{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony", "heading": "Quotes about irony", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md", "quotes_count": 201, "authors_count": 128, "parent": { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor", "heading": "Quotes about humor" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "c7ca7375-2b62-4e9e-a6cf-b5d8b6a93005", "slug": "the-commerciants-of-olkney", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fool-me-twice/the-commerciants-of-olkney", "text": "The commerciants of Olkney were renowned for their egalitarian spirit, judging rich and poor alike solely by the weight of their purses.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Fool Me Twice", "slug": "fool-me-twice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/fool-me-twice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 212, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Fool_Me_Twice_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:53" }, { "id": "27fc25d5-0f4b-4f89-a9a7-fe42afa5b0e0", "slug": "who-was-it-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/majestrum/who-was-it-who", "text": "“Who was it who said that irony is the fundamental operating principle of the universe?” “I believe,” I said, “that it was Henghis Hapthorn.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matt Hughes", "slug": "matt-hughes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes" }, "book": { "title": "Majestrum", "slug": "majestrum", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matt-hughes/majestrum" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 143, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Hughes_(writer)#Majestrum_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:53" }, { "id": "6f4a6256-003c-4730-b721-dd0df4c3a2d4", "slug": "ive-watched-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers/ive-watched-human", "text": "I’ve watched human beings fool around with love. Love of self mostly, but also love of place, work, ideas; love of friends, of male and female, parent and child. I can’t think of any human illusions more comic than those of love.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Pangborn", "slug": "edgar-pangborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn" }, "book": { "title": "A Mirror for Observers", "slug": "a-mirror-for-observers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 15, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Pangborn#A_Mirror_for_Observers_(1954)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:39" }, { "id": "32c69c8a-cfe9-4d82-995a-2ded46286903", "slug": "seven-years-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/seven-years-she", "text": "Seven years she schemed to be queen, and God protect us from answered prayers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hilary Mantel", "slug": "hilary-mantel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel" }, "book": { "title": "Wolf Hall", "slug": "wolf-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 554, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "desire", "slug": "desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel#Wolf_Hall_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:20" }, { "id": "971703c3-9b65-42a5-ac29-df0faa3ffa5d", "slug": "according-to-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/moving-pictures/according-to-the", "text": "According to the history books, the decisive battle that ended the Ankh-Morpork Civil War was fought between two handfuls of bone-weary men in a swamp early one misty morning and, although one side claimed victory, ended with a practical score of Humans 0, ravens 1,000, which is the case with most battles. (p. 216)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Moving Pictures", "slug": "moving-pictures", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/moving-pictures" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moving_Pictures_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:15" }, { "id": "6512f1cc-c0aa-4c0b-8810-6c0f3acda456", "slug": "after-all-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric/after-all-the", "text": "After all, the whole point of the wish business was to see to it that what the client got was exactly what he asked for and exactly what he didn't really want. (pp. 83-84)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Eric", "slug": "eric", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/eric" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "desire", "slug": "desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:13" }, { "id": "8a7a8163-f774-47c7-bf97-7d2b3ce820a5", "slug": "thats-the-problem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/thats-the-problem", "text": "That's the problem with people who suffer right in your face. They can't so much as scratch their noses without its being poignant.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#Four", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:11" }, { "id": "7f136f65-740f-475e-b83c-1d70ab880889", "slug": "you-never-hear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/you-never-hear", "text": "You never hear about a sportsman losing his sense of smell in a tragic accident, and for good reason; in order for the universe to teach excruciating lessons that we are unable to apply in later life, the sportsman must lose his legs, the philosopher his mind, the painter his eyes, the musician his ears, the chef his tongue.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#One", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:10" }, { "id": "56b4a9e9-397b-4041-a45f-aa7c89e7e027", "slug": "his-sister-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/virtual-light/his-sister-had", "text": "His sister had come over here in 1994, and then he'd come himself, to get away from all the trouble over there. Never regretted it. Said this was a fine country except they let in too many immigrants.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "Virtual Light", "slug": "virtual-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/virtual-light" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "emigration", "slug": "emigration", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emigration" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bridge_trilogy#Virtual_Light_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:41" }, { "id": "74659c92-869f-4ee7-a5fd-506b940c9b54", "slug": "when-the-land-hungry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dee-brown/bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee/when-the-land-hungry", "text": "When the land-hungry politicians tried to put him on the defensive, Ouray was sophisticated enough to present the Utes’ case to newspaper reporters. “The agreement an Indian makes to a United States treaty,” he said, “is like the agreement a buffalo makes with his hunters when pierced with arrows. All he can do is lie down and give in.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dee Brown", "slug": "dee-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dee-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee", "slug": "bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dee-brown/bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" }, { "name": "promises", "slug": "promises", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/promises" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bury_My_Heart_at_Wounded_Knee#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:25" }, { "id": "e6a85e40-e45c-43cf-b351-7b38d31de7ae", "slug": "weve-drawn-attention", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-rising/weve-drawn-attention", "text": "We’ve drawn attention to ourselves with our obsessive need to stay inconspicuous.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ian Tregillis", "slug": "ian-tregillis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis" }, "book": { "title": "The Rising", "slug": "the-rising", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ian-tregillis/the-rising" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ian_Tregillis#The_Rising_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:19" }, { "id": "53615bad-cf25-47a7-be80-9752edef1fe2", "slug": "anyone-who-is-willing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/b-traven/the-treasure-of-the-sierra-madre/anyone-who-is-willing", "text": "Anyone who is willing to work and is serious about it will certainly find a job. Only you must not go to the man who tells you this, for he has no job to offer and doesn't know anyone who knows of a vacancy. This is exactly the reason why he gives you such generous advice, out of brotherly love, and to demonstrate how little he knows the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "B. 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(\"Sweet Diamond Dust\")", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rosario Ferré", "slug": "rosario-ferre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rosario-ferre" }, "book": { "title": "Sweet Diamond Dust", "slug": "sweet-diamond-dust", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rosario-ferre/sweet-diamond-dust" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "heroism", "slug": "heroism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/heroism" }, { "name": "patriotism", "slug": "patriotism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patriotism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rosario_Ferr%C3%A9#Sweet_Diamond_Dust:_And_Other_Stories_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:56" }, { "id": "aba7e327-0ba7-41ed-b2fa-c139685eb15e", "slug": "captain-longfellow-who-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isabel-allende/the-house-of-the-spirits/captain-longfellow-who-like", "text": "...Captain Longfellow—who, like most Englishmen, was kinder to animals than to people... (p31)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Isabel Allende", "slug": "isabel-allende", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isabel-allende" }, "book": { "title": "The House of the Spirits", "slug": "the-house-of-the-spirits", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/isabel-allende/the-house-of-the-spirits" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "The English", "slug": "the-english", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-english" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isabel_Allende#The_House_of_the_Spirits_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:45" }, { "id": "a2a24003-34a2-4a1e-a27e-68e659160a0d", "slug": "as-to-any", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quobna-ottobah-cugoano/thoughts-and-sentiments-on-the-evil-of-slavery/as-to-any", "text": "As to any other laws that slave-holders may make among themselves, as respecting slaves, they can be of no better kind, nor give them any better character, than what is implied in the common report—that there may be some honesty among thieves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Quobna Ottobah Cugoano", "slug": "quobna-ottobah-cugoano", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quobna-ottobah-cugoano" }, "book": { "title": "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery", "slug": "thoughts-and-sentiments-on-the-evil-of-slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quobna-ottobah-cugoano/thoughts-and-sentiments-on-the-evil-of-slavery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 4, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ottobah_Cugoano#Thoughts_and_Sentiments_on_the_Evil_of_Slavery_(1787)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:36" }, { "id": "259d2f6e-8b71-4e0f-a58c-6fdfd004a1c4", "slug": "tig-trust-in-government", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/starfire/tig-trust-in-government", "text": "TIG. Trust In Government. An old political principle, to give your organization a name that’s the opposite of what you mean.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "Starfire", "slug": "starfire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/starfire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 14, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#Starfire_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:35" }, { "id": "cd9b82c8-78ae-4782-adff-cf8fbfaf15fc", "slug": "it-all-began", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/it-all-began", "text": "It all began, I suppose, with learning to build fire—to warm the cave and keep the predators out. And it ended with time-release Valium.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 176, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "drugs", "slug": "drugs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/drugs" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "6a287095-ec69-4469-9561-f957cc6ca955", "slug": "the-woman-stared", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/the-woman-stared", "text": "The woman stared at me. “You don’t know a church of the living God when you see one?” I looked around me, at the aisles covered with plastic-sealed merchandise, at the racks of colored clothing and electronic equipment and rifles and golf clubs and jackets. “But this is no church,” I said. “This is a store.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 189, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "0c93776f-9ce6-4b34-99c6-3978f6cc5154", "slug": "reading-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/reading-is-the", "text": "Reading is the subtle and thorough sharing of the ideas and feelings by underhanded means. It is a gross invasion of Privacy and a direct violation of the Constitutions of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth ages. The Teaching of Reading is equally a crime against Privacy and Personhood. One to five years on each count.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 92, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "reading", "slug": "reading", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "privacy", "slug": "privacy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/privacy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "4bb36979-2960-43ec-b1f4-422d76bc12e5", "slug": "i-watched-an-old", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase/i-watched-an-old", "text": "I watched an old American submarine movie on television. The creaking plot had the captain and first officer constantly at each other’s throat. The submarine was a fossil, and one guy had claustrophobia. But all that didn’t stop everything from working out well in the end. It was an everything-works-out-in-the-end-so-maybe-war’s-not-so-bad-after-all sort of film. One of these days they’ll be making a film where the whole human race gets wiped out in a nuclear war, but everything works out in the end.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "A Wild Sheep Chase", "slug": "a-wild-sheep-chase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "cinema", "slug": "cinema", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cinema" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Wild_Sheep_Chase#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:19" }, { "id": "4a359b4a-40e2-4814-b23d-d9dece9d2d7f", "slug": "if-the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons/the-rise-of-endymion/if-the-universe", "text": "If the universe has any soul, it is the soul of irony.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dan Simmons", "slug": "dan-simmons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons" }, "book": { "title": "The Rise of Endymion", "slug": "the-rise-of-endymion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dan-simmons/the-rise-of-endymion" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 548, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dan_Simmons#The_Rise_of_Endymion_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:53" }, { "id": "9f280ee2-2cb7-4f52-b6bb-45ef7e4c429f", "slug": "i-dont-feel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/bleak-house/i-dont-feel", "text": "“I don’t feel any vulgar gratitude to you. I almost feel as if ought to be grateful to for giving you the opportunity of enjoying the luxury of generosity. I know you like it. For anything I can tell, I may have come into the world expressly for the purpose of increasing your stock of happiness.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Bleak House", "slug": "bleak-house", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/bleak-house" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "generosity", "slug": "generosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/generosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bleak_House#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:27" }, { "id": "8717605d-8092-4d22-a84b-9fa59dff5335", "slug": "you-have-to-let", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andre-gide/the-immoralist/you-have-to-let", "text": "You have to let other people be right. It consoles them for not being anything else.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "André Gide", "slug": "andre-gide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andre-gide" }, "book": { "title": "The Immoralist", "slug": "the-immoralist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/andre-gide/the-immoralist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 94, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Immoralist#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:58" }, { "id": "d8609765-10e4-4291-9b34-b3a7eead98bc", "slug": "thank-goodness-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-st-aubyn/at-last/thank-goodness-there", "text": "Thank goodness there were people who were happy with nothing, thought Julia, so that people like her (and everyone else she had ever met), could have more.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward St Aubyn", "slug": "edward-st-aubyn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-st-aubyn" }, "book": { "title": "At Last", "slug": "at-last", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-st-aubyn/at-last" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_St._Aubyn#Chapter_7", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:36" }, { "id": "c879bbf9-f0b3-4555-996f-34ab602d9c87", "slug": "were-the-ironies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-st-aubyn/at-last/were-the-ironies", "text": "Were the ironies of taxation any better: raising money for schools and hospitals and roads and bridges, and spending it on blowing up schools and hospitals and roads and bridges in self-defeating wars?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward St Aubyn", "slug": "edward-st-aubyn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-st-aubyn" }, "book": { "title": "At Last", "slug": "at-last", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-st-aubyn/at-last" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "taxes", "slug": "taxes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taxes" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_St._Aubyn#Chapter_6", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:36" }, { "id": "8aed4f7c-8865-4c95-8df4-6eab8d1fb989", "slug": "he-drew-himself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl/the-space-merchants/he-drew-himself", "text": "He drew himself up and said with dignity: “We administer justice, Mr. Courtenay. And an ancient, basic tenet of justice is: ‘Better that one thousand innocents suffer unjustly than one guilty person be permitted to escape.’”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frederik Pohl", "slug": "frederik-pohl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl" }, "book": { "title": "The Space Merchants", "slug": "the-space-merchants", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl/the-space-merchants" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 186, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl#The_Space_Merchants_(1953)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:30" }, { "id": "7701d25c-8b77-4275-af0c-560a85689197", "slug": "thats-power-mitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl/the-space-merchants/thats-power-mitch", "text": "That’s power, Mitch, absolute power. And you know the old saying. Power ennobles. Absolute power ennobles absolutely.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frederik Pohl", "slug": "frederik-pohl", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl" }, "book": { "title": "The Space Merchants", "slug": "the-space-merchants", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frederik-pohl/the-space-merchants" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 44, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl#The_Space_Merchants_(1953)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:30" }, { "id": "d1e5a7e6-a690-4cff-9901-44bec1779652", "slug": "it-is-indeed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/empire/it-is-indeed", "text": "It is indeed one of the richer ironies of the Victorian value-system that the same navy that was deployed to abolish the slave trade was also active in expanding the narcotics trade.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Niall Ferguson", "slug": "niall-ferguson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson" }, "book": { "title": "Empire", "slug": "empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/niall-ferguson/empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 167, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "colonialism", "slug": "colonialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/colonialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson#Empire:_How_Britain_Made_the_Modern_World_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:02" }, { "id": "abc74d52-ed48-4192-889f-ccfd001c2ab7", "slug": "i-will-say", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/i-will-say", "text": "I will say, I think it passing odd that I am loved by one for a kindness I never did, and reviled by so many for my finest act.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Clash of Kings", "slug": "a-clash-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Clash_of_Kings_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:48" }, { "id": "50578c5e-7c0d-4ea2-a3ec-910de58d2f29", "slug": "this-world-is-twisted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/this-world-is-twisted", "text": "This world is twisted beyond hope, when lowborn smugglers must vouch for the honor of kings", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Clash of Kings", "slug": "a-clash-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "honour", "slug": "honour", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Clash_of_Kings_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:47" }, { "id": "f5ef963f-0ba6-466a-b63a-67027fe41703", "slug": "there-is-a-real", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/tricks-of-the-mind/there-is-a-real", "text": "There is a real irony to the NLPers I knew who prided themselves on their communication skills yet because of their need to let everyone know how engaging they were, they were among the least engaging", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Derren Brown", "slug": "derren-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Tricks Of The Mind", "slug": "tricks-of-the-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/tricks-of-the-mind" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "vanity", "slug": "vanity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/vanity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derren_Brown#Tricks_of_the_Mind_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:47" }, { "id": "e78b650f-6694-49eb-b27c-47f189520a27", "slug": "thus-the-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys/thus-the-only", "text": "Thus the only Goldman Sachs employee arrested by the FBI in the aftermath of a financial crisis Goldman had done so much to fuel was the employee Goldman asked the FBI to arrest.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Lewis", "slug": "michael-lewis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis" }, "book": { "title": "Flash Boys", "slug": "flash-boys", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-lewis/flash-boys" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Lewis_(author)#Flash_Boys_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:42" }, { "id": "cbadc225-6cb2-470a-862c-55bb800efc3d", "slug": "the-great-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/the-great-thing", "text": "The great thing about being the only species that makes a distinction between right and wrong is that we can make up the rules for ourselves as we go along.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "Last Chance to See", "slug": "last-chance-to-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 49, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See#Chapter_2:_Here_Be_Chickens", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:30" }, { "id": "016d1dae-e2aa-4358-9a83-5bed9445150f", "slug": "people-always-like", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/donald-barthelme/forty-stories/people-always-like", "text": "People always like to hear that they’re under stress, makes them feel better. You can imagine what they’d feel if they were told they weren’t under stress.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Donald Barthelme", "slug": "donald-barthelme", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/donald-barthelme" }, "book": { "title": "Forty Stories", "slug": "forty-stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/donald-barthelme/forty-stories" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "stress", "slug": "stress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stress" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Barthelme#Forty_Stories_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:07" }, { "id": "836f2962-d27a-44c5-ae5d-25c74ac07ceb", "slug": "i-cant-imagine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/the-hercules-text/i-cant-imagine", "text": "“I can’t imagine,” said Dupre, “a better way to unnerve people than to tell them there’s no cause for alarm.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Mcdevitt", "slug": "jack-mcdevitt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt" }, "book": { "title": "The Hercules Text", "slug": "the-hercules-text", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/the-hercules-text" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 132, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_McDevitt#The_Hercules_Text_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:57" }, { "id": "809f8930-a8d9-40c1-a1c4-415924a12417", "slug": "and-there-arent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/embassytown/and-there-arent", "text": "“And there aren’t any.” “Mmm,” I said. “Awkward.” “That’s defeatist talk. I’ll cobble something together. A scholar can never let mere wrongness get in the way of the theory.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "China Miéville", "slug": "china-mieville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville" }, "book": { "title": "Embassytown", "slug": "embassytown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/embassytown" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 37, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/China_Mi%C3%A9ville#Embassytown_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:52" }, { "id": "55ce4abd-07a4-41c4-8528-caacbfcaf12d", "slug": "government-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/government-of-the", "text": "“‘Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ Yeah, trouble is, the three classes of people aren’t the same.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Boat of a Million Years", "slug": "the-boat-of-a-million-years", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 336, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_Boat_of_a_Million_Years_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:48" }, { "id": "b455f0a7-a144-4bc1-a37f-25ed2e1bb49a", "slug": "where-is-he-doing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/words-of-radiance/where-is-he-doing", "text": "“Where is he?” “Doing things he finds very important. I would fault him for it, as I find nothing more frightening than a man trying to do what he has decided is important. Very little in the world has ever gone astray—at least on a grand scale—because a person decided to be frivolous.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Words of Radiance", "slug": "words-of-radiance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/words-of-radiance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 526, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Words_of_Radiance_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:36" }, { "id": "86d2ab6c-68f1-4e58-93c3-e2710776a324", "slug": "mr-dangerfield-why", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-p-donleavy/ginger-man/mr-dangerfield-why", "text": "\"Mr Dangerfield, why don't you believe in hell and things like that?\" \"Hell is for poor people.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. P. Donleavy", "slug": "j-p-donleavy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-p-donleavy" }, "book": { "title": "Ginger Man", "slug": "ginger-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-p-donleavy/ginger-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 228, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._P._Donleavy#The_Ginger_Man_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:32" }, { "id": "8b971a69-685f-4a45-a0c2-749711cf2187", "slug": "buddhists-and-christians", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/buddhists-and-christians", "text": "Buddhists and Christians contrive to agree about death Making death their ideal basis for different ideals. The Communists however disapprove of death Except when practical.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Empson", "slug": "william-empson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson" }, "book": { "title": "The Complete Poems", "slug": "the-complete-poems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 78, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Empson#The_Complete_Poems", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:25" }, { "id": "422e6eb3-b775-4d59-b0bf-7f535153544e", "slug": "incompetence-is-rewarded", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-lindsay/darkly-dreaming-dexter/incompetence-is-rewarded", "text": "Incompetence is rewarded more often than not.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jeff Lindsay", "slug": "jeff-lindsay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-lindsay" }, "book": { "title": "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", "slug": "darkly-dreaming-dexter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-lindsay/darkly-dreaming-dexter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeff_Lindsay_(writer)#Darkly_Dreaming_Dexter_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:25" }, { "id": "90ae1abf-19bf-4e89-8291-8175842dfb1a", "slug": "i-see-what", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-tides-of-time/i-see-what", "text": "“I see what Gene is driving at. To dream of changing the whole universe in accordance with a set of local preconceptions!...Oh, it’s ridiculous!” “A missionary,” Gene repeated with a solemn nod. “By definition: a person who does without intending it more harm than good.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "The Tides of Time", "slug": "the-tides-of-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-tides-of-time" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 220, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#The_Tides_of_Time_(1984)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:12" }, { "id": "a9e9e33b-bd44-4f51-a21c-1492ccb0c281", "slug": "she-was-on-a-pediflow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-jagged-orbit/she-was-on-a-pediflow", "text": "She was on a pediflow, and—like so many of the devices which twenty-first century ingenuity had made available to mankind—that was something which seemed to have been destined for an altogether more rational species than the one she belonged to.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "The Jagged Orbit", "slug": "the-jagged-orbit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-jagged-orbit" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 59, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "technology", "slug": "technology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#The_Jagged_Orbit_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:10" }, { "id": "cdeebf3a-5ec1-47dd-a210-7d0ca5d42a6c", "slug": "unfair-term-applied", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/unfair-term-applied", "text": "UNFAIR Term applied to advantages enjoyed by other people which we tried to cheat them out of and didn’t manage.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Stand On Zanzibar", "slug": "stand-on-zanzibar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "jealousy", "slug": "jealousy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/jealousy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Stand_on_Zanzibar_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:09" }, { "id": "66dac80c-0787-436f-8875-8f7329260cf6", "slug": "leadership-a-form", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/leadership-a-form", "text": "LEADERSHIP A form of self-preservation exhibited by people with autodestructive imaginations in order to ensure that when it comes to the crunch it’ll be someone else’s bones which go crack and not their own.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Stand On Zanzibar", "slug": "stand-on-zanzibar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "leadership", "slug": "leadership", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/leadership" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Stand_on_Zanzibar_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:09" }, { "id": "2e42267e-4d71-425a-8cc9-867fc25b9778", "slug": "apparently-sir-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aravind-adiga/the-white-tiger/apparently-sir-you", "text": "Apparently, sir you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you don’t have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, ‘’does’’ have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneurs—’’we’’ entrepreneurs—have set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aravind Adiga", "slug": "aravind-adiga", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aravind-adiga" }, "book": { "title": "The White Tiger", "slug": "the-white-tiger", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aravind-adiga/the-white-tiger" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "business", "slug": "business", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/business" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aravind_Adiga#The_White_Tiger_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:06" }, { "id": "5bb3e6aa-3677-49da-993c-835c8654ca75", "slug": "if-you-were", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cassandra-clare/city-of-bones/if-you-were", "text": "\"If you were half as funny as you thought you were, my boy, you'd be twice as funny as you are.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cassandra Clare", "slug": "cassandra-clare", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cassandra-clare" }, "book": { "title": "City of Bones", "slug": "city-of-bones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cassandra-clare/city-of-bones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cassandra_Clare#City_of_Bones_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:59" }, { "id": "f6a60fab-53df-4222-8747-c304521a1c79", "slug": "there-is-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jo-walton/farthing/there-is-one", "text": "There is one law for rich and poor alike, which prevents them equally from stealing bread and sleeping under bridges.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jo Walton", "slug": "jo-walton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jo-walton" }, "book": { "title": "Farthing", "slug": "farthing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jo-walton/farthing" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jo_Walton#Farthing_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:15" }, { "id": "1749ea00-9a84-4fae-8d82-ab78df010096", "slug": "avan-was-as-religious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jo-walton/tooth-and-claw/avan-was-as-religious", "text": "Avan was as religious as the next young dragon with his way to make in the world—which is to say that he held many traditional beliefs which he had never paused to examine, attended church because it would have seemed strange not to, rarely paid much attention when he was there, and found piety out of the pulpit thoroughly misplaced.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jo Walton", "slug": "jo-walton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jo-walton" }, "book": { "title": "Tooth and Claw", "slug": "tooth-and-claw", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jo-walton/tooth-and-claw" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 28, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jo_Walton#Tooth_and_Claw_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:15" }, { "id": "4457d63e-45bb-460b-aedc-899f8305ea48", "slug": "women-have-come", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anita-brookner/a-friend-from-england/women-have-come", "text": "\"Women have come a long way, of course: we can all be left alone at night now. But sometimes it seems a high price to pay. We can also open the door cheerfully to strangers at any hour, deal with obscene telephone calls and mend fuses.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anita Brookner", "slug": "anita-brookner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anita-brookner" }, "book": { "title": "A Friend from England", "slug": "a-friend-from-england", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anita-brookner/a-friend-from-england" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "independence", "slug": "independence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/independence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anita_Brookner#A_Friend_From_England_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:59" }, { "id": "e90c270c-7482-49d7-b70a-4d10cc53c1c6", "slug": "this-book-is-cheerfully", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-jones/the-thin-red-line/this-book-is-cheerfully", "text": "This book is cheerfully dedicated to those greatest and most heroic of all human endeavors, WAR and WARFARE; may they never cease to give us the pleasure, excitement and adrenal stimulation that we need, or provide us with the heroes, the presidents and the leaders, the monuments and museums which we erect to them in the name of PEACE.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Jones", "slug": "james-jones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-jones" }, "book": { "title": "The Thin Red Line", "slug": "the-thin-red-line", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-jones/the-thin-red-line" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Jones#The_Thin_Red_Line_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:50" }, { "id": "700ee480-7621-4eb2-a138-a06c1130e0ea", "slug": "whoever-dies-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/number9dream/whoever-dies-with", "text": "Whoever dies with the most stuff wins.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mitchell", "slug": "david-mitchell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell" }, "book": { "title": "Number9Dream", "slug": "number9dream", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/number9dream" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Mitchell_(author)#number9dream_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:48" }, { "id": "83b742b8-2de5-43d8-a7d2-a68faa42b51a", "slug": "miss-la-rue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/the-land-that-time-forgot/miss-la-rue", "text": "Miss La Rue was very quiet, though she replied graciously enough to whatever I had to say that required reply. I asked her if she did not feel well. “Yes,” she said, “but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all. I feel of so little consequence—so small and helpless in the face of all these myriad manifestations of life stripped to the bone of its savagery and brutality. I realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life. Life seems a joke, a cruel, grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of life which crosses your path; but as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble—we take ourselves too seriously; but Caprona should be a sure cure for that.” She paused and laughed. “You have evolved a beautiful philosophy,” I said. “It fills such a longing in the human breast. It is full, it is satisfying, it is ennobling. What wondrous strides toward perfection the human race might have made if the first man had evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity.” “I don’t like irony,” she said; “it indicates a small soul.” “What other sort of soul, then, would you expect from ‘a comic little figure hopping from the cradle to the grave’?” I inquired. “And what difference does it make, anyway, what you like and what you don’t like? You are here for but an instant, and you mustn’t take yourself too seriously.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Rice Burroughs", "slug": "edgar-rice-burroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs" }, "book": { "title": "The Land That Time Forgot", "slug": "the-land-that-time-forgot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/the-land-that-time-forgot" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs#The_Land_That_Time_Forgot_(1918)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:42" }, { "id": "22a5da26-d2bc-4449-8d80-40e5a0f9437b", "slug": "there-is-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/there-is-always", "text": "There is always a 'but' in this imperfect world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Brontë", "slug": "anne-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", "slug": "the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Bront%C3%AB#The_Tenant_of_Wildfell_Hall_(1848)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:28" }, { "id": "d2059ae2-1ef7-4691-9bd1-ab3fb9e8b681", "slug": "economy-was-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-gaskell/cranford/economy-was-always", "text": "Economy was always \"elegant\", and money-spending always \"vulgar and ostentatious\"; a sort of sour-grapeism, which made us very peaceful and satisfied.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Elizabeth Gaskell", "slug": "elizabeth-gaskell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-gaskell" }, "book": { "title": "Cranford", "slug": "cranford", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-gaskell/cranford" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gaskell#Cranford_(1851%E2%80%933)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:23" }, { "id": "58eb1e93-9fb0-4b58-9178-3839b39e7dec", "slug": "lifes-greatest-comfort", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/rant/lifes-greatest-comfort", "text": "\"Life's greatest comfort is being able to look over your shoulder and see people worse off, waiting in line behind you.\" pg 13", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chuck Palahniuk", "slug": "chuck-palahniuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk" }, "book": { "title": "Rant", "slug": "rant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/rant" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rant_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:19" }, { "id": "edae6210-23df-4aea-8058-9b0cad4e6bd8", "slug": "i-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison/invisible-man/i-do-not", "text": "I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ralph Ellison", "slug": "ralph-ellison", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison" }, "book": { "title": "Invisible Man", "slug": "invisible-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ralph-ellison/invisible-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "police", "slug": "police", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/police" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Ellison#Invisible_Man_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:15" }, { "id": "f3111055-8728-4861-9476-94f0c2f05e96", "slug": "man-is-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/man-is-only", "text": "Man is only lovable in the multitude, and at a good distance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Banville", "slug": "john-banville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville" }, "book": { "title": "The Untouchable", "slug": "the-untouchable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Banville#The_Untouchable_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:11" }, { "id": "bfc668a8-cfac-423b-8b49-4168911ce6bd", "slug": "how-strange-continued", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-count-of-monte-cristo/how-strange-continued", "text": "\"How strange,\" continued the king, with some asperity; \"the police think that they have disposed of the whole matter when they say, 'A murder has been committed,' and especially so when they can add, 'And we are on the track of the guilty persons.'\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexandre Dumas", "slug": "alexandre-dumas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas" }, "book": { "title": "The Count of Monte Cristo", "slug": "the-count-of-monte-cristo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-count-of-monte-cristo" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "police", "slug": "police", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/police" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:03" }, { "id": "089496a8-fb23-41be-a73d-13db244f2938", "slug": "you-have-then", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-count-of-monte-cristo/you-have-then", "text": "You have, then, not forgotten that I saved your life; that is strange, for it is a week ago.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexandre Dumas", "slug": "alexandre-dumas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas" }, "book": { "title": "The Count of Monte Cristo", "slug": "the-count-of-monte-cristo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexandre-dumas/the-count-of-monte-cristo" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "gratitude", "slug": "gratitude", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gratitude" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:03" }, { "id": "59b99dd7-9028-4f2f-93c7-58546316b1cd", "slug": "the-industrial-age", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair/the-industrial-age", "text": "The industrial age had only just begun; the planet had reached its Best Before date.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "The Eyre Affair", "slug": "the-eyre-affair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 318, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#The_Eyre_Affair_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:59" }, { "id": "8db2b83c-6ad0-44ee-8692-515d1d03b141", "slug": "if-its-individual", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit/if-its-individual", "text": "If its individual citizens, to a man, are to be believed, it always is depressed, and always is stagnated, and always is at an alarming crisis, and never was otherwise; though as a body, they are ready to make oath upon the Evangelists, at any hour of the day or night, that it is the most thriving and prosperous of all countries on the habitable globe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Martin Chuzzlewit", "slug": "martin-chuzzlewit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/martin-chuzzlewit" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Chuzzlewit#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:43" }, { "id": "37562e49-b02a-47c4-b709-cc87e68864e0", "slug": "there-are-many", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby/there-are-many", "text": "There are many pleasant fictions of the law in constant operation, but there is not one so pleasant or practically humorous as that which supposes every man to be of equal value in its impartial eye, and the benefits of all laws to be equally attainable by all men, without the smallest reference to the furniture of their pockets.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Nicholas Nickleby", "slug": "nicholas-nickleby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Nickleby#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:43" }, { "id": "fd80c4ad-4f2c-429c-a134-c57791d6197d", "slug": "wotever-is-is-right", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/the-pickwick-papers/wotever-is-is-right", "text": "Wotever is, is right, as the young nobleman sveetly remarked wen they put him down in the pension list 'cos his mother's uncle's vife's grandfather vunce lit the king's pipe vith a portable tinder-box.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "The Pickwick Papers", "slug": "the-pickwick-papers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/the-pickwick-papers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Pickwick_Papers#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:42" }, { "id": "d8c3aacf-2760-4b1a-867b-c2f56632eb11", "slug": "may-not-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby/may-not-the", "text": "May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Nicholas Nickleby", "slug": "nicholas-nickleby", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/nicholas-nickleby" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Nickleby#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:42" }, { "id": "2c559581-43bc-47ce-94d1-870809372119", "slug": "oh-my-young", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/the-pickwick-papers/oh-my-young", "text": "Oh, my young friend, who else could have resisted the pleading of sixteen of our fairest sisters, and withstood their exhortations to subscribe to our noble society for providing the infant negroes in the West Indies with flannel waistcoats and moral pocket-handkerchiefs?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "The Pickwick Papers", "slug": "the-pickwick-papers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/the-pickwick-papers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Pickwick_Papers#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:41" }, { "id": "657323f2-cbd4-44f6-a1b4-3bd956aaabbd", "slug": "naturally-also-both", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/surface-detail/naturally-also-both", "text": "Naturally, also, both sides were convinced they had right on their side, not that either was remotely naive enough to think that that had any possible bearing on the outcome whatsoever.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Surface Detail", "slug": "surface-detail", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/surface-detail" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 134, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Surface_Detail_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:19" }, { "id": "c6a107e7-e642-4c09-bf9d-d8d6b57a12ea", "slug": "i-had-formed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/inversions/i-had-formed", "text": "“I had formed the impression the Protector valued your counsel.” “It is most valued when it most closely accords with his own view.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Inversions", "slug": "inversions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/inversions" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 140, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Inversions_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:18" }, { "id": "15d85d01-b74b-47bf-ad98-7dd37a081e79", "slug": "pity-they-didnt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/consider-phlebas/pity-they-didnt", "text": "Pity they didn’t devote a little more ingenuity to staying alive rather than conducting mass slaughter as efficiently as possible.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Consider Phlebas", "slug": "consider-phlebas", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/consider-phlebas" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 96, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Consider_Phlebas_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:15" }, { "id": "fc44b649-42a2-4670-8ec5-ed14a08ace44", "slug": "rosanna-spearman-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-moonstone/rosanna-spearman-had", "text": "Rosanna Spearman had been a thief, and not being of the sort that get up Companies in the City, and rob from thousands, instead of only robbing from one, the law laid hold of her, and the prison and the reformatory followed the lead of the law.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wilkie Collins", "slug": "wilkie-collins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins" }, "book": { "title": "The Moonstone", "slug": "the-moonstone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-moonstone" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 54, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "theft", "slug": "theft", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theft" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilkie_Collins#The_Moonstone_(1868)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:57" }, { "id": "a6869e1e-21df-474b-8638-e934f358195a", "slug": "every-human-institution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-moonstone/every-human-institution", "text": "Every human institution (Justice included) will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wilkie Collins", "slug": "wilkie-collins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins" }, "book": { "title": "The Moonstone", "slug": "the-moonstone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wilkie-collins/the-moonstone" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 50, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilkie_Collins#The_Moonstone_(1868)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:57" }, { "id": "1e7f421d-512f-4164-b415-38c4ab0fb493", "slug": "like-most-chairmen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase/like-most-chairmen", "text": "Like most chairmen, he teaches only one class of Seniors; the most experienced teachers are frequently promoted right out of the classroom!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bel Kaufman", "slug": "bel-kaufman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman" }, "book": { "title": "Up the Down Staircase", "slug": "up-the-down-staircase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bel-kaufman/up-the-down-staircase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "teachers", "slug": "teachers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/teachers" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bel_Kaufman#Up_the_Down_Staircase_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:57" }, { "id": "8a0dad4c-9d88-4a47-8c5b-6c0003e9b47e", "slug": "nothing-wrong-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald/the-moving-target/nothing-wrong-with", "text": "Nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean wouldn't cure.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ross Macdonald", "slug": "ross-macdonald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald" }, "book": { "title": "The Moving Target", "slug": "the-moving-target", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald/the-moving-target" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ross_Macdonald#The_Moving_Target_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:52" }, { "id": "a938b29c-a8f6-440c-bab9-846eab3dc118", "slug": "on-the-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling/on-the-one", "text": "On the one side, the Mexican side, Mexican peasants are tantalized by the American possibility of change. On the other side, the American side, the tyranny of American optimism has driven Americans to neurosis and depression, when the dream is elusive or less meaningful than the myth promised. This constitutes the great irony of the Mexican-American border: American sadness has transformed the drug lords of Mexico into billionaires, even as the peasants of Mexico scramble through the darkness to find the American dream.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Darling", "slug": "darling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/darling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" }, { "name": "America", "slug": "america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Darling:_A_Spiritual_Autobiography_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:48" }, { "id": "cd7983fc-bd8b-41bd-8b5c-459f841fa61d", "slug": "it-interests-americans", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/it-interests-americans", "text": "It interests Americans that Canada is clean and empty and unimplicating; the largest country in the world that doesn’t exist. Without distinct music or food or capacity for rudeness— less rich, less angry, less complicated, less neurotic, less dark, less brilliant.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Brown", "slug": "brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Brown_:_The_Last_Discovery_of_America_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:47" }, { "id": "647cbee5-d608-4f2d-89c4-8a528d4985dc", "slug": "the-sole-religious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown/the-sole-religious", "text": "The sole religious orthodoxy permitted in our public schools is the separation of paper from plastic. Not so many miles from this beach, great-grandchildren of westering pioneers chain themselves to redwoods, martyrs of the new animism.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard Rodriguez", "slug": "richard-rodriguez", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez" }, "book": { "title": "Brown", "slug": "brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/brown" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Brown_:_The_Last_Discovery_of_America_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:47" }, { "id": "ea7def9e-c1ba-4207-abc9-b91a82fdfa4c", "slug": "when-the-gods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/blade-of-tyshalle/when-the-gods", "text": "When the gods would punish us, they answer our prayers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matthew Stover", "slug": "matthew-stover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover" }, "book": { "title": "Blade of Tyshalle", "slug": "blade-of-tyshalle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/blade-of-tyshalle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 92, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "prayer", "slug": "prayer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prayer" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Stover#Blade_of_Tyshalle_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:44" }, { "id": "cfa8099c-3c26-4080-a063-cd2eeea0d0cc", "slug": "if-you-want", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece/if-you-want", "text": "\"If you want someone to be ignored, then build a life-size bronze statue of them and stick it in the middle of town...\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Banksy", "slug": "banksy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy" }, "book": { "title": "Wall and Piece", "slug": "wall-and-piece", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "fame", "slug": "fame", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Banksy#Wall_and_Piece_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:11" }, { "id": "9f6f62a9-f69e-429a-8af1-62c83f445d5e", "slug": "sometimes-i-feel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece/sometimes-i-feel", "text": "\"Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Banksy", "slug": "banksy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy" }, "book": { "title": "Wall and Piece", "slug": "wall-and-piece", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/banksy/wall-and-piece" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Banksy#Wall_and_Piece_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:11" }, { "id": "3d03a202-375d-41ee-a6b0-b5172fdf47a8", "slug": "you-know-where", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-illearth-war/you-know-where", "text": "You know, where I come from, the people who did this to a forest would be called pioneers—a very special breed of heroes, since instead of killing other human beings they concentrate on slaughtering nature itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Donaldson", "slug": "stephen-donaldson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson" }, "book": { "title": "The Illearth War", "slug": "the-illearth-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-donaldson/the-illearth-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 460, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson#The_Illearth_War_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:04" }, { "id": "68289e6c-2008-4e70-9730-80e1415c8086", "slug": "as-happened-too", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-the-victorious-opposition/as-happened-too", "text": "As happened too often in politics, never turned out not to be so very long after all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: The Victorious Opposition", "slug": "american-empire-the-victorious-opposition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-the-victorious-opposition" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 469, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_The_Victorious_Opposition_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:52" }, { "id": "f91eb94e-56d3-4336-9fe3-6ce3b7f23a43", "slug": "of-all-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/of-all-the", "text": "Of all the sins in this world, which is more unforgivable than the sin of not having enough money? None I can think of.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: Blood and Iron", "slug": "american-empire-blood-and-iron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 322, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_The_Center_Cannot_Hold_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:51" }, { "id": "e017b06a-18f0-4dee-a4ab-8987625799cf", "slug": "something-wrong-sir", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/something-wrong-sir", "text": "“Something wrong, sir?” Lieutenant Jenkins asked. “No good deed goes unpunished,” Morrell answered.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: Blood and Iron", "slug": "american-empire-blood-and-iron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 460, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_Blood_and_Iron_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:50" }, { "id": "e3536f46-e43e-46e8-b67a-959634c1391f", "slug": "the-war-department", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs/the-war-department", "text": "The War Department had never forgiven Jake for being right.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "The Great War: Breakthroughs", "slug": "the-great-war-breakthroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 43, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#The_Great_War:_Breakthroughs_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:49" }, { "id": "b6ecfca0-7085-42ba-a0b1-8c2b025ce382", "slug": "apart-from-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/how-few-remain/apart-from-the", "text": "Apart from the Volunteer companies, a lot of men in San Francisco carried guns for self-protection—not least, for protection from other men carrying guns.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "How Few Remain", "slug": "how-few-remain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/how-few-remain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 395, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "safety", "slug": "safety", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/safety" }, { "name": "weapons", "slug": "weapons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/weapons" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#How_Few_Remain_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:47" }, { "id": "14f755a6-691b-47a1-b3f1-4904cffb2abc", "slug": "whats-the-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/how-few-remain/whats-the-war", "text": "“What’s the war news?” “They’re killing people,” Sam said, and let it go at that.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "How Few Remain", "slug": "how-few-remain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/how-few-remain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 343, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#How_Few_Remain_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:47" }, { "id": "3e96e775-4619-4ddc-93d4-59ed9f25844b", "slug": "money-and-goods", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/our-mutual-friend/money-and-goods", "text": "Money and goods are certainly the best of references.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Our Mutual Friend", "slug": "our-mutual-friend", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/our-mutual-friend" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens#Our_Mutual_Friend_(1864-1865)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:43" }, { "id": "bc02d27c-49f0-4829-8fbe-ebb7733ba40d", "slug": "if-providence-were", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe/if-providence-were", "text": "If Providence were to watch over all of us,” said Cruso, “who would be left to pick the cotton and cut the sugar cane? For the business of the world to prosper, Providence must sometimes wake and sometimes sleep, as lower creatures do.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. M. Coetzee", "slug": "j-m-coetzee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee" }, "book": { "title": "Foe", "slug": "foe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/foe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Foe_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:30" }, { "id": "6b86b63f-f375-44b9-b5da-053099cc6143", "slug": "the-vehicles-of-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel/the-vehicles-of-human", "text": "The vehicles of human politics seem to run off course, but the site of the accident turns out to have been the intended destination.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shashi Tharoor", "slug": "shashi-tharoor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor" }, "book": { "title": "The Great Indian Novel", "slug": "the-great-indian-novel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shashi-tharoor/the-great-indian-novel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor#The_Great_Indian_Novel_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:28" }, { "id": "395df3b3-8294-4356-a07d-0885d1575cc2", "slug": "valvert-your-your", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmond-rostand/cyrano-de-bergerac/valvert-your-your", "text": "Valvert: Your … your nose is … errr … Your nose … is very large! Cyrano: [gravely] Very. Valvert: [laughs] Ha! Cyrano: [imperturbable] Is that all? Valvert: But … Cyrano: Ah, no, young man, that is not enough! You might have said, dear me, there are a thousand things … varying the tone … For instance … Here you are: — Aggressive: \"I, monsieur, if I had such a nose, nothing would serve but I must cut it off!\" Amicable: \"It must be in your way while drinking; you ought to have a special beaker made!\" Descriptive: \"It is a crag! … a peak! … a promontory! … A promontory, did I say? … It is a peninsula!\" Inquisitive: \"What may the office be of that oblong receptacle? Is it an inkhorn or a scissor-case?\" Mincing: \"Do you so dote on birds, you have, fond as a father, been at pains to fit the little darlings with a roost?\" Blunt: \"Tell me, monsieur, you, when you smoke, is it possible you blow the vapor through your nose without a neighbor crying \"The chimney is afire!\"?\" Anxious: \"Go with caution, I beseech, lest your head, dragged over by that weight, should drag you over!\" Tender: \"Have a little sun-shade made for it! It might get freckled!\" Learned: \"None but the beast, monsieur, mentioned by Aristophanes, the hippocampelephantocamelos, can have borne beneath his forehead so much cartilage and bone!\" Off-Hand: \"What, comrade, is that sort of peg in style? Capital to hang one's hat upon!\" Emphatic: No wind can hope, O lordly nose, to give the whole of you a cold, but the Nor-Wester!\" Dramatic: \"It is the Red Sea when it bleeds!\" Admiring: \"What a sign for a perfumer's shop!\" Lyric: \"Art thou a Triton, and is that thy conch?\" Simple: \"A monument! When is admission free?\" Deferent: \"Suffer, monsieur, that I should pay you my respects: That is what I call possessing a house of your own!\" Rustic: \"Hi, boys! Call that a nose? You don't gull me! It's either a prize parrot or a stunted gourd!\" Military: \"Level against the cavalry!\" Practical: \"Will you put up for raffle? Indubitably, sir, it will be the feature of the game!\" And finally in parody of weeping Pyramus: \"Behold, behold the nose that traitorously destroyed the beauty of its master! and is blushing for the same!\" — That, my dear sir, or something not unlike, is what you could have said to me, had you the smallest leaven of letters or wit; but of wit, O most pitiable of objects made by God, you never had a rudiment, and of letters, you have just those that are needed to spell \"fool!\" — But, had it been otherwise, and had you been possessed of the fertile fancy requisite to shower upon me, here, in this noble company, that volley of sprightly pleasentries, still should you not have delivered yourself of so much as a quarter of the tenth part of the beginning of the first … For I let off these good things at myself, and with sufficient zest, but do not suffer another to let them off at me!\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmond Rostand", "slug": "edmond-rostand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmond-rostand" }, "book": { "title": "Cyrano de Bergerac", "slug": "cyrano-de-bergerac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmond-rostand/cyrano-de-bergerac" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "appearance", "slug": "appearance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmond_Rostand#Cyrano_de_Bergerac_(1897)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:12" }, { "id": "1079a43c-7b89-4261-98bb-f5802cfdf6be", "slug": "the-public-of-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time/the-public-of-this", "text": "The public of this country is so youthful, not to say simple-minded, that it cannot understand the meaning of a fable unless the moral is set forth at the end. Unable to see a joke, insensible to irony, it has, in a word, been badly brought up. It has not yet learned that in a decent book, as in decent society, open invective can have no place; that our present-day civilisation has invented a keener weapon, none the less deadly for being almost invisible, which, under the cloak of flattery, strikes with sure and irresistible effect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mikhail Lérmontov", "slug": "mikhail-lermontov", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov" }, "book": { "title": "A Hero of Our Time", "slug": "a-hero-of-our-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mikhail-lermontov/a-hero-of-our-time" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mikhail_Lermontov#A_Hero_of_Our_Time_(1840%3B_rev._1841)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:25" }, { "id": "50bfbc58-fa70-49da-b470-516b1e8d2d0c", "slug": "what-is-really", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/what-is-really", "text": "What is really disturbing about The Name of the Rose, however, is the underlying belief in the liberating, anti-totalitarian force of laughter, of ironic distance. Our thesis here is almost the exact opposite of the underlying premise of Eco's novel: in contemporary socities, democratic or totalitarian, that cynical distance, laughter, irony, are so to speak, part of the game. The ruling ideology is not meant to be taken seriously or literally. Perhaps the greatest danger for totalitarianism is people who take ideology seriously.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Slavoj Žižek", "slug": "slavoj-zizek", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek" }, "book": { "title": "The Sublime Object of Ideology", "slug": "the-sublime-object-of-ideology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 27, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "totalitarianism", "slug": "totalitarianism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism" }, { "name": "ideology", "slug": "ideology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ideology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek#The_Sublime_Object_of_Ideology_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:17" }, { "id": "7fa4fa6c-98b3-4a8a-873c-18375b137afc", "slug": "and-so-standing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/jude-the-obscure/and-so-standing", "text": "And so, standing before the aforesaid officiator, the two swore that at every other time of their lives till death took them, they would assuredly believe, feel, and desire precisely as they had believed, felt, and desired during the few preceding weeks. What was as remarkable as the undertaking itself was the fact that nobody seemed at all surprised at what they swore.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Hardy", "slug": "thomas-hardy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy" }, "book": { "title": "Jude the Obscure", "slug": "jude-the-obscure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/jude-the-obscure" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "marriage", "slug": "marriage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy#Jude_the_Obscure_(1895)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:03" }, { "id": "ddc5f54a-3a75-4b30-863e-fa7d238cc352", "slug": "how-nice-to-feel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/how-nice-to-feel", "text": "How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive. (p. 105)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Slaughterhouse-Five", "slug": "slaughterhouse-five", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "indifference", "slug": "indifference", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/indifference" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five#Chapter_5", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:45" }, { "id": "f6895488-17ba-47e4-af55-c8db776d089c", "slug": "a-woman-especially", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey/a-woman-especially", "text": "A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Northanger Abbey", "slug": "northanger-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey#Chapter_14", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:44" }, { "id": "30d9922d-9b9d-4054-8505-8f0e0e4f8b9a", "slug": "miss-morland-no-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey/miss-morland-no-one", "text": "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much, that they never find it necessary to use more than half., p. 228, 2013", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Northanger Abbey", "slug": "northanger-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/northanger-abbey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey#Chapter_14", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:44" }, { "id": "0cfe8a4f-a86f-47ca-bf5d-6d600c4966c4", "slug": "i-think-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/i-think-the", "text": "\"I think the climax of the book will be the execution of poor old Edgar Derby,\" I said. \"The irony is so great. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands of people are killed. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot. And he's given a regular trial, and then he's shot by a firing squad.\" (pp. 4-5)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Slaughterhouse-Five", "slug": "slaughterhouse-five", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five#Chapter_1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:44" }, { "id": "4d8b3f86-ae64-463f-a592-fa959bc81b88", "slug": "a-man-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-gissing/new-grub-street/a-man-who", "text": "'A man who comes to be hanged,' pursued Jasper, impartially, 'has the satisfaction of knowing that he has brought society to its last resource. He is a man of such fatal importance that nothing will serve against him but the supreme effort of law. In a way, you know, that is success.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Gissing", "slug": "george-gissing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-gissing" }, "book": { "title": "New Grub Street", "slug": "new-grub-street", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-gissing/new-grub-street" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "capital punishment", "slug": "capital-punishment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Gissing#New_Grub_Street:_A_Novel_(1891)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:27" }, { "id": "1670ce14-d945-4887-91ac-7b50a74e82ca", "slug": "the-good-causes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mamet/the-secret-knowledge/the-good-causes", "text": "The good causes of the Left may generally be compared to NASCAR; they offer the diversion of watching things go excitingly around in a circle, getting nowhere. Page 11.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Mamet", "slug": "david-mamet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mamet" }, "book": { "title": "The Secret Knowledge", "slug": "the-secret-knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mamet/the-secret-knowledge" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Mamet#The_Secret_Knowledge", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:27" }, { "id": "3b84920a-b008-49a0-953a-6ea650b8f028", "slug": "then-the-irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-rider-haggard/king-solomons-mines/then-the-irony", "text": "Then the irony of the situation forced itself upon me. There around us lay treasures enough to pay off a moderate national debt, or to build a fleet of ironclads, and yet we would have bartered them all gladly for the faintest chance of escape. Soon, doubtless, we should be rejoiced to exchange them for a bit of food or a cup of water, and, after that, even for the privilege of a speedy close to our sufferings. Truly wealth, which men spend their lives in acquiring, is a valueless thing at the last.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry Rider Haggard", "slug": "henry-rider-haggard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-rider-haggard" }, "book": { "title": "King Solomon's Mines", "slug": "king-solomons-mines", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-rider-haggard/king-solomons-mines" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._Rider_Haggard#King_Solomon's_Mines_(1885)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:26" }, { "id": "91cd9e89-48a6-4748-bc6d-60c84626c2c1", "slug": "ah-mardina-evidently", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ultima/ah-mardina-evidently", "text": "Ah, Mardina. Evidently you entirely lack imagination. You’ll go far in the Navy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Baxter", "slug": "stephen-baxter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter" }, "book": { "title": "Ultima", "slug": "ultima", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ultima" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 167, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "imagination", "slug": "imagination", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter#Ultima_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:25" }, { "id": "9da7f45d-3429-465c-8e0e-734f68762394", "slug": "simply-follow-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia/sexual-personae/simply-follow-nature", "text": "Simply follow nature, Rousseau declares. Sade, laughing grimly, agrees.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Camille Paglia", "slug": "camille-paglia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia" }, "book": { "title": "Sexual Personae", "slug": "sexual-personae", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/camille-paglia/sexual-personae" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 235, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia#Sexual_Personae:_Art_and_Decadence_from_Nefertiti_to_Emily_Dickinson_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:17" }, { "id": "1a092724-1f97-43c0-a36f-8a61df32cc73", "slug": "man-was-an-accident", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brian-aldiss/hothouse/man-was-an-accident", "text": "Man was an accident on this world or it would have been made better for him!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brian Aldiss", "slug": "brian-aldiss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brian-aldiss" }, "book": { "title": "Hothouse", "slug": "hothouse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brian-aldiss/hothouse" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss#Hothouse_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:12" }, { "id": "ea528206-55db-42cb-9649-bd5c62d8a66a", "slug": "the-definition-of-bad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny/lord-of-light/the-definition-of-bad", "text": "The definition of bad karma is anything our friends the gods don't like.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Roger Zelazny", "slug": "roger-zelazny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny" }, "book": { "title": "Lord of Light", "slug": "lord-of-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny/lord-of-light" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 57, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light#TWO", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:09" }, { "id": "4a259743-d404-40b2-a7ad-6baeb10579df", "slug": "the-old-religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny/lord-of-light/the-old-religion", "text": "The old religion is not only the religion - it is the revealed, enforced and frighteningly demonstrable religion. But don't think that last part too loudly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Roger Zelazny", "slug": "roger-zelazny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny" }, "book": { "title": "Lord of Light", "slug": "lord-of-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-zelazny/lord-of-light" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 55, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light#TWO", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:09" }, { "id": "3284f902-1f1a-490d-8c84-929b9ee09beb", "slug": "the-founders-of-a-new", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/the-scarlet-letter/the-founders-of-a-new", "text": "The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nathaniel Hawthorne", "slug": "nathaniel-hawthorne", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne" }, "book": { "title": "The Scarlet Letter", "slug": "the-scarlet-letter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nathaniel-hawthorne/the-scarlet-letter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "utopia", "slug": "utopia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/utopia" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne#The_Scarlet_Letter_(1850)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:07" }, { "id": "b11eca51-e39a-403f-996c-473726eab290", "slug": "usual-messages-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-orton/the-orton-diaries/usual-messages-from", "text": "Usual messages from the heads of the establishment. The Queen from Windsor, the Pope from Rome: Pilate and Caiaphas celebrating the birth of Christ.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joe Orton", "slug": "joe-orton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-orton" }, "book": { "title": "The Orton Diaries", "slug": "the-orton-diaries", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joe-orton/the-orton-diaries" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 38, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joe_Orton#The_Orton_Diaries_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:05" }, { "id": "568be02a-9193-4812-98fd-27abf8044461", "slug": "im-just-a-propagandist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again/im-just-a-propagandist", "text": "I’m just a propagandist and a propagandist doesn’t have to know what he is talking about, just so he talks about it most convincingly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Clifford D. Simak", "slug": "clifford-d-simak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak" }, "book": { "title": "Time and Again", "slug": "time-and-again", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 124, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "propaganda", "slug": "propaganda", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Clifford_D._Simak#Time_and_Again_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:58" }, { "id": "8ed350eb-bc30-4ce8-b965-c51aec9e5188", "slug": "you-never-find", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/the-loved-one/you-never-find", "text": "You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs—except in England, of course.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Evelyn Waugh", "slug": "evelyn-waugh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh" }, "book": { "title": "The Loved One", "slug": "the-loved-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/the-loved-one" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh#The_Loved_One_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:56" }, { "id": "fb8315a1-fdb6-4154-931f-1978cb5be73e", "slug": "as-there-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop/as-there-was", "text": "As there was no form of government common to the peoples thus segregated, nor tie of language, history, habit, or belief, they were called a Republic.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Evelyn Waugh", "slug": "evelyn-waugh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh" }, "book": { "title": "Scoop", "slug": "scoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "the state", "slug": "the-state", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh#Scoop_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:55" }, { "id": "1a2f9093-24e7-402e-8957-0249ffd65f20", "slug": "other-nations-use", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop/other-nations-use", "text": "Other nations use 'force'; we Britons alone use 'Might'.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Evelyn Waugh", "slug": "evelyn-waugh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh" }, "book": { "title": "Scoop", "slug": "scoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh#Scoop_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:55" }, { "id": "063a4453-2d42-4e81-b190-ddc2aed1c3a6", "slug": "the-beast-stands", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop/the-beast-stands", "text": "\"The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere,\" he said. \"Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Evelyn Waugh", "slug": "evelyn-waugh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh" }, "book": { "title": "Scoop", "slug": "scoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh#Scoop_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:55" }, { "id": "de9d46b7-7c41-4cd6-879b-7248058ee929", "slug": "when-i-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-e-stiglitz/making-globalization-work/when-i-was", "text": "When I was at the World Bank, it would often be said in the face of obvious failure that our strategy was correct, it just wasn't implemented well.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph E. Stiglitz", "slug": "joseph-e-stiglitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-e-stiglitz" }, "book": { "title": "Making Globalization Work", "slug": "making-globalization-work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-e-stiglitz/making-globalization-work" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 52, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Stiglitz#Making_globalization_work_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:50" }, { "id": "3d8ff9c7-4c29-4c01-8c3f-2de136c3047e", "slug": "once-rich-moreover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-city-in-the-autumn-stars/once-rich-moreover", "text": "Once rich, moreover, I should again travel easily about Europe, for while in the public eye a poor radical is dangerous rogue, a rich radical is merely an eccentric gentleman!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The City in the Autumn Stars", "slug": "the-city-in-the-autumn-stars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-city-in-the-autumn-stars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 181, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_City_in_the_Autumn_Stars_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:44" }, { "id": "eec8b1a9-4ee3-4857-924f-4e34e92143f9", "slug": "he-wondered-if-in-achieving", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-oak-and-the-ram/he-wondered-if-in-achieving", "text": "He wondered if, in achieving such a noble way of life, a people became automatically vulnerable to destruction by those who had not achieved it. If so, it was an irony of cosmic proportions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Oak and the Ram", "slug": "the-oak-and-the-ram", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-oak-and-the-ram" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 125, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Oak_and_the_Ram_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:42" }, { "id": "2ecc2ac9-8cd4-470f-883e-e187b5b41ae4", "slug": "although-oliver-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/oliver-twist/although-oliver-had", "text": "Although Oliver had been brought up by philosophers, he was not theoretically acquainted with the beautiful axiom that self-preservation is the first law of nature.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Oliver Twist", "slug": "oliver-twist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/oliver-twist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:33" }, { "id": "23e79234-e74e-45d7-a4cc-6f9bcf84b860", "slug": "what-a-fine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/oliver-twist/what-a-fine", "text": "What a fine thing capital punishment is! Dead men never repent; dead men never bring awkward stories to light. Ah! it's a fine thing for the trade! Five of them strung up in a row, and none left to play booty or turn white-livered!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Oliver Twist", "slug": "oliver-twist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/oliver-twist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "capital punishment", "slug": "capital-punishment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:33" }, { "id": "37ef6ab4-c211-45bc-888e-14feacd0f4fb", "slug": "duty-largely-consists", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/the-magus/duty-largely-consists", "text": "Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Fowles", "slug": "john-fowles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles" }, "book": { "title": "The Magus", "slug": "the-magus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/the-magus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "duty", "slug": "duty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/duty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Fowles#The_Magus_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:30" }, { "id": "cd1416ce-0626-4a6d-b4f5-654609913ccc", "slug": "you-have-bettered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-citadel-of-the-autarch/you-have-bettered", "text": "“You have bettered yourself,” he said, making such a low bow that the tassel of his cap swept the carpet. “You may recall that I invariably affirmed you would. Honesty, integrity, and intelligence cannot be kept down.” “We both know that nothing is easier to keep down,” I said. “By my old guild, they were kept down every day.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gene Wolfe", "slug": "gene-wolfe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe" }, "book": { "title": "The Citadel of the Autarch", "slug": "the-citadel-of-the-autarch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-citadel-of-the-autarch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "integrity", "slug": "integrity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/integrity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun#The_Citadel_of_the_Autarch_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:25" }, { "id": "f06dde89-d4b4-485b-84e2-1ac5e6ae52e8", "slug": "an-angel-is-often", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-sword-of-the-lictor/an-angel-is-often", "text": "An angel is often only a demon who stands between us and our enemy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gene Wolfe", "slug": "gene-wolfe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe" }, "book": { "title": "The Sword of the Lictor", "slug": "the-sword-of-the-lictor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gene-wolfe/the-sword-of-the-lictor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun#The_Sword_of_the_Lictor_(1982)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:24" }, { "id": "f5a152d8-14dd-488c-99b2-17b6464c2231", "slug": "it-is-ironic", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring/it-is-ironic", "text": "It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray. All this has been risked-for what? Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Yet this is precisely what we have done. We have done it, moreover, for reasons that collapse the moment we examine them. We are told that the enormous and expanding use of pesticides is necessary to maintain farm production. Yet is our real problem not one of overproduction?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rachel L Carson", "slug": "rachel-l-carson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson" }, "book": { "title": "Silent Spring", "slug": "silent-spring", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/silent-spring" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#Silent_Spring_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:22" }, { "id": "95e8f22f-a65b-46c9-87f6-8ddec7de56ac", "slug": "slaves-are-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona/slaves-are-men", "text": "Slaves are men and women who labor for no pay. Over there are men who do no labor for no pay. The similarity is enough so that they might make the mistake themselves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Neveryona", "slug": "neveryona", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/neveryona" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 147, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "slavery", "slug": "slavery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/slavery" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Nevery%C3%B3na_(1983)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:20" }, { "id": "28a59ec1-abb4-4ca8-9618-9aeaffbebd28", "slug": "but-then-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon/but-then-our", "text": "But then, our way is the natural way ordained by god herself, whereas I have no idea whose set of social accidents and economic anomalies have contoured the ways of your odd and awkward land.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "Tales of Neveryon", "slug": "tales-of-neveryon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/tales-of-neveryon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#Tales_of_Nev%C3%A8r%C3%BFon_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:19" }, { "id": "ed32f945-3ffe-4bf7-9cb1-4b0f2878b035", "slug": "the-aristocracy-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/city-of-a-thousand-suns/the-aristocracy-she", "text": "“The aristocracy,” she repeated. “At its worst, a sargasso of every conceivable neurosis society may have; by naming itself it has agreed to its own death. But at least it has had the dignity to applaud its own order of execution in the past if the document is eloquent.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel R. Delany", "slug": "samuel-r-delany", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany" }, "book": { "title": "City of a Thousand Suns", "slug": "city-of-a-thousand-suns", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/city-of-a-thousand-suns" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 365, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_R._Delany#City_of_a_Thousand_Suns_(1965)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:17" }, { "id": "e5170a48-993d-4d46-9d70-d2e9412ceb67", "slug": "he-never-went", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-prime-minister/he-never-went", "text": "He never went very far astray in his official business, because he always obeyed the clerks and followed precedents.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony Trollope", "slug": "anthony-trollope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope" }, "book": { "title": "The Prime Minister", "slug": "the-prime-minister", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-prime-minister" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "bureaucracy", "slug": "bureaucracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/bureaucracy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope#The_Prime_Minister_(1876)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:02" }, { "id": "37ec050b-858c-458c-97a8-5f5aadbc9957", "slug": "when-any-body", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-dukes-children/when-any-body", "text": "When any body of statesmen make public asservations by one or various voices, that there is no discord among them, not a dissentient voice on any subject, people are apt to suppose that they cannot hang together much longer.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony Trollope", "slug": "anthony-trollope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope" }, "book": { "title": "The Duke's Children", "slug": "the-dukes-children", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-dukes-children" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope#The_Duke's_Children_(1879)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:02" }, { "id": "d11efb8e-031c-4116-9839-76a94a7a9e60", "slug": "it-has-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-finn/it-has-been", "text": "It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony Trollope", "slug": "anthony-trollope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope" }, "book": { "title": "Phineas Finn", "slug": "phineas-finn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-finn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "politics", "slug": "politics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope#Phineas_Finn_(1869)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:01" }, { "id": "6e27487c-d0ad-4fb3-a697-372693817948", "slug": "i-always-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-prime-minister/i-always-thought", "text": "I always thought there was very little wit wanted to make a fortune in the City.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony Trollope", "slug": "anthony-trollope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope" }, "book": { "title": "The Prime Minister", "slug": "the-prime-minister", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-prime-minister" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope#The_Prime_Minister_(1876)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:01" }, { "id": "5b46e333-756f-4c1f-9d04-f91531b35018", "slug": "it-is-a-remarkable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/framley-parsonage/it-is-a-remarkable", "text": "It is a remarkable thing with reference to men who are distressed for money... they never seem at a loss for small sums, or deny themselves those luxuries which small sums purchase. Cabs, dinners, wine, theatres, and new gloves are always at the command of men who are drowned in pecuniary embarrassments, whereas those who don't owe a shilling are so frequently obliged to go without them!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony Trollope", "slug": "anthony-trollope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope" }, "book": { "title": "Framley Parsonage", "slug": "framley-parsonage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/framley-parsonage" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope#Framley_Parsonage_(1861)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:00" }, { "id": "1e4179f4-bdb1-44e2-913b-573c433025ca", "slug": "in-these-days", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/doctor-thorne/in-these-days", "text": "In these days a man is nobody unless his biography is kept so far posted up that it may be ready for the national breakfast-table on the morning after his demise.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony Trollope", "slug": "anthony-trollope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope" }, "book": { "title": "Doctor Thorne", "slug": "doctor-thorne", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/doctor-thorne" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "fame", "slug": "fame", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope#Doctor_Thorne_(1858)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:00" }, { "id": "d715f207-7b7d-4e30-bf52-cb28e5cdcd90", "slug": "nothing-fazed-him", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men/nothing-fazed-him", "text": "Nothing fazed him, not insult or anger or violence or getting his face beat into a hamburger. He was a true businessman. He knew the value of everything.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Penn Warren", "slug": "robert-penn-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren" }, "book": { "title": "All the King's Men", "slug": "all-the-kings-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_King's_Men#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:59" }, { "id": "1e68c185-2cef-45c5-bb22-14c14e32deeb", "slug": "i-owed-my-success", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men/i-owed-my-success", "text": "I owed my success to that principle. It had put me where I was. What you don't know don't hurt you, for it ain't real. They called that Idealism in my book I had when I was in college, and after I got hold of that principle I became an Idealist. I was a brass-bound Idealist in those days. If you are an Idealist it does not matter what you do or what goes on around you because it isn't real anyway.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Penn Warren", "slug": "robert-penn-warren", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren" }, "book": { "title": "All the King's Men", "slug": "all-the-kings-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-penn-warren/all-the-kings-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "idealism", "slug": "idealism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/idealism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_King's_Men#Chapter_1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:58" }, { "id": "83383277-dbe3-4874-9cc2-bbd1a706f140", "slug": "the-victor-belongs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-beautiful-and-damned/the-victor-belongs", "text": "The victor belongs to the spoils.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "F.Scott Fitzgerald", "slug": "fscott-fitzgerald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald" }, "book": { "title": "The Beautiful and Damned", "slug": "the-beautiful-and-damned", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-beautiful-and-damned" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald#The_Beautiful_and_Damned_(1922)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:50" }, { "id": "74037603-708d-4a39-96b9-0fa602911e46", "slug": "a-region-is-an-area", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/a-region-is-an-area", "text": "A region is an area safely larger than the last one to whose problems we found no solution.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Jacobs", "slug": "jane-jacobs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs" }, "book": { "title": "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", "slug": "the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-jacobs/the-death-and-life-of-great-american-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:48" }, { "id": "e8f55c1f-22bc-454e-9f9b-9ae0e8dce442", "slug": "if-you-treat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/xenocide/if-you-treat", "text": "If you treat me this way, then I will treat you like a great lord, and if you do not detect the irony in my actions, then who of the two of us is the fool?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Xenocide", "slug": "xenocide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/xenocide" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Xenocide#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:44" }, { "id": "5ed74bf7-b31b-43c0-bc72-60508bda0f0d", "slug": "we-spend-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/xenocide/we-spend-our", "text": "We spend our lives guessing at what's going on inside everybody else, and when we happen to get lucky and guess right, we think we \"understand.\" Such nonsense. Even a monkey at a computer will type a word now and then.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Xenocide", "slug": "xenocide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/xenocide" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Xenocide#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:44" }, { "id": "a19d192d-96fe-499c-927a-06f5f343934b", "slug": "the-avant-garde-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/the-avant-garde-and", "text": "The avant-garde and the beatniks share in the function of entertaining without endangering the good conscience of the men of good will.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herbert Marcuse", "slug": "herbert-marcuse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse" }, "book": { "title": "One-Dimensional Man", "slug": "one-dimensional-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 70, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse#One-Dimensional_Man_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:38" }, { "id": "5a97893d-7ad4-4f83-9670-b875fe367de9", "slug": "apparently-that-does", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/apparently-that-does", "text": "Apparently that does sometimes happen. Apparently even men like Chichikov are transformed into poets for a few moments in their lives: though the word \"poet\" would be an exaggeration here.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nikolai Gogol", "slug": "nikolai-gogol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol" }, "book": { "title": "Dead Souls", "slug": "dead-souls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "poetry", "slug": "poetry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol#Dead_Souls_(1842)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:37" }, { "id": "151f2891-ff89-4f8d-a6fa-82b1501b4c72", "slug": "they-insist-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/they-insist-that", "text": "They insist that an author should write in the strictest, purest and noblest language: in short, they expect the Russian language to drop from the clouds, already refined, and that it should come naturally to the lips, so that all they have to do is to open their mouth and stick out their tongue. It goes without saying, of course, that the feminine half of the human species is very wise; but it must be confessed that our respected readers are even wiser.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nikolai Gogol", "slug": "nikolai-gogol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol" }, "book": { "title": "Dead Souls", "slug": "dead-souls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "language", "slug": "language", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol#Dead_Souls_(1842)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:37" }, { "id": "0966c0ac-fa4b-47e7-be53-9e319f2e5375", "slug": "womens-boarding-schools", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/womens-boarding-schools", "text": "[Women's] boarding schools, as we know, hold the three principal subjects which constitute the basis of human virtue to be the French language (a thing indispensable to the happiness of married life), piano-playing (a thing wherewith to beguile a husband’s leisure moments), and that particular department of housewifery which is comprised in the knitting of purses and other “surprises.” Nevertheless changes and improvements have begun to take place, since things now are governed more by the personal inclinations and idiosyncracies of the keepers of such establishments. For instance, in some seminaries the regimen places piano-playing first, and the French language second, and then the above department of housewifery; while in other seminaries the knitting of “surprises” heads the list, and then the French language, and then the playing of pianos—so diverse are the systems in force!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nikolai Gogol", "slug": "nikolai-gogol", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol" }, "book": { "title": "Dead Souls", "slug": "dead-souls", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol#Dead_Souls_(1842)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:37" }, { "id": "01733913-c37c-43d2-9390-1e94068430e9", "slug": "each-child-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird/each-child-was", "text": "Each child was supposed to clip an item from a newspaper, absorb its contents, and reveal them to the class. This practice allegedly overcame a variety of evils: standing in front of his fellows encouraged good posture and gave a child poise; delivering a short talk made him word-conscious; learning his current event strengthened his memory; being singled out made him more than ever anxious to return to the Group.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harper Lee", "slug": "harper-lee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee" }, "book": { "title": "To Kill a Mockingbird", "slug": "to-kill-a-mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harper-lee/to-kill-a-mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harper_Lee#not_yet_sourced_by_chapter", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:35" }, { "id": "6a8d5a4f-dbbc-418b-9d9b-59ae183e2051", "slug": "poor-hayduke-won", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang/poor-hayduke-won", "text": "Poor Hayduke: won all his arguments but lost his immortal soul.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Abbey", "slug": "edward-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey" }, "book": { "title": "The Monkey Wrench Gang", "slug": "the-monkey-wrench-gang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-monkey-wrench-gang" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:31" }, { "id": "34376289-13e6-4d7f-885a-e5aa84b059d9", "slug": "of-course-i-litter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home/of-course-i-litter", "text": "Of course I litter the public highway. Every chance I get. After all, it's not the beer cans that are ugly; it's the highway that is ugly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Abbey", "slug": "edward-abbey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey" }, "book": { "title": "The Journey Home", "slug": "the-journey-home", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-abbey/the-journey-home" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#The_Journey_Home_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:31" }, { "id": "e72e5013-2e05-4a5e-b247-60c7c86eb349", "slug": "it-turns-out", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/jpod/it-turns-out", "text": "It turns out that only twenty percent of human beings have a sense of irony — which means that eighty percent of the world takes everything at face value. I can’t imagine anything worse than that. Okay, maybe I can, but imagine reading the morning newspaper and believing it all to be true on some level.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Coupland", "slug": "douglas-coupland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland" }, "book": { "title": "JPod", "slug": "jpod", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/jpod" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Coupland#JPod_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:27" }, { "id": "e44c31df-b26e-41dd-aacf-e1b864ded9a2", "slug": "people-who-advocate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/jpod/people-who-advocate", "text": "People who advocate simplicity have money in the bank; the money came first, not the simplicity. (from inside the cover)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Coupland", "slug": "douglas-coupland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland" }, "book": { "title": "JPod", "slug": "jpod", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/jpod" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Coupland#JPod_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:26" }, { "id": "bbbd95ca-769b-479b-b44b-7a51747e71ef", "slug": "christopher-columbus-landed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-l-r-james/the-black-jacobins/christopher-columbus-landed", "text": "Christopher Columbus landed first in the New World at the island of San Salvador, and after praising God enquired urgently for gold.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "C L R James", "slug": "c-l-r-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-l-r-james" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Jacobins", "slug": "the-black-jacobins", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-l-r-james/the-black-jacobins" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "greed", "slug": "greed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/greed" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._L._R._James#The_Black_Jacobins_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:25" }, { "id": "96bdff39-1a72-4916-893a-82f01757482a", "slug": "after-all-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-miller/death-of-a-salesman/after-all-the", "text": "After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur Miller", "slug": "arthur-miller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-miller" }, "book": { "title": "Death of a Salesman", "slug": "death-of-a-salesman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-miller/death-of-a-salesman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller#Death_of_a_Salesman_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:23" }, { "id": "5c8a1069-a214-48e2-9037-77254647d08d", "slug": "work-a-lifetime", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-miller/death-of-a-salesman/work-a-lifetime", "text": "Work a lifetime to pay off a house — You finally own it and there's nobody to live in it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Arthur Miller", "slug": "arthur-miller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-miller" }, "book": { "title": "Death of a Salesman", "slug": "death-of-a-salesman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-miller/death-of-a-salesman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller#Death_of_a_Salesman_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:23" }, { "id": "954b7415-3d3c-43d3-881f-92dabf985339", "slug": "what-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-winds-twelve-quarters/what-was-the", "text": "What was the good working for freedom all your life and ending up without any freedom at all?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ursula K. Le Guin", "slug": "ursula-k-le-guin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin" }, "book": { "title": "The Wind’s Twelve Quarters", "slug": "the-winds-twelve-quarters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/the-winds-twelve-quarters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 272, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin#The_Wind%E2%80%99s_Twelve_Quarters_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:50" }, { "id": "bc8d2de9-237b-4748-9039-cafaa3dcdf0d", "slug": "it-was-turning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/jennifer-government/it-was-turning", "text": "It was turning into a sly, anti–free market statement, and irony irritated him. There was no place for irony in marketing: it made people want to look for deeper meaning. There was no place in marketing for that, either.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Max Barry", "slug": "max-barry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry" }, "book": { "title": "Jennifer Government", "slug": "jennifer-government", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-barry/jennifer-government" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 116, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "advertising", "slug": "advertising", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/advertising" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Barry#Jennifer_Government_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:42" }, { "id": "f271726d-b10f-4b1c-91e1-dc2106799395", "slug": "individualism-is-going", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/a-continuous-harmony/individualism-is-going", "text": "Individualism is going around these days in uniform, handing out the party line on individualism.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Wendell Berry", "slug": "wendell-berry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry" }, "book": { "title": "A Continuous Harmony", "slug": "a-continuous-harmony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/wendell-berry/a-continuous-harmony" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry#A_Continuous_Harmony_(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:21" }, { "id": "64257ba3-1e24-4fee-9eeb-99377fdb28ff", "slug": "the-duty-of-saving", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-maynard-keynes/the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace/the-duty-of-saving", "text": "The duty of \"saving\" became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth of the cake the object of true religion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Maynard Keynes", "slug": "john-maynard-keynes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-maynard-keynes" }, "book": { "title": "The Economic Consequences of the Peace", "slug": "the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-maynard-keynes/the-economic-consequences-of-the-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 20, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes#The_Economic_Consequences_of_the_Peace_(1919)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:53" }, { "id": "1706f48f-7627-449c-83c4-33b0a9342f90", "slug": "the-irony-is-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/the-irony-is-that", "text": "The irony is that in our decades, the combination of rationalism, asceticism, and individualism (the so-called Protestant Ethic) has produced precisely the system of boondoggling, luxury-consumption, and status.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paul Goodman", "slug": "paul-goodman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman" }, "book": { "title": "Growing Up Absurd", "slug": "growing-up-absurd", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 143, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "consumerism", "slug": "consumerism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consumerism" }, { "name": "capitalism", "slug": "capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Goodman#Growing_Up_Absurd_(1956)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:40" }, { "id": "d266f691-c863-4bd1-a6b8-489bf24f74fc", "slug": "a-traffic-jam", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alanis-morissette/jagged-little-pill/a-traffic-jam", "text": "A traffic jam when you're already late, A \"No Smoking\" sign on your cigarette break. It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. It's meeting the man of my dreams And then meeting his beautiful wife.And isn't it ironic? Don't you think? A little too ironic, And yeah, I really do think.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alanis Morissette", "slug": "alanis-morissette", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alanis-morissette" }, "book": { "title": "Jagged Little Pill", "slug": "jagged-little-pill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alanis-morissette/jagged-little-pill" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alanis_Morissette#Jagged_Little_Pill_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:56" }, { "id": "88957430-6158-4893-ad31-a0d14b6bda1f", "slug": "the-ironist-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man/the-ironist-is-not", "text": "The ironist is not bitter, he does not seek to undercut everything that seems worthy or serious, he scorns the cheap scoring-off of the wisecracker. He stands, so to speak, somewhat at one side, observes and speaks with a moderation which is occasionally embellished with a flash of controlled exaggeration. He speaks from a certain depth, and thus he is not of the same nature as the wit, who so often speaks from the tongue and no deeper. The wit's desire is to be funny; the ironist is only funny as a secondary achievement.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Cunning Man", "slug": "the-cunning-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies#The_Cunning_Man_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:13" }, { "id": "f4ade03f-e9b9-4a8a-81c8-3874d5c0c75e", "slug": "when-irony-first", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man/when-irony-first", "text": "When irony first makes itself known in a young man's life, it can be like his first experience of getting drunk; he has met with a powerful thing which he does not know how to handle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Cunning Man", "slug": "the-cunning-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cunning-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robertson_Davies#The_Cunning_Man_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:12" }, { "id": "a7157b27-b1c3-4e86-b858-a68b40539aaf", "slug": "im-being-ironic", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-martian-chronicles/im-being-ironic", "text": "I’m being ironic. Don't interrupt a man in the midst of being ironic, it’s not polite.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ray Bradbury", "slug": "ray-bradbury", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury" }, "book": { "title": "The Martian Chronicles", "slug": "the-martian-chronicles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ray-bradbury/the-martian-chronicles" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury#The_Martian_Chronicles_(1950)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:10" }, { "id": "b4794001-7dde-429a-a2a4-7d215c691fe1", "slug": "vietnam-only-made", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country/vietnam-only-made", "text": "[Vietnam] only made billionaires out of millionaires. [Iraq] is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "A Man Without a Country", "slug": "a-man-without-a-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#A_Man_Without_a_Country_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:45" }, { "id": "4b375ff5-1439-4cab-8a29-b6fe369ad26f", "slug": "doesnt-anything-socialistic", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country/doesnt-anything-socialistic", "text": "Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "A Man Without a Country", "slug": "a-man-without-a-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/a-man-without-a-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "socialism", "slug": "socialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/socialism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#A_Man_Without_a_Country_(2005)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:45" }, { "id": "d0ae8873-2d6c-4ea6-8ad3-a1991d2d884c", "slug": "dont-undervalue-irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/washington-square/dont-undervalue-irony", "text": "Don't undervalue irony; it is often of great use.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henry James", "slug": "henry-james", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james" }, "book": { "title": "Washington Square", "slug": "washington-square", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henry-james/washington-square" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_James#Washington_Square_(1881)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:22" }, { "id": "10517d74-68ec-44aa-9dec-a9fb8fce2143", "slug": "why-does-almost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/doctor-faustus/why-does-almost", "text": "Why does almost everything seem to me like its own parody? Why must I think that almost all, no, all the methods and conventions of art today are good for parody only?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Mann", "slug": "thomas-mann", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann" }, "book": { "title": "Doctor Faustus", "slug": "doctor-faustus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/doctor-faustus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann#Doctor_Faustus_(1947)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:17" }, { "id": "2c5a0e15-41da-43df-b647-9befa0a8a99a", "slug": "irony-forsooth-guard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/the-magic-mountain/irony-forsooth-guard", "text": "Irony, forsooth! Guard yourself, Engineer, from the sort of irony that thrives up here; guard yourself altogether from taking on their mental attitude! Where irony is not a direct and classic device of oratory, not for a moment equivocal to a healthy mind, it makes for depravity, it becomes a drawback to civilization, an unclean traffic with the forces of reaction, vice and materialism.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Mann", "slug": "thomas-mann", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann" }, "book": { "title": "The Magic Mountain", "slug": "the-magic-mountain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-mann/the-magic-mountain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann#The_Magic_Mountain_(1924)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:16" }, { "id": "df88f6d3-025f-46e5-9794-8030ac611ff2", "slug": "irony-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet/irony-do-not", "text": "Irony: Do not let yourself be governed by it, especially not in unproductive moments. In productive ones try to make use of it as one more means of seizing life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rainer Maria Rilke", "slug": "rainer-maria-rilke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke" }, "book": { "title": "Letters to a Young Poet", "slug": "letters-to-a-young-poet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/letters-to-a-young-poet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke#Letters_to_a_Young_Poet_(1934)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:55" }, { "id": "756c6f94-96de-4ea7-9e11-4c9fa4943671", "slug": "you-are-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/figures-of-earth/you-are-now", "text": "You are now a famous champion, that has crowned with victory a righteous cause for which many stalwart knights and gallant gentlemen have made the supreme sacrifice, because they knew that in the end the right must conquer. Your success thus represents the working out of a great moral principle, and to explain the practical minutiae of these august processes is not always quite respectable.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Branch Cabell", "slug": "james-branch-cabell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell" }, "book": { "title": "Figures of Earth", "slug": "figures-of-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/figures-of-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell#Figures_of_Earth_(1921)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:50" }, { "id": "c45da897-fd6e-4c9a-9e81-295c6a581f5b", "slug": "sleep-teaching-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world/sleep-teaching-was", "text": "\"Sleep teaching was actually prohibited in England. There was something called liberalism. Parliament, if you know what that was, passed a law against it. The records survive. Speeches about liberty of the subject. Liberty to be inefficient and miserable. Freedom to be a round peg in a square hole.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Aldous Huxley", "slug": "aldous-huxley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley" }, "book": { "title": "Brave New World", "slug": "brave-new-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brave_New_World#Chapter_3", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:34" }, { "id": "b39d77ce-ad13-43d9-aa05-e41ff85b71dc", "slug": "theory-is-taught", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/culture-and-imperialism/theory-is-taught", "text": "Theory is taught so as to make the student believe that he or she can become a Marxist, a feminist, an Afrocentrist, or a deconstructionist with about the same effort and commitment required in choosing items from a menu.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward W. Said", "slug": "edward-w-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said" }, "book": { "title": "Culture and Imperialism", "slug": "culture-and-imperialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/culture-and-imperialism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Said#Culture_and_Imperialism_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:22" }, { "id": "6c5c6d0d-4fa9-4d9a-8520-a5bff3371e7a", "slug": "go-ahead-say", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice/go-ahead-say", "text": "“Go ahead, say it.” “‘Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done—’” “Stop! Stop right there. ‘Thy will be done—’ No Muslim claiming to be a ‘slave of God’ ever gave a more sweeping consent than that. In that prayer you invite Him to do His worst. The perfect masochist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Job: A Comedy of Justice", "slug": "job-a-comedy-of-justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/job-a-comedy-of-justice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 412, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "prayer", "slug": "prayer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prayer" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:20" }, { "id": "2baaecfe-cf64-466c-a52b-916700411813", "slug": "in-a-good", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/in-a-good", "text": "In a good cause hypocrisy becomes a virtue.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gore Vidal", "slug": "gore-vidal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal" }, "book": { "title": "Julian", "slug": "julian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hypocrisy", "slug": "hypocrisy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#Julian_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:18" }, { "id": "97d43be3-aaf8-41c3-a18e-291481cf2a69", "slug": "as-long-as-she", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/orlando/as-long-as-she", "text": "As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virginia Woolf", "slug": "virginia-woolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf" }, "book": { "title": "Orlando", "slug": "orlando", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/orlando" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#Orlando:_A_Biography_(1928)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:17" }, { "id": "02248f91-6d83-44f1-a5dd-a9149b9554d8", "slug": "the-chief-charges", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/orlando/the-chief-charges", "text": "The chief charges against her were (1) that she was dead, and therefore could not hold any property; (2) that she was a woman which amounts to much the same thing ...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virginia Woolf", "slug": "virginia-woolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf" }, "book": { "title": "Orlando", "slug": "orlando", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/orlando" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#Orlando:_A_Biography_(1928)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:17" }, { "id": "bbc3b973-952e-47d6-9bdd-7351d931fd60", "slug": "but-delightful-though", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/the-common-reader-volume-1/but-delightful-though", "text": "But delightful though it is to indulge in righteous indignation, it is misplaced if we agree with the lady's-maid that high birth is a form of congenital insanity, that the sufferer merely inherits the diseases of his ancestors, and endures them, for the most part very stoically, in one of those comfortably padded lunatic asylums which are known, euphemistically, as the stately homes of England.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virginia Woolf", "slug": "virginia-woolf", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf" }, "book": { "title": "The Common Reader: Volume 1", "slug": "the-common-reader-volume-1", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/the-common-reader-volume-1" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#The_Common_Reader_(1925)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:14" }, { "id": "4a500cb0-2ff6-41f2-a61e-598f7614beee", "slug": "i-now-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant/i-now-know", "text": "I now know that if you describe things as better as they are, you are considered to be romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you are called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you are called a satirist.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Quentin Crisp", "slug": "quentin-crisp", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp" }, "book": { "title": "The Naked Civil Servant", "slug": "the-naked-civil-servant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "reality", "slug": "reality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Quentin_Crisp#The_Naked_Civil_Servant_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:11" }, { "id": "f45b2d1e-2ee5-4036-bb0a-60f8fb773228", "slug": "the-rest-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant/the-rest-of-the", "text": "The rest of the world in which I lived was still stumbling about in search of a weapon with which to exterminate this monster [homosexuality] whose shape and size were not yet known or even guessed at. It was thought to be Greek in origin, smaller than socialism but more deadly, especially to children.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Quentin Crisp", "slug": "quentin-crisp", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp" }, "book": { "title": "The Naked Civil Servant", "slug": "the-naked-civil-servant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/quentin-crisp/the-naked-civil-servant" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "homosexuality", "slug": "homosexuality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homosexuality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Quentin_Crisp#The_Naked_Civil_Servant_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:10" }, { "id": "c4e73bf8-8119-46a8-bb7a-2810542c7aab", "slug": "laws-to-suppress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/chapterhouse-dune/laws-to-suppress", "text": "Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Chapterhouse: Dune", "slug": "chapterhouse-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/chapterhouse-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Chapterhouse:_Dune_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:55" }, { "id": "b311d2b0-9cb1-42f9-afe9-0b982f53f042", "slug": "greatness-is-a-transitory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/greatness-is-a-transitory", "text": "Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never persistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "pride", "slug": "pride", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "fame", "slug": "fame", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Book_1:_Dune", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:48" }, { "id": "ae103bc8-9f77-409c-89a1-ad4a10460844", "slug": "he-had-a-sense", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac/he-had-a-sense", "text": "He had a sense of irony that ruled his life, made it impossible for him to use his considerable brains in any kind of serious job. Kind of like me.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neal Stephenson", "slug": "neal-stephenson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson" }, "book": { "title": "Zodiac", "slug": "zodiac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/zodiac" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 187, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson#Zodiac_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:35" }, { "id": "c2946382-963c-4490-b922-7f8a52ef0047", "slug": "the-truth-knocks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance/the-truth-knocks", "text": "The truth knocks on the door and you say, \"Go away, I'm looking for the truth,\" and so it goes away. Puzzling.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert M. Pirsig", "slug": "robert-m-pirsig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig" }, "book": { "title": "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "slug": "zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-m-pirsig/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig#Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:32" }, { "id": "ca8456ef-d2d9-4a0e-8eb4-6b8058bcb86a", "slug": "i-wish-to-propose", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact/i-wish-to-propose", "text": "I wish to propose a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true. I must, of course, admit that if such an opinion became common it would completely transform our social life and our political system; since both are at present faultless, this must weigh against it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Contact", "slug": "contact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 15, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "beliefs", "slug": "beliefs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beliefs" }, { "name": "evidence", "slug": "evidence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evidence" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Contact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:27" }, { "id": "b66001ec-709b-4624-be3a-1f3b1b3185ea", "slug": "there-is-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/there-is-nothing", "text": "There is nothing to say about anything. So there can be no limit to the number of books.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "2256ce2d-c485-4879-a0c2-0654b1b4182c", "slug": "the-need-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/the-need-for", "text": "The need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "1c10ac3a-2239-414b-85e3-be131db959fa", "slug": "society-an-inferno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay/society-an-inferno", "text": "Society: an inferno of saviors!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "A Short History of Decay", "slug": "a-short-history-of-decay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/a-short-history-of-decay" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#A_Short_History_of_Decay_(1949)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:39" }, { "id": "a091e2fd-d98d-4d13-ba3e-afacbc7218a5", "slug": "since-our-young", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/since-our-young", "text": "\"Since our young gentleman,\" says Locke, \"is about to marry, it is time to leave him with his mistress.\" And with these words he ends his book. As I have not the honour of educating \"A young gentleman,\" I shall take care not to follow his example.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_V", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:37" }, { "id": "c82cea67-dcde-4916-a1d1-dc2712c6d213", "slug": "he-found-himself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-razors-edge/he-found-himself", "text": "He found himself now in the agreeable situation of being able to do what was best for others and at the same time what was convenient to himself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Razor's Edge", "slug": "the-razors-edge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-razors-edge" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "selfishness", "slug": "selfishness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Razor's_Edge_(1943)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:29" }, { "id": "ae562e5e-b994-4f48-a80c-11390c28331d", "slug": "perfection-is-a-trifle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/perfection-is-a-trifle", "text": "Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Summing Up", "slug": "the-summing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 297, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "perfectionism", "slug": "perfectionism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/perfectionism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Summing_Up_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:28" }, { "id": "b9af1b3f-c032-4ee7-a064-1b43e410b375", "slug": "the-modern-clergyman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-moon-and-sixpence/the-modern-clergyman", "text": "The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Moon And Sixpence", "slug": "the-moon-and-sixpence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-moon-and-sixpence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 8, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Moon_and_Sixpence_(1919)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:26" }, { "id": "a6d132b0-90d2-4ca7-a33b-39bfcd17a6db", "slug": "the-intellectual-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-intellectual-world", "text": "The intellectual world is divided into two classes — dilettantes, on the one hand, and pedants, on the other.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "intellectuals", "slug": "intellectuals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intellectuals" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#IX_:_Faith,_Hope,_and_Charity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "aab4b9ae-9819-4bfc-9ca0-0483189f1b0f", "slug": "the-execution-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones/the-execution-was", "text": "The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part of the authorities to act slowly and impersonally, in the manner of planets or vegetables.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jorge Luis Borges", "slug": "jorge-luis-borges", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges" }, "book": { "title": "Ficciones", "slug": "ficciones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "bureaucracy", "slug": "bureaucracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/bureaucracy" }, { "name": "capital punishment", "slug": "capital-punishment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges#Ficciones_(1944)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20" }, { "id": "03912bee-c189-463c-abdf-d4f455390fe8", "slug": "maybe-this-crime", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones/maybe-this-crime", "text": "\"Maybe this crime belongs to the history of Jewish superstitions,\" murmmured Lönnrot. \"Like Christianity,\" the editor put in.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jorge Luis Borges", "slug": "jorge-luis-borges", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges" }, "book": { "title": "Ficciones", "slug": "ficciones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/ficciones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "superstitions", "slug": "superstitions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/superstitions" }, { "name": "Christianity", "slug": "christianity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/christianity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges#Ficciones_(1944)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20" }, { "id": "69b730a0-0067-4ce3-91f4-6bcda06223ed", "slug": "my-undertaking-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/the-garden-of-forking-paths/my-undertaking-is-not", "text": "My undertaking is not difficult, essentially... I should only have to be immortal to carry it out.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jorge Luis Borges", "slug": "jorge-luis-borges", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges" }, "book": { "title": "The Garden of Forking Paths", "slug": "the-garden-of-forking-paths", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jorge-luis-borges/the-garden-of-forking-paths" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "immortality", "slug": "immortality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges#%22Pierre_Menard,_Author_of_the_Quixote%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:19" }, { "id": "b16ca593-03af-473e-942e-5db3b5f2f647", "slug": "what-opinions-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/what-opinions-the", "text": "What opinions the masses hold, or do not hold, is looked on as a matter of indifference. They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "crowd psychology", "slug": "crowd-psychology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crowd-psychology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_9", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": 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], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_(novel)#Volume_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:55" }, { "id": "f8e80b72-6a15-4b40-8cd7-61c2205cd7c1", "slug": "the-incredible-speed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/the-incredible-speed", "text": "The incredible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight is much more celebrated than his prowess in the battle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, 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"https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "Ulysses", "slug": "ulysses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "honesty", "slug": "honesty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:32" }, { "id": "e4bab3bd-5819-49e0-b96f-ba230928ce83", "slug": "there-is-one-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dorothy-parker/dorothy-parker-poems/there-is-one-thing", "text": "There is one thing that appreciably eases the strain for the plays that arrive at this time of year, and that is that practically nothing is expected of them. p. 306", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dorothy Parker", "slug": "dorothy-parker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dorothy-parker" }, "book": { "title": "Dorothy Parker: Poems", "slug": "dorothy-parker-poems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dorothy-parker/dorothy-parker-poems" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "theatre", "slug": "theatre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theatre" }, { "name": "waiting", "slug": "waiting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/waiting" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker#Chapter_5:_1922", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": 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stalls, and people from all over the Carpet. They'd all be trying to cheat one another in that open-and-above-board way known as 'doing business'.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "The Carpet People", "slug": "the-carpet-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-carpet-people" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "business", "slug": "business", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/business" }, { "name": "deception", "slug": "deception", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/deception" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett#The_Carpet_People_(1971%3B_1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:26" }, { "id": "1e3176e2-de1a-431b-ba59-792f4d7e7775", "slug": "there-are-probably", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pj-orourke/holidays-in-hell/there-are-probably", "text": "There are probably more fact-finding tours of Nicaragua right now than there are facts— the country has shortages of practically everything.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "P.J. O'Rourke", "slug": "pj-orourke", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pj-orourke" }, "book": { "title": "Holidays in Hell", "slug": "holidays-in-hell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pj-orourke/holidays-in-hell" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "irony", "slug": "irony", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._J._O'Rourke#Holidays_in_Hell_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:59" } ] }