Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. (Francis Bacon, Essays) Bookshelves poster. Should be put it up next to my bookshelves to stop visitors keep asking this and that.
The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one sometimes forgets which. (James M. Barrie, Sentimental Tommy) Obviously, the most environmentally unfriendly invention
City
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village. If you would know, and not known, live in a city. (Charles Caleb Coulton, Lacon) Similar to Bai Letian's 大隱住朝市，小隱入丘樊” ( 《中隱》)
Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo. (Desmond Morris, The Human Zoo) Living in cages, on display, and, alledgedly, environmentally unfriendly.
Cities are the abyss of the human species. (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile)
Appearance
It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray) This is a visible world!
Food
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. (Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste) You are what you eat.
Fashion
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. (Oscar Wilde) Let's face it. Most of us are ugly.
Language
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. (Rudyard Kipling, speech, 1923) Say NO to drug.
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. (Ludwig Wittgensten, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus)
Society
Gerald: I suppose society is wonderfully delightful!
Lord Illingworth: To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it simply a tragedy. (Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance) Boredom only leads to tragedy.
Society is no comfort
To one not sociable (Shakespeare, Cymbeline) Why the hell I shall be sociable, or in other words, agreeable?
Sports
The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable (Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance) What an Irish!
History
"Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." (George Orwell, 1984) This is why you have to learn History and write History.
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