Exile lacks the grandeur, the majesty, of expatriation.
—Bharati Mukherjee, 1999
Archive
Quotes
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
—Albert Einstein, 1936Speak and speed; the close mouth catches no flies.
—Benjamin Franklin, c. 1732I have learned much from disease which life could never have taught me anywhere else.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1830It would be impossible to live for a year without disaster unless one practiced character-reading.
—Virginia Woolf, 1924I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
—Xenocrates, c. 350 BCTwo crimes undid me: a poem and a mistake.
—Ovid, 10Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always want of happiness.
—Thomas Paine, 1792I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one.
—Cato the Elder, c. 184 BCDemocracy cannot be static. Whatever is static is dead.
—Eleanor Roosevelt, 1942It is hard when nature does not respect your intentions, and she never does exactly respect them.
—Wendell Berry, 1985Despotism achieves great things illegally; democracy doesn’t even take the trouble to achieve small things legally.
—Honoré de Balzac, 1831There is a time to battle against nature, and a time to obey her. True wisdom lies in making the right choice.
—Arthur C. Clarke, 1979