Wit & Wisdom

From Jerry Garcia, Adam Smith, H.G. Wells, Elizabeth Taylor, George Orwell, John Irving, Willa Cather

“You don’t want to be the best at what you do, you want to be the only one.”

Jerry Garcia, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“When a man realizes his littleness, his greatness can appear.”

H.G. Wells, quoted in Forbes.com

“It is very strange that the years teach us patience—that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.”

Novelist Elizabeth Taylor, quoted in The Wall Street Journal

“Every life viewed from the inside is a series of defeats.”

George Orwell, quoted in The Guardian (U.K.)

“Your memory is a monster; you forget—it doesn’t.”

John Irving, quoted in The New York Review of Books

“Happy people do a great deal for their friends.”

Willa Cather, quoted in The Boston Globe