If one hears bad music, it is one’s duty to drown it by conversation.
—Oscar Wilde, 1890
Archive
Quotes
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
—Socrates, c. 430 BCDo that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCWe all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.
—Clark Gable, 1935Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies.
—H.L. Mencken, 1925The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.
—Salvador Dalí, 1953The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon, 1788Religion! How it dominates man’s mind, how it humiliates and degrades his soul. God is everything, man is nothing, says religion. But out of that nothing God has created a kingdom so despotic, so tyrannical, so cruel, so terribly exacting that naught but gloom and tears and blood have ruled the world since gods began.
—Emma Goldman, 1910The civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841A woman should never be seen eating or drinking unless it be lobster salad and champagne, the only truly feminine and becoming viands.
—Lord Byron, 1812Anyone who has a child should train him to be either a physicist or a ballet dancer. Then he’ll escape.
—W.H. Auden, 1947Drink today and drown all sorrow; / You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow.
—John Fletcher, 1625Time will reveal everything. It is a babbler and speaks even when not asked.
—Euripides, c. 425 BC