Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Against classical philosophy: thinking about eternity or the immensity of the universe does not lessen my unhappiness.
Free competition exists inside shelters of law, custom, insurance, political approval, and carefully protected status.
If you do not throw in a few promises of better things to come, gloomy one, I am going to take you back to the library.
Weakness is a better teacher than strength. Weakness must learn to understand the obstacles that strength brushes aside.
Good places for aphorisms: in fortune cookies, on bumper stickers, and on banners flying over the Palace of Free Advice.
Reading about ethics is about as likely to improve one's behavior as reading about sports is to make one into an athlete.
Great men wait for the right moment to abandon caution. The rest of us abandon it when impatience becomes too much for us.
The philosophy of hedonism means little to lovers of pleasure. They have no inclination to read philosophy, or to write it.
I reject all evidence that my fabulous beloved is an ordinary person who worries, watches TV, and has bouts of indigestion.
Mars and Venus are at it again. This time, Hephaestus is standing by with a private detective, a photographer, and a lawyer.
I seldom remember my father, but I sneeze and rub my nose the way he did. I also love my son with grief and anger, as he did.
In the great cities, winter glitters with art and feasting. But poetry, the country cousin, sees only the dearth of the fields.
The young are just as opinionated as the old, but have more exciting things to do than sit around airing their opinions all day.
The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win.
Arrogance rides triumphantly through the gates, barely glancing at the old woman about to cut the rope and spring shut the trap.
The harp is an insipid instrument--no good for dancing, feasting, or marching, only for sitting primly in a parlor or on a cloud.
My father liked to moralize, and so do I. But he was in earnest, while I am embarrassed and pretend that I am merely being witty.
New York is full of abandoned churches. A Godless city, but full of superstitions on every subject--art, money, sex, food, health.
Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty-the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.
Seek and Hide: the Lover gazes at the Beloved. The Beloved looks away. The Beloved turns and looks at the Lover. The Lover runs away.
Spirituality now wanders from sex to drugs to art to revolution to violence--whatever seems to promise deliverance from the quotidian.
Travelling, I worry about luggage, prices, and strange food. At home, I am free to broaden my mind by thinking about the higher things.
Discontented women dream of being rescued by Prince Charming. Discontented men dream of finding a horny blond in the back seat ofa taxi.
Ideas about life organize perception; names of emotions organize sensations; rules of syntax organize thought. But pain comes on its own.
The Ancient Mariner seizes the guest at the wedding feast and will not let go until he has told all his story: the prototype of the bore.
In philosophy, the principles are more interesting than the examples. In literature, the examples are more interesting than the principles.
One's fetishes are fascinating, but not because of their beauty or significance. The same could be said for one's genitals, or one's children.
Realism absorbs the ideal by adding a few small imperfections. Example: it paints a few specks of mud on the white gown of the Lady in the Garden.
The interest in Wisdom is fading. Soon there will not be enough left to support the aphorism, even though it tries to amuse by half-mocking the Wisdom it propounds.
Interpreting the dance: young women in white dancing in a ring can only be virgins; old women in black dancing in a ring can only be witches; but middle-aged women in colors, square dancing...?
In the labyrinth of a difficult text, we find unmarked forks in the path, detours, blind alleys, loops that deliver us back to our point of entry, and finally the monster who whispers an unintelligible truth in our ears.
To be a social success, do not act pathetic, arrogant, or bored. Do not discuss your unhappy childhood, your visit to the dentist,the shortcomings of your cleaning woman, the state of your bowels, or your spouse's bad habits. You will be thought a paragon (or perhaps a monster) of good behavior.
Never invite to dinner: those who won't decide until the last minute; those who come more than half an hour late; those who want to bring along two or three friends; drunks; monologists; those who stay until three o'clock in the morning; those who think that conversation means having an argument; those who take a high moral tone; those who are stupid, ugly, or dull. Enforcement of these rules will enable one to eat alone every night in comfort.