Keep away from physicians. It is all probing and guessing and pretending with them. They leave it to nature to cure in her own time, but they take the credit. As well as very fat fees.
—Anthony Burgess, 1964
Archive
Quotes
If one hears bad music, it is one’s duty to drown it by conversation.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890It is delightful to read on the spot the impressions and opinions of tourists who visited a hundred years ago, in the vehicles and with the aesthetic prejudices of the period, the places which you are visiting now. The voyage ceases to be a mere tour through space; you travel through time and thought as well.
—Aldous Huxley, 1925Jokes are grievances.
—Marshall McLuhan, 1969Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 200 BCNever make a defense or apology before you be accused.
—Charles I, 1636You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars.
—Thomas Traherne, c. 1670Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented.
—Willem de Kooning, 1949The sea receives us in a proper way only when we are without clothes.
—Pliny the Elder, 77Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still perseveres.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 170Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
—Oscar Wilde, 1893If you stain clear water with filth, you will never find a drink.
—Aeschylus, 458 BCI have often said that if I wish to name-drop, I have only to list my ex-friends.
—Norman Podhoretz, 1999