However harmless a thing is, if the law forbids it, most people will think it wrong.
—W. Somerset Maugham, 1896
Archive
Quotes
It is not my design to drink or sleep; my design is to make what haste I can to be gone.
—Oliver Cromwell, 1658As usual, what we call “progress” is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.
—Havelock Ellis, 1914Civilization, a much-abused word, stands for a high matter quite apart from telephones and electric lights.
—Edith Hamilton, 1930Thou art not to learn the humors and tricks of that old bald cheater, time.
—Ben Jonson, 1601You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.
—Cormac McCarthy, 2005If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
—Aeschylus, 458 BCMan, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCGreat cities must ever be centers of light and darkness, the home of the best and the worst of our race, holding within themselves the highest talent for good and evil.
—Matthew Hale Smith, 1868My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.
—Frederick the Great, c. 1770Fate leads the willing and drags along those who hang back.
—Cleanthes, c. 250 BCMoney speaks sense in a language all nations understand.
—Aphra Behn, 1677The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922