Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

"and God bless you, everyone"
- Tiny Tim (Dickens)

[WT Sharpe]

No steel can pierce the human heart so chillingly as a period at the right moment.
— Isaac Babel (1894-1941), Russian short-story writer. "Guy de Maupassant" (1924) (translation by Max Hayward).

[wayspooled]

"He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." - Rafael Sabatini - from Scaramouche
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"The wind howled. Lightning stabbed at the earth erratically, like an inefficient assassin. Thunder rolled back and forth across the dark, rain-lashed hills.

The night was as black as the inside of a cat. It was the kind of night, you could believe, on which gods moved men as though they were pawns on the chessboard of fate. In the middle of this elemental storm a fire gleamed among the dripping furze bushes like the madness in a weasel’s eye. It illuminated three hunched figures. As the cauldron bubbled an eldritch voice shrieked: “When shall we three meet again?”

There was a pause.

Finally another voice said, in far more ordinary tones: “Well, I can do next Tuesday.”"

Terry Pratchett from Wyrd Sisters
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[WT Sharpe]

From The Devil's Dictionary (1911) by Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914):

APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offense.

[WT Sharpe]

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
— Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English jurist and philosopher. The Essays (1625); "Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature."

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.
— Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English jurist and philosopher. The Essays (1625); "Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature."

[WT Sharpe]

Ryan Howell of San Francisco State University and colleagues asked volunteers questions about their recent purchases. The researchers found that people reported "experiential purchases", such as trips to the theatre or travel, as bringing them more happiness than material purchases such as clothes. A concrete purchase may have cost more and lasted longer but a good experience brought more pleasure.
— Mark Buchanan (1961- ). "Why money messes with your mind", New Scientist magazine (21 March 2009).

[covingtoncat73]

"And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi."

~The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi."

~The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry

Love it!

[covingtoncat73]

“And we weren’t a species interested in facts, as such. We were more into evading or spinning them.”


― Adrian Barnes, Nod

[covingtoncat73]

Thanks!


“And we weren’t a species interested in facts, as such. We were more into evading or spinning them.”


― Adrian Barnes, Nod

[WT Sharpe]

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor. . . . Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men’s thoughts, to speak other men’s words, to follow other men’s habits.

-- Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), English economist and essayist. "The Character of Sir Robert Peel" (I856).

[Bart Page]

"Kings never lie. They demand the world be mistaken."

The Darkness that Comes Before
R. Scott Bakker

[kennyc]

"Human beings can’t live without the illusion of meaning."
- Jayne Anne Phillips Essay: Why She Writes

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Bart Page

"Kings never lie. They demand the world be mistaken."

The Darkness that Comes Before
R. Scott Bakker

Love it!