Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
In general satire, every man perceives A slight attack, yet neither fears nor grieves.
Who to a woman trusts his peace of mind, Trusts a frail bark, with a tempestuous wind.
Being on sea saile, being on land settle. [Being on sea, sail; being on land, settle.]
God strikes not with both hands, for to the sea he made heavens, and to rivers foords.
A man of great memory without learning hath a rock and a spindle and no staff to spin.
I was one of the first three black students to go to an all-white school in Tennessee.
Poetry is the thread that leads us out of the labyrinth of despair and into the light.
Beauty is like life itself: a dawn mist the sun burns off. It gives no peace, no rest.
To insist on purity is to baptize instinct, to humanize art, and to deify personality.
For where's the State beneath the Firmament, That doth excell the Bees for Government?
You come out of a woman and you spend the rest of your life trying to get back inside.
Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children.
The sea hath its pearls The heaven hath its stars But my heart, my heart Has its love.
The atmosphere breathes rest and comfort, and the many chambers seem full of welcomes.
The greatest grace of a gift, perhaps, is that it anticipates and admits of no return.
That seems to be the way of things. Everyone takes, everyone gives. Life is like that.
Long exercise, my friend, inures the mind; And what we once disliked we pleasing find.
The artist envies what the arties gains, The bard the rival bard's successful strains.
If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much.
When we try to avoid one fault, we are led to the opposite, unless we be very careful.
False praise can please, and calumny affright None but the vicious, and the hypocrite.
No one is born without vices, and he is the best man who is encumbered with the least.
My cares and my inquiries are for decency and truth, and in this I am wholly occupied.
Curst is the wretch enslaved to such a vice, Who ventures life and soul upon the dice.
The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.
Noble descent and worth, unless united with wealth, are esteemed no more than seaweed.
You may suppress natural propensities by force, but they will be certain to re-appear.
Whither, O god of wine, art thou hurrying me, whilst under thy all-powerful influence?
In laboring to be concise, I become obscure. [Lat., Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.]
Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; a mistress, if thou knowest not.
Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person.
[T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).
But in the secret history of anger--one man's silence / lives in the bodies of others.
All cities are geological and three steps cannot be taken without encountering ghosts.
This Humanist whom no beliefs constrained Grew so broad-minded he was scatter-brained.
The fool is looking for happiness far away. The wise man makes it grow under his feet.
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
A woman's love Is mighty, but a mother's heart is weak, And by its weakness overcomes.
My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 't is to crow: Don't never prophesy - onless ye know.
At the devil's booth are all things sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold.
We forget the origin of a parvenu if he remembers it; we remember it if he forgets it.
One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.
Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.
Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.
Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.
I found Bombay and opium, the drug and the city, the city of opium and the drug Bombay
I love stories, but writing fiction is another craft and I don't feel as if I have it.
Copiousness and simplicity, variety and unity, constitute real greatness of character.
Who cuts is easily wounded. The readier you are to offend the sooner you are offended.