Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[BenG]

Cacoethes Scribendi

If all the trees in all the woods were men;
And each and every blade of grass a pen;
If every leaf on every shrub and tree
Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea
Were changed to ink, and all earth's living tribes
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes,
And for ten thousand ages, day and night,
The human race should write, and write, and write,
Till all the pens and paper were used up,
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup,
Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink
Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

I noticed gmw's user title.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by BenG

I noticed gmw's user title.

And yet I had not seen that before. I love it!

[kennyc]

"Above all, the listener should be able to understand the poem or the song, not be forced to unravel a complicated, self-indulgent puzzle. Offer your art up to the whole world, not just an elite few."
- Lucinda Williams

[Vector]

Mrs. Lang, we are raising ourselves, however painfully, so that mankind may enjoy in the future a superior life which now we can hardly conceive! The foundations on which the new men will build their lives are Faith, Science, Respectabillity, Geology, Mechanical Invention, Ventilation and Rotation of Crops!

J.G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur

[kennyc]

Today 1/27 is Lewis Carroll's birthday.

"But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here."
— Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)


"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go."
— Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)


"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!"

— Lewis Carroll

[BenG]

"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

"Above all, the listener should be able to understand the poem or the song, not be forced to unravel a complicated, self-indulgent puzzle. Offer your art up to the whole world, not just an elite few."
- Lucinda Williams

I like that. There's much to be said for that point of view. On the other hand, there's also the importance of not always catering to the lowest common denominator.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I like that. There's much to be said for that point of view. On the other hand, there's also the importance of not always catering to the lowest common denominator.

I teach doctoral candidates, and I still struggle with this daily.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I teach doctoral candidates, and I still struggle with this daily.

It's not easy and the lines are not clearly drawn. As has been said, just because the water's muddy doesn't necessarily mean it's deep. On the other hand, just think of all the wonderful music for example that would disappear from the world if its continued existence were contingent on its appeal to the masses.

[FlorenceArt]

As I understand the quote, it doesn't advocate writing to please the masses, but writing so that they can understand.

[kennyc]

“Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.”
— Ernest Hemingway.

[astrangerhere]

'I'm sorry,' I said, aware even as I spoke, what useless things, really, words of sympathy are, even though they are sometimes all we have.

Alan Bradley, Speaking from Among the Bones

[kennyc]

Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof.
- Alice Walker born today 2/9/1944

[Billi]

Who knows nothing has to believe everything.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916, Austrian writer, "responsible" for many quotes)

[BenG]

Why is it the Mongols of this world always tell us they're defending us against the Mongols?
--Edward Whittemore, Nile Shadows