“I played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard! It annoys me that this self-inflated mediocrity is hailed as a genius. Why, in comparison with him, Raff is a giant, not to speak of Rubinstein, who is after all a live and important human being, while Brahms is chaotic and absolutely empty dried-up stuff.” — Tchaikovsky’s diary, Oct. 9, 1886
“Honor is a luxury for aristocrats, but it is a necessity for hall porters.” — G.K. Chesterton
“That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.” — Emerson
“Moreover, the satellites of Jupiter are invisible to the naked eye, and therefore can exercise no influence over the Earth, and therefore would be useless, and therefore do not exist.” — Astronomer Francesco Sizzi, on Galileo’s claim to have seen the moons of Jupiter
“Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.” — Jean de La Fontaine
“There is only one success — to be able to spend your life in your own way.” — Christopher Morley
“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.” — Alfred North Whitehead
“A sadist is a person who is kind to a masochist.” — Arthur Koestler
“Many might go to heaven with half the labor they go to hell.” — Ben Jonson
Half of the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
— T.S. Eliot