Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.
—William Empson, 1928
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Quotes
Thought depends absolutely on the stomach, but in spite of that, those who have the best stomachs are not the best thinkers.
—Voltaire, 1770Do you suppose that will change the sense of the morals, the fact that we can’t use morals as a means of judging the city because we couldn’t stand it? And that we’re changing our whole moral system to suit the fact that we’re living in a ridiculous way?
—Philip Johnson, 1965Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.
—Arthur Miller, 2001The universe is an object of thought at least as much as it is a means of satisfying needs.
—Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1962Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.
—W.H. Auden, c. 1940Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you.
—François Rabelais, 1535Politics is the art of the possible.
—Otto von Bismarck, 1867It is strange indeed that the more we learn about how to build health, the less healthy Americans become.
—Adelle Davis, 1951It’s easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing—that’s the Lord’s test.
—Mahalia Jackson, 1966Lord! I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
—Jonathan Swift, 1738The appointed thing comes at the appointed time in the appointed way.
—Myrtle Reed, 1910The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1870