My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968
Archive
Quotes
If you would help another man, you must do so in minute particulars.
—William Blake, 1804Gossip isn’t scandal and it’s not merely malicious. It’s chatter about the human race by lovers of the same.
—Phyllis McGinley, 1957Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
—James Madison, 1794You can’t find the soul with a scalpel.
—Gustave Flaubert, c. 1880I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
—H. Rap Brown, 1967Conjecturing a Climate
Of unsuspended Suns –
Adds poignancy to Winter
Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.
—Jean Genet, 1986There is a sickness among tyrants: they cannot trust their friends.
—Aeschylus, c. 458 BCPlay, wherein persons of condition, especially ladies, waste so much of their time, is a plain instance to me that men cannot be perfectly idle; they must be doing something, for how else could they sit so many hours toiling at that which generally gives more vexation than delight to people whilst they are actually engaged in it?
—John Locke, 1693He who would have clear water should go to the fountainhead.
—Italian proverbAn American will build a house in which to pass his old age and sell it before the roof is on.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sightseeing.”
—Daniel Boorstin, 1961