Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BC
Archive
Quotes
If the human race wants to go to hell in a basket, technology can help it get there by jet.
—Charles M. Allen, 1967Friendship is not possible between two women, one of whom is very well dressed.
—Laurie Colwin, 1978Oil! Our secret god, our secret sharer, our magic wand, fulfiller of our every desire, our coconspirator, the sine qua non in all we do!
—Margaret Atwood, 2015The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.
—Vladimir Nabokov, 1941What the brain does by itself is infinitely more fascinating and complex than any response it can make to chemical stimulation.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1971One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
—E.B. White, 1958And what will history say of me a thousand years hence?
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 59 BCSomeone will remember us
I say
even in another time.
The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.
—André Breton, 1937Thanks be to God: since my leaving drinking of wine, I do find myself much better and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.
—Samuel Pepys, 1662The best physician is he who can distinguish the possible from the impossible.
—Herophilus, c. 290 BCShamelessness is the shame of being without shame.
—Mencius, c. 290 BC