I wish my deadly foe, no worse Than want of friends, and empty purse.
1545 - 1626
'A Farewell to Town', st. 3, in The Works of a Young Wit (1577)
Entire Collection
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they have no other models.
James Baldwin 1924 - 1987
1924 - 1987
I mean, it is an extraordinary thing that a large proportion of your country and my country, of the citizens, never see a wild creature from dawn 'til dusk.
David Attenborough born 1926
born 1926
Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me from wishing it were.
W. H. Auden 1907 - 1973
1907 - 1973
The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.
Leonardo da Vinci 1452 - 1519
1452 - 1519
He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.
Douglas Adams 1952 - 2001
1952 - 2001
Work will make you free.
The phrase on the main entrance gateway to the Auschwitz camp
The phrase on the main entrance gateway to the Auschwitz camp
The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.
Aristotle 384 - 322 BC
384 - 322 BC
To look at life without words is not to lose the ability to form words- to think, remember, and plan. To be silent is not to lose your tongue. On the contrary, it is only through silence that one can discover something new to talk about. One who talked incessantly, without stopping to look and listen, would repeat himself ad nauseam. It is the same with thinking, which is really silent talking. It is not, by itself, open to the discovery of anything new, for its only novelties are simply arrangements of old words and ideas.
1915 - 1973
Watts, A. (1968). The Wisdom of Insecurity. Vintage.
But to us, probability is the very guide of life.
Joseph Butler 1692 - 1752
1692 - 1752
In order to uphold its own central tenet that humans are not at the centre of anything, the scientific method itself must be universal. It must have been discovered elsewhere by intelligences across the universe. Science needs aliens. The more aliens the better. That no aliens have so far stepped forward might be seen as a blow to materialism.
Christopher Potter born 1959
born 1959
The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.
14th Dalai Lama born 1935
born 1935
Politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles de Gaulle 1890 - 1970
1890 - 1970
You can't reach old age by another man's road. My habits protect my life but they would assassinate you.
Mark Twain 1835 - 1910
1835 - 1910
My technique is don’t believe anything. If you believe in something, you are automatically precluded from believing its opposite.
Terence McKenna 1946 - 2000
1946 - 2000
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. Information distilled over 4 billion years of biological evolution. Incidentally, all the organisms on the Earth are made essentially of that stuff. An eyedropper full of that liquid could be used to make a caterpillar or a petunia if only we knew how to put the components together.
1934 - 1996
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update)
Every positive value has its price in negative terms... the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.
Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973
1881 - 1973
Human beings live in their myths. They only endure their realities.
Robert Anton Wilson 1932 - 2007
1932 - 2007
Falsehood has a perennial spring.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Mary Schmich born 1953
Schmich, M. (1997). Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young. Chicago Tribune, 1st June.
born 1953
Schmich, M. (1997). Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young. Chicago Tribune, 1st June.
I do nothing, granted. But I see the hours pass - which is better than trying to fill them.
1911 - 1995
The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
Winston Smith: Does Big Brother exist? O'Brien: Of course he exists. Winston Smith: Does he exist like you or me? O'Brien: You do not exist.
1903 - 1950
Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen eighty-four. London: Secker & Warburg.
If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.
Leonardo da Vinci 1452 - 1519
1452 - 1519
The apocalypse is not something which is coming. The apocalypse has arrived in major portions of the planet and it’s only because we live within a bubble of incredible privilege and social insulation that we still have the luxury of anticipating the apocalypse.
Terence McKenna 1946 - 2000
1946 - 2000
Groups are grammatical fictions; only individuals exist, and each individual is different.
Robert Anton Wilson 1932 - 2007
1932 - 2007