Quotes for All
When the world is mad, a mathematician may find in mathematics an incomparable anodyne. For mathematics is, of all the arts and sciences, the most austere and the most remote, and a mathematician should be of all men the one who can most easily take refuge where, as Bertrand Russell says, one at least of … Read more
I dunno what my 23 infantile years in America signify. I left as soon as motion was autarchic — I mean my motion. Ezra Pound
For the weariest road that man may wend Is forth fromn the home of his father. Euripides
Exile (being where we don’t want to be with people we don’t want to be with) forces a decision: Will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself? Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find … Read more
I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? Epictetus
We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid. Epictetus
In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles. Epictetus
I must die. I must be imprisoned. I must suffer exile. But must I die groaning? Must I whine as well? Can anyone hinder me from going into exile with a smile? The master threatens to chain me: what say you? Chain me? My leg you will chain–yes, but not my will–no, not even Zeus … Read more
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles. Emma Lazarus
Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home? Emile M. Cioran