The newspaper is the natural enemy of the book, as the whore is of the decent woman.
—Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, 1858
Archive
Quotes
Every man must descend into the flesh to meet mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1910Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.
—Virginia Woolf, 1899There never was a good war or a bad peace.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1773Nothing puzzles me more than time and space, and yet nothing puzzles me less, for I never think about them.
—Charles Lamb, 1810Childhood knows what it wants—to leave childhood behind.
—Jean Cocteau, 1947Fear is the foundation of most governments.
—John Adams, 1776Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.
—Socrates, c. 430 BCSex is the last refuge of the miserable.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do.
—William James, 1902There is no small pleasure in sweet water.
—Ovid, c. 10Society as a whole must be converted into a gigantic school.
—Che Guevara, 1965And to our age’s drowsy blood / Still shouts the inspiring sea.
—James Russell Lowell, 1848