He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
—Francis Bacon, 1625
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Quotes
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1921A fool and water will go the way they are diverted.
—Ethiopian proverbTo love a woman who scorns you is to lick honey from a thorn.
—Welsh proverbHe that raises a large family, does indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand…a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1786Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1852Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.
—William James, 1902I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.
—Herman Melville, 1853Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.
—Frank Zappa, c. 1975I have loved war too well.
—Louis XIV, 1715How sweet it is to have people point and say, “There he is.”
—Persius, c. 60’Tis the destroyer, or the devil, that scatters plagues about the world.
—Cotton Mather, 1693I don’t believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there’s one thing that’s dangerous for an artist, it’s precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.
—Federico Fellini, c. 1950