A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.
1929 - 2018
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
Entire Collection
The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.
Oliver Goldsmith 1728 - 1774
1728 - 1774
Nagasaki has to be forever the last city in the world bombed by nuclear weapons!
1922 - 2014
Nagasaki Mayor
A person incapable of imagining another world than given to him by his senses would be subhuman, and a person who identifies his imaginary world with the world of sensory fact has become insane.
W. H. Auden 1907 - 1973
1907 - 1973
Falsehood has a perennial spring.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
Imaginary' universes are so much more beautiful than this stupidly constructed 'real' one.
G. H. Hardy 1877 - 1947
1877 - 1947
Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organisation of the entire tapestry.
Richard Feynman 1918 - 1988
1918 - 1988
The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.
Robert Benchley 1889 - 1945
1889 - 1945
All love is lost but upon God alone.
William Dunbar c. 1460 - c. 1530
'The Merle and the Nightingale', refrain Scots: All luve is lost bot upone God allone.
c. 1460 - c. 1530
'The Merle and the Nightingale', refrain
Scots: All luve is lost bot upone God allone.
The heart of man is made to reconcile the most glaring contradictions.
David Hume 1711 - 1776
1711 - 1776
A woman can become a man’s friend only in the following stages—first an acquaintance, next a mistress, and only then a friend.
Anton Chekhov 1860 - 1904
1860 - 1904
Good order is the foundation of all good things.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797
1729 - 1797
Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin.
John von Neumann 1903 - 1957
1903 - 1957
It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money.
H. L. Mencken 1880 - 1956
1880 - 1956
There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, what I would like to see is the I that knows me when I know that I know that I know.
Alan Watts 1915 - 1973
1915 - 1973
There is no terror equal that of the ignorant in a strange place.
Gore Vidal 1925 - 2012
1925 - 2012
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.
But I'll tell you what hermits realise. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
Alan Watts 1915 - 1973
1915 - 1973
Technology is not something humankind can control. It is an event that has befallen the world.
born 1948
Straw Dogs
Experience is an author's most valuable asset; experience is the thing that puts the muscle and the breath and the warm blood into the book he writes.
Mark Twain 1835 - 1910
1835 - 1910
How come there's only one Monopolies Commission?
Nigel Rees born 1944
born 1944
[Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And yet it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd.
Richard Feynman 1918 - 1988
1918 - 1988
The danger in trying to do good is that the mind comes to confuse the intent of goodness with the act of doing things well.
1929 - 2018
Tales from Earthsea (2001)
I have followed the materialist story of our origin - nay, of my origin. But I have grave misgivings. As an act of faith it requires so much.
John Eccles 1903 - 1997
1903 - 1997
Beauty is the lover’s gift.
William Congreve 1670 - 1729
1670 - 1729