The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774
Archive
Quotes
Some to the common pulpits, and cry out / “Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!”
—William Shakespeare, c. 1599Secrets define us, they mark us, they set us apart from all the others. The secrets which we preserve provide a key to who we are, deep down.
—Nuruddin Farah, 1998In life our absent friend is far away: / But death may bring our friend exceeding near.
—Christina Rossetti, 1881It is impossible to translate the poets. Can you translate music?
—Voltaire, c. 1732God walks among the pots and pans.
—Saint Teresa of Ávila, c. 1582Sex and drugs and rock and roll.
—Ian Dury, 1977Does anybody really want to attend to cities other than to flee, fleece, privatize, butcher, or decimate them?
—Jane Holtz Kay, 1992Life is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt, c. 1817My advice to people today is as follows: if you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.
—Timothy Leary, 1966I am dying with the help of too many physicians.
—Alexander the Great, c. 323 BCReality is always the foe of famous names.
—Petrarch, 1337People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.
—Robert Byrd, 2005