Man’s great mission is not to conquer nature by main force but to cooperate with her intelligently but lovingly for his own purposes.
—Lewis Mumford, 1962
Archive
Quotes
A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615I take it as a prime cause of the present confusion of society that it is too sickly and too doubtful to use pleasure frankly as a test of value.
—Rebecca West, 1939Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
—Alexander Pope, 1738What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.
—Joseph Addison, 1711Revolutions are always verbose.
—Leon Trotsky, 1933A functioning police state needs no police.
—William S. Burroughs, 1959The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.
—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825Every house: temple, empire, school.
—Joseph Joubert, 1800There was a great deal of drinking among us but little drunkenness. We all seemed to feel that Prohibition was a personal affront and that we had a moral duty to undermine it.
—Elizabeth Anderson, 1969Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion.
—John Berger, 1972It seems to me that we all look at nature too much and live with her too little.
—Oscar Wilde, 1897Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion to vice.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, c. 45 BC