A win always seems shallow: it is the loss that is so profound and suggests nasty infinities.
—E.M. Forster, 1919
Archive
Quotes
A passion for horses, players, and gladiators seems to be the epidemic folly of the times. The child receives it in his mother’s womb; he brings it with him into the world, and in a mind so possessed, what room for science, or any generous purpose?
—Tacitus, c. 100Nothing 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, 1909No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.
—Cyril Connolly, 1944History is a people’s memory, and without a memory man is demoted to the level of the lower animals.
—Malcolm X, 1964Our crime against criminals is that we treat them as villains.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1898Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.
—William Penn, 1693Communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1863Science is a cemetery of dead ideas.
—Miguel de Unamuno, 1913Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe—though we didn’t know it at the time.
—Susan Sontag, 1973There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness.
—Dante Alighieri, c. 1321Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1776Brains are the only things worth having in this world.
—L. Frank Baum, 1899