A self-made man is one who believes in luck and sends his son to Oxford.
—Christina Stead, 1938
Archive
Quotes
You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.
—Henrik Ibsen, 1882Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals—except the weasel.
—The Simpsons, 1993Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.
—G.C. Lichtenberg, c. 1780The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
—John Berger, 1984As the saying goes, an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
—Chinua Achebe, 1958No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1774Exile lacks the grandeur, the majesty, of expatriation.
—Bharati Mukherjee, 1999The celestial machine is to be likened not to a divine organism but rather to a clockwork.
—Johannes Kepler, 1605To endeavor to forget anyone is a certain way of thinking of nothing else.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688We and the dead ride quick at night.
—Gottfried August Bürger, 1773Hygienic law, like martial law, supersedes rights in crises.
—Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1913He who dies of epidemic disease is a martyr.
—Muhammad, c. 630