Whole nations have melted away like balls of snow before the sun.
—Dragging Canoe, 1775
Archive
Quotes
Refrigerators and television sets, or even rockets sent to the moon, do not change man into God.
—Czesław Miłosz, 1960Science is a cemetery of dead ideas.
—Miguel de Unamuno, 1913If you find excrement somewhere in the village, the chief was the one who put it there.
—Congolese proverbFlesh was the reason why oil painting was invented.
—Willem de Kooning, 1949And then, sir, there is this consideration: that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
—Samuel Johnson, 1791Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe—though we didn’t know it at the time.
—Susan Sontag, 1973Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.
—Zora Neale Hurston, 1937Fame is no sanctuary from the passing of youth. Suicide is much easier and more acceptable in Hollywood than growing old gracefully.
—Julie Burchill, 1986He who commands the sea has command of everything.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600A private sin is not so prejudicial in this world as a public indecency.
—Miguel de Cervantes, 1615All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity.
—John Ruskin, 1856No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
—Bertrand Russell, 1961