Wit & Wisdom

“A jest betrays something serious.”

Sigmund Freud, quoted in Lapham’s Quarterly

“Sex is like money. Only too much is enough.”

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John Updike, quoted in The Wall Street Journal

“In science, all facts, no matter how trivial or banal, enjoy democratic equality.”

Mary McCarthy, quoted in the Associated Press

“The meaning of life is that it stops.”

Franz Kafka, quoted in the Monterey County, Calif., Herald

“Gratitude never radicalized anybody. I don’t care if they recognize the past, I just want them to get angry about the present and keep going.”

Gloria Steinem, quoted in More

“He who is only a traveler learns things at secondhand and by the halves, and is poor authority.”

Henry David Thoreau, quoted in Outside

“Nothing can take the sting off the world’s economic problems like watching millionaires present each other golden statues.”

Billy Crystal, quoted in the Montreal Gazette