The ceaseless, senseless demand for original scholarship in a number of fields, where only erudition is now possible, has led either to sheer irrelevancy, the famous knowing of more and more about less and less, or to the development of a pseudo-scholarship which actually destroys its object.
—Hannah Arendt, 1972
Archive
Quotes
The sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts—navigation.
—Samuel Purchas, 1613Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings.
—Anna Quindlen, 2012The envious die not once, but as often as the envied win applause.
—Baltasar Gracián, 1647Usually speaking, the worst-bred person in company is a young traveler just returned from abroad.
—Jonathan Swift, c. 1730Men worry over the great number of diseases, while doctors worry over the scarcity of effective remedies.
—Bian Qiao, c. 500 BCGod walks among the pots and pans.
—Saint Teresa of Ávila, c. 1582How like to us is that filthy beast the ape.
—Cicero, 45 BCMen take diseases, one of another. Therefore let men take heed of their company.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1600Without doubt God is the universal moving force, but each being is moved according to the nature that God has given it. He directs angels, man, animals, brute matter, in sum all created things—but each according to its nature—and man having been created free, he is freely led. This rule is truly the eternal law and in it we must believe.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1821Don’t lose your mind unless you have paid for it.
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
—Henry Kissinger, 1972