The collection / 43 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

SearchTypeTopicEraCulture / collection labelCountry attributionTraditionOrder

Author

Leave empty for every voice. Browse all authors ↗

Culture labels and country attributions follow the source collections; earliest origins may be unknown.

43 results · Page 2 of 2Play this collection ▷

01c. 1907 AD

The goal of all civilization all religious thought and all that sort of thing is simply to have a good time. But man gets so solemn over the process that he forgets the end.

Don Marquis / quote

02c. 1907 AD

Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness.

Don Marquis / quote

03c. 1907 AD

Happiness comes fleetingly now and then To those who have learned to do without it And to them only.

Don Marquis / quote

04c. 1907 AD

Friends I beg you do not shirk your daily task of indolence.

Don Marquis / quote

05c. 1907 AD

An optimist is a guy that has never had much experience.

Don Marquis / quote

06c. 1907 AD

Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose-petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

Don Marquis / quote

07c. 1907 AD

The successful people are the ones who think up things for the rest of the world to keep busy at.

Don Marquis / quote

08c. 1907 AD

Fate often puts all the material for happiness and prosperity into a man's hands just to see how miserable he can make himself with them.

Don Marquis / quote

09c. 1907 AD

Punctuality is one of the cardinal business virtues: always insist on it in your subordinates.

Don Marquis / quote

10c. 1907 AD

Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle-aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles.

Don Marquis / quote

11c. 1907 AD

Middle age is the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel as good as ever.

Don Marquis / quote

12c. 1907 AD

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.

Don Marquis / quote

13c. 1907 AD

I would rather start a family than finish one.

Don Marquis / quote

14c. 1907 AD

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Don Marquis / quote

15c. 1907 AD

A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

Don Marquis / quote

16c. 1907 AD

Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.

Don Marquis / quote

17c. 1907 AD

There is nothing so habit-forming as money.

Don Marquis / quote

18c. 1907 AD

Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

Don Marquis / quote

19c. 1907 AD

Poetry is what Milton saw when he went blind.

Don Marquis / quote