When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957
Archive
Quotes
More pernicious nonsense was never devised by man than treaties of commerce.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1880A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family—and, often, is all that remains of it.
—Susan Sontag, 1977Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.
—Jacob Burckhardt, c. 1875It’s the end of the world every day, for someone.
—Margaret Atwood, 2000From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
—Herman Melville, 1851Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.
—George Santayana, 1905I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.
—Terence, 163 BCIf people think Nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.
—Kurt Vonnegut, 1988Shamelessness is the shame of being without shame.
—Mencius, c. 290 BCA tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.
—W.H. Auden, 1946I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.
—Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1804