I have been a stranger here in my own land all my life.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BC
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Quotes
Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCEducation has become a prisoner of contemporaneity. It is the past, not the dizzy present, that is the best door to the future.
—Camille Paglia, 1992Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1852Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.
—C.S. Lewis, 1961Most vegetarians I ever saw looked enough like their food to be classed as cannibals.
—Finley Peter Dunne, 1900It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mold, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.
—Edward Gibbon, c. 1790There is no solitude in the world like that of the big city.
—Kathleen Norris, 1931Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one’s own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live.
—Anatole Broyard, 1989Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
—Charles de Gaulle, 1963The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.
—Anaïs Nin, 1935The enlightened man says: I am body entirely and nothing beside.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BC