We must select the illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion if we want to be happy.
—Cyril Connolly, 1944
Archive
Quotes
The populace may hiss me, but when I go home and think of my money, I applaud myself.
—Horace, c. 25 BCModeration in all things.
—Terence, 166 BCA first-class man subsists on the matter he destroys.
—Saul Bellow, 1989Man is merely a more perfect animal than the rest. He reasons better.
—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1816Happiness is no laughing matter.
—Richard Whately, 1843What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1850The Mediterranean has the colors of a mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet—you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray.
—Vincent van Gogh, 1888There is no small pleasure in sweet water.
—Ovid, c. 10All of the great musicians have borrowed from the songs of the common people.
—Antonín Dvořák, 1893Without music life would be a mistake.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
—Frank Zappa, 1989All law is of necessity defective in the beginning.
—Han Yu, c. 800