Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[John K]

If you get two paleoanthropologists into a room they are likely to come out with three theories of human evolution, and by the time the door shuts behind them, all will be out of date.

_ Ian Morris Why the West Rules--for Now

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by rkomar

@astrangerhere: Hey! How about giving a spoiler alert next time!

Not going to lie, I genuinely laughed at that one.

[BenG]

“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.”

- Gore Vidal, Screening History

[BenG]

He [Isaac Asimov] had writer's block once. It was the worst ten minutes of his life.

— Attributed to Harlan Ellison, quoted in Page Fright : Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers (2009) by Harry Bruce

[covingtoncat73]

"Sartre said that hell is other people, I believe that most of them are."

~Van Morrison, "Goin' Down to Monte Carlo"

[Justin Thyme]

"She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal." ― Simone de Beauvoir,

[WT Sharpe]

.....La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.
.....The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
..........— Anatole France (born Jacques Anatole François Thibault, 1844–1924), French poet, journalist, and novelist. Le Lys Rouge (The Red Lily, 1894).

[covingtoncat73]

A few from my two most recent reads.

“I stood looking over my damaged home and tried to forget the sweetness of life on Earth.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

“Hell is the absence of the people you long for.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

“Hodges remembers an old saying: even on the darkest day, the sun shines on some dog’s ass.”
― Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes

“I’m crying because we’re here,” he says. “On a beautiful fall day that feels like summer.”
― Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes

[poohbear_nc]

"Never say you know the last word about any human heart."
-- Henry James

[BenG]

“These memories, which are my life—for we possess nothing certainly except the past—were always with me.”
— Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

[Lin2412]

"Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone,
I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.
I give ye my Spirit, 'til our Life shall be Done."
(Chapter 14, "A Marriage Takes Place", p. 195)

I think this is sweet. This one is from Outlander and I always loved this kind of vows, because I also find the one that was supposed to be the marriage vow for Game of Thrones to be romantic.

Father, Smith, Warrior, Mother, Maiden, Crone, Stranger, I am hers and she is mine from this day until the end of my days.

[Angst]

Who was the guy who first looked at a cow and said 'I think I’ll drink whatever comes out of these when I squeeze ’em?

― Bill Watterson

[WT Sharpe]

.....This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard.
..........— Neil [Richard MacKinnon] Gaiman (1960- ), English author. "Pens, Rules, Finishing Things and Why Stephin Merritt is not Grouchy" by Neil Gaiman, posted 1:07 AM, Sunday, May 2, 2004.

[AlexBell]

"War is waged by men; not by beasts, or by gods. It is a peculiarly human activity. To call it a crime against mankind is to miss at least half its significance; it is also the punishment of a crime."

Frederic Manning, from The Middle Parts of Fortune

[AlexBell]

"but they [top brass] seem to go on from saying that losses are unavoidable, to thinking that they're necessary, and from that, to thinking that they don't matter."

Frederic Manning, from The Middle Parts of Fortune