Quotes:
These sage and profound words pretty much sum up my life. They are in line with my philosophy, religion, outlook, hopes, dreams, and random personal opinions. They have put my life in to words -
"It really is horrible, living in a small town like this, so full of aspidistras and small gossip"
- Dorothy Sayers in "Unnatural Death"
"But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most"
-Mark Twain
"Lucidity is a curse. I find that it is usually disfavorable to be too self-aware"
- William McKelvey
"We can never know what we want because, living only one life, we can neither compare it to our previous lives, nor perfect it in our lives to come"
-Milan Kundera
"Nothing gives poetry a worse name than people who talk drivel, and try to pretend it's got inner meaning because it's about flowers, and love, and things"
-Jeanette Winterson ("Boating for Beginners")
"Miss Agatha was never one for flirting and foolishness. Often she used to say to me: 'Betty' she said 'I mean to be an old maid and so does Miss Clara, and we are going to live together and be ever so happy, without any stupid, tiresome gentlemen' "
-Dorothy Sayers ("Unnatural Death - 1927)
"It's well we cannot hear the screams,
we make in other people's dreams"
-Edward Gorey
" I used to admire believers...I thought they had a odd trnscendental way of perceiving things which was closed to me. Like clairvoyants, you might say. But my...experience proves that faith is actually quite a simple matter. He was down and out, the Catholics took him in, and before he knew it, he had faith. So it was gratitude that decided the issue, most likely. Human decisions are terrible simple."
- Tomas (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
-Hermann Göring (at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII)
Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again: "Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?" On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: "It is the eve of St George's Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?"
- Excerpt from Dracula, 1897
"Loves conquers all except poverty and a toothache."
-Mae West
"Ah...prayer, the last refuge of the scoundrel"
-Lisa Simpson
"That's [a] good question. More than likely it will never be answered to your complete satisfaction. But then, how many questions ever are?"
-Harlan Ellison ('Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman)
"Did you have one of those days today, like a nail in the foot? Did the pterodactyl corpse dropped by the ghost of your mother from the spectral Hindenburg forever circling the Earth come smashing through the lid of your glass coffin? Did the New York strip steak you attacked at dinner suddenly show a mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth, and did it snap off the end of your fork, the last solid-gold fork from the set Anastasia pressed into your hands as they took her away to be shot? Is the slab under your apartment building moaning that it cannot stand the weight on its back a moment longer, and is the building stretching and creaking? Did a good friend betray you today, or did that good friend merely keep silent and fail to come to your aid? Are you holding the razor at your throat this very instant? Take heart, comfort is at hand. This is the hour that stretches. Djan karet. We are the cavalry. We're here. Put away the pills. We'll get you through this bloody night. Next time, it'll be your turn to help us."
- Harlan Ellison (Eidolons)
"In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine."
- Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
"There is no rational ground of any sort or kind for keeping a child ignorant of anything he may wish to know..."
-Bertrand Russell (Why I am Not a Christian)
"No man can pass as educated who had heard only one side on questions as to which the public is divided."
Bertrand Russell (Why I am Not a Christian)
"It is interesting to see how the the theory of what is called the Christian church sprung out of the tail of the heathen Mythology...A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by making the reputed founder celestially begotten. The trinity of gods that then followed is no other then the reduction of the former plurality, which was about 20 or 30 thousand. The statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana at Ephesus; the deification of heroes became the canonization of the saints; the Mythologists had gods for everything; the Christian Mythologists had Saints for everything; The church became as crowded with one as the Pantheon had been with the other, and Rome was the place of both"
-Thomas Paine (Age of Reason)
"The real flavor of a place can only be gained by wandering leisurely, talking to people, smelling, feeling, tasting the land at close range and slow pace. In short, interstates may give us velocity, but only backroads can give us roots."
- Boyd and Barbara Norton, "Backroads of Colorado"
"A place is yours when you know where all the roads go."
- Steven King in "Down East"
"It really is horrible, living in a small town like this, so full of aspidistras and small gossip"
- Dorothy Sayers in "Unnatural Death"
"But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most"
-Mark Twain
"Lucidity is a curse. I find that it is usually disfavorable to be too self-aware"
- William McKelvey
"We can never know what we want because, living only one life, we can neither compare it to our previous lives, nor perfect it in our lives to come"
-Milan Kundera
"Nothing gives poetry a worse name than people who talk drivel, and try to pretend it's got inner meaning because it's about flowers, and love, and things"
-Jeanette Winterson ("Boating for Beginners")
"Miss Agatha was never one for flirting and foolishness. Often she used to say to me: 'Betty' she said 'I mean to be an old maid and so does Miss Clara, and we are going to live together and be ever so happy, without any stupid, tiresome gentlemen' "
-Dorothy Sayers ("Unnatural Death - 1927)
"It's well we cannot hear the screams,
we make in other people's dreams"
-Edward Gorey
" I used to admire believers...I thought they had a odd trnscendental way of perceiving things which was closed to me. Like clairvoyants, you might say. But my...experience proves that faith is actually quite a simple matter. He was down and out, the Catholics took him in, and before he knew it, he had faith. So it was gratitude that decided the issue, most likely. Human decisions are terrible simple."
- Tomas (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
-Hermann Göring (at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII)
Do you know what day it is?" I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again: "Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?" On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: "It is the eve of St George's Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?"
- Excerpt from Dracula, 1897
"Loves conquers all except poverty and a toothache."
-Mae West
"Ah...prayer, the last refuge of the scoundrel"
-Lisa Simpson
"That's [a] good question. More than likely it will never be answered to your complete satisfaction. But then, how many questions ever are?"
-Harlan Ellison ('Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman)
"Did you have one of those days today, like a nail in the foot? Did the pterodactyl corpse dropped by the ghost of your mother from the spectral Hindenburg forever circling the Earth come smashing through the lid of your glass coffin? Did the New York strip steak you attacked at dinner suddenly show a mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth, and did it snap off the end of your fork, the last solid-gold fork from the set Anastasia pressed into your hands as they took her away to be shot? Is the slab under your apartment building moaning that it cannot stand the weight on its back a moment longer, and is the building stretching and creaking? Did a good friend betray you today, or did that good friend merely keep silent and fail to come to your aid? Are you holding the razor at your throat this very instant? Take heart, comfort is at hand. This is the hour that stretches. Djan karet. We are the cavalry. We're here. Put away the pills. We'll get you through this bloody night. Next time, it'll be your turn to help us."
- Harlan Ellison (Eidolons)
"In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine."
- Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
"There is no rational ground of any sort or kind for keeping a child ignorant of anything he may wish to know..."
-Bertrand Russell (Why I am Not a Christian)
"No man can pass as educated who had heard only one side on questions as to which the public is divided."
Bertrand Russell (Why I am Not a Christian)
"It is interesting to see how the the theory of what is called the Christian church sprung out of the tail of the heathen Mythology...A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by making the reputed founder celestially begotten. The trinity of gods that then followed is no other then the reduction of the former plurality, which was about 20 or 30 thousand. The statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana at Ephesus; the deification of heroes became the canonization of the saints; the Mythologists had gods for everything; the Christian Mythologists had Saints for everything; The church became as crowded with one as the Pantheon had been with the other, and Rome was the place of both"
-Thomas Paine (Age of Reason)
"The real flavor of a place can only be gained by wandering leisurely, talking to people, smelling, feeling, tasting the land at close range and slow pace. In short, interstates may give us velocity, but only backroads can give us roots."
- Boyd and Barbara Norton, "Backroads of Colorado"
"A place is yours when you know where all the roads go."
- Steven King in "Down East"