home                                                                                                           menu

See in what peace a Christian may die. –Addison’s last words

As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth. –Mikhail Bakunin

The passion for destruction is also a creative passion. –Mikhail Bakunin

Pray:  To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. –Ambrose Bierce

The covers of this book are too far apart. –Ambrose Bierce

After one look at this planet, any visitor from outer space would say, “I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER”. –William Burroughs

Life’s too short for chess. –Henry J. Brown

If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it. –Art Buchwald

Beauty in distress in much the most affecting beauty. –Edmund Burke

What millions died that Caesar might be great! –Thomas Campbell

“I’m very brave generally”, he went on in low voice: “only today I have a headache”. –Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

“When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less”. –Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for those we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. –Noam Chomsky

Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. –Shirley Conran

Do you see this egg?  With this egg you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world. –Denis Diderot

It is said that desire is a product of will, but the converse is in fact true:  will is a product of desire. –Denis Diderot

The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion. –Denis Diderot

The philosophers have never killed any priests, whereas the priests have killed a great many philosophers. –Denis Diderot

(Of Lillian Hellman) Much has been written about her enemies.  She picked them with care and God knows they deserved her. –Jules Feiffer

I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use. –Galilei Galileo

We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals.  We come as enemies.  As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come. –Joseph Göebbels, Nazi Minister for Enlightenment

God makes stars.  I just produce them. –Samuel Goldwyn

When the devil quotes Scripture its not really to deceive, but simply that the masses are so ignorant of theology that somebody has to teach them, the elementary texts before he can seduce them. –Paul Goodman

An armed society is a polite society. –Robert Heinlen

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it. –Alfred Hitchcock

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. –Eric Hoffer

“More” is as effective a revolutionary slogan as was ever invented by the doctrinaires of dissent.  The American, who cannot learn to want what he has, is a permanent revolutionary. –Eric Hoffer

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them first. –Eric Hoffer

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. –Eric Hoffe 

Sensuality reconciles us to the human race.  The misanthropy of old is due in large part to the fading of the magic glow of desire. –Eric Hoffer

Take away hatred from some people and you have men without faith. –Eric Hoffer

The best part of the art of living is to know how to grow old gracefully. –Eric Hoffer

There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people; we are laying for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size. –Eric Hoffer

The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of mankind as the totalitarian who wants to turn them into puppets. –Eric Hoffer

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities.  But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. –Eric Hoffer

Every institution not only carries with it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival. –William Ralph Inge

A skeptic finds Dallas absurd.  A publicist thinks the public doesn’t. –Clive James

The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people any worse than they are. –Karl Krauss

Conscience: self-esteem with a halo. –Irving Layton

Idealist-a cynic in the making. –Irving Layton

In Pierre Eliot Trudeau, Canada has at last produced a political leader worthy of assassination. –Irving Layton

My neighbor
doesn’t want to be loved
as much as
he wants to be envied. –Irving Layton

If you are a dog and your owner suggest that you wear a sweater…suggest that he wear a tail. –Fran Lebowitz

If you are of the opinion that the contemplation of suicide is sufficient evidence of your poetic nature, do not forget that actions speak louder than words. –Fran Lebowitz

The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one’s soul shine through.  If there are places on your body where this is possible, you are not attractive - you are leaking. –Fran Lebowitz

Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine.  You  need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion-picture star.  If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word “collectible” as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success. –Fran Lebowitz

You can fool all of the people all of the time if the advertising is right and the budget is bug enough. –Joseph E. Levine

Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists. –Joseph de Maistre

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. –Paradise Lost, John Milton

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience above all liberties. John Milton, Areopagitica

Take this and be henceforth among the Gods
Thyself a Goddess. –John Milton, Paradise Lost

They also serve who only stand and wait. –John Milton

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for socialism is its adherents. –George Orwell

The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom. –J. Enoch Powell

The bourgeois are other people. –Jules Renard

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said. –Jean Rostand

God owns heaven but he craves earth. -Anne Sexton

Nature abhors a hero.  For one thing he violates the law of the conservation of energy.  For another, how can it be survival of the fittest when the fittest keeps putting himself in situations where he is most likely to be creamed? –Solomon Short

The weeping of an heir is laughter in disguise. –Publius Syrus

There is no good…in living in a society where you are merely the equal of everybody else…The true pleasure of life if to live with your inferiors. –William Makepeace Thackeray

Cynicism is the humor of hatred. –Herbert Beerbohm Tree

But the peasants-how do the peasants die, Tolstoy’s last words, attributed

Clothes make the man.  Naked people have little or no influence on society. –Mark Twain

Get you facts first.  Then you can distort them as much as you please. –Mark Twain

In the first place, God made idiots.  This was for practice.  Then he made school boards. –Mark Twain

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer. –Mark Twain

Wagner’s music is better than it sounds. –Mark Twain

We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.  A person, who has for untold centuries maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order. –Mark Twain

Perhaps one day this to will be pleasant to remember. –The Aeneid, Virgil, Roman poet, 70-19 BC

The gates of Hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent and easy the way:
But, to return and view the cheerful skies;
In this, the task and mighty labor lies. –Virgil, The Aeneid

If there hadn’t been nay women, we’d still be squatting in caves eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.  And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys. –Orson Welles

Silence is never an option. –Elie Wiesel

It is no longer enough to be lusty.  One must be a sexual gourmet. –George F. Will

Making the world safe for hypocrisy. –Thomas Wolfe

They came.  They saw.  They did a little shopping. –German street graffiti in West Berlin following reunification

Never advise anyone to go to war or marry. –Spanish proverb