Wit & Wisdom

“Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.”

Journalist Sydney J. Harris, quoted in the Charleston, W.Va., Gazette

“Nostalgia is heroin for old people.”

Subscribe to The Week

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

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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

BBC host Dara O’Briain, quoted in the Christchurch, New Zealand, Press

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth— persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”

John F. Kennedy, quoted in The Boston Globe

“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.’’

Christopher Hitchens, quoted in Scientific American

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.’’

Oscar Wilde, quoted in the London Sunday Telegraph

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity.”

Leo Tolstoy, quoted in the Associated Press

“All quotation is taken out of context.’’

British politician and writer Enoch Powell, quoted in the London Times