"Children are given us to discourage our better emotions."

Saki Literature See all quotes by Saki →

React to this quote

More by Saki

“I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.”

“People talk vaguely about the innocence of a little child, but they take mighty good care not to let it out of their sight for twenty minutes.”

“The fashion just now is a Roman Catholic frame of mind with an Agnostic conscience: you get the mediaeval picturesqueness of the one with the modern conveniences of the other.”

“You evidently feel that brevity is the soul of widowhood.”

“The sacrifices of friendship were beautiful in her eyes as long as she was not asked to make them.”

“Reginald in his wildest lapses into veracity never admits to being more than twenty-two.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Of errors and defects we certainly have not less than our full share, enough to keep the reformer awake, the statesman busy, and the country in a pretty lively state of agitation for some time to come…"

— Frederick Douglass

Social Activism1818–1895

#time

"I think that provided us to do it this time, because it's like okay, we've cleared that air, you know, we're friends and we respect that he's the best rock drummer in the world, you know. You can be a…"

— Josh Homme

Music1973

#knowledge

"The ultimate metaphysical principle is the advance from disjunction to conjunction, creating a novel entity other than the entities given in disjunction."

— Alfred North Whitehead

Philosophy1861–1947

#ethics

"Man has such a capacity for rationalization that when he finds himself affluent and able to spend as he pleases he is quick to justify his most indefensible expenditures on the ground that they give s…"

— Ferdinand Lundberg

Politics1902–1995

#happiness