Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957
Archive
Quotes
What man was ever content with one crime?
—Juvenal, c. 125The sole business of a seaman onshore who has to go to sea again is to take as much pleasure as he can.
—Leigh Hunt, 1820The hatred of relatives is the bitterest.
—Tacitus, 117Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.
—Jerome K. Jerome, 1889Do you not see how God is praised by those in the heavens and those on earth? The very birds praised Him as they wing their way.
—The Qur’an, c. 620The civilized man has built a coach but has lost the use of his feet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841Seize from every moment its unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.
—André Gide, 1897Do you suppose that will change the sense of the morals, the fact that we can’t use morals as a means of judging the city because we couldn’t stand it? And that we’re changing our whole moral system to suit the fact that we’re living in a ridiculous way?
—Philip Johnson, 1965He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1833The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended—and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.
—Robert Frost, 1939Sick, irritated, and the prey to a thousand discomforts, I go on with my labor like a true workingman, who, with sleeves rolled up, in the sweat of his brow, beats away at his anvil, not caring whether it rains or blows, hails or thunders.
—Gustave Flaubert, 1845At the start there’s always energy.
—Suzan-Lori Parks, 2006