905

It raineth every day, and the weather represents our tearful despair on a large scale.

—Mary Boykin Chesnut, 1865

There’s folks ’ud hold a sieve under the pump and expect to carry away the water.

—George Eliot, 1859

If I had the use of my body I would throw it out of the window.

—Samuel Beckett, 1951

Little folks become their little fate.

—Horace, c. 20 BC