Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by bfisher

“ ‘Bears is sixpence extra ... Sticky bears is ninepence.’ ”
- A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond (13 January 1926 - 27 June 2017)

[BenG]

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing.
Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things… And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money.
I CORINTHIANS XIII (adapted)

― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying

[kennyc]

"Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone. That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality — a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloneness, for it is a knowledge that can paralyze all action in this world. There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed. None of these things can be done alone. But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place."

-James Baldwin from "The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction"

[astrangerhere]

Two from recently finished reads:

"[N]othing provokes curiosity so much as someone else’s misfortune once you know you’re not responsible for it."

Abe Kobo | The Ruined Map

"Maybe that’s what a reputation is: the moment when a presence fabricates, for those observing, an illusory precedent."

Juan Gabriel Vasquez | Reputations

[kennyc]

"It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight."
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (born July 3, 1860) is best known for her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, in which the narrator's journal entries document her psychotic break.

[covingtoncat73]

“I know now that these conquerors, like many others before them, and no doubt like others after, gave speeches not to voice the truth, but to create it." ― Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

“I know now that these conquerors, like many others before them, and no doubt like others after, gave speeches not to voice the truth, but to create it." ― Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account

I'm stealing that one!

[kennyc]

"Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig."
- Robert A. Heinlein

Happy Birthday Today!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by kennyc

"Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig."
- Robert A. Heinlein

Happy Birthday Today!

I used to keep a notebook of Heinlein quotations which I added to as I read my way through his books. Wish I still had it.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by orlok

I used to keep a notebook of Heinlein quotations which I added to as I read my way through his books. Wish I still had it.

The 'Notebooks of Lazarus Long' sections of Time Enough for Love are my favorite thing he wrote!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by kennyc

The 'Notebooks of Lazarus Long' sections of Time Enough for Love are my favorite thing he wrote!

My fave of all his novels .

[kennyc]

"Grok"
- Robert A. Heinlein

[BenG]

The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion…

When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

… No popular Government was ever without its Catalines & its Cæsars. These are its true enemies.

Alexander Hamilton, “Objections and Answers respecting the Administration of the Government”, August 18, 1792

https://founders.archives.gov/docume...2-02-0184-0002

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by BenG

Alexander Hamilton, “Objections and Answers respecting the Administration of the Government”, August 18, 1792

https://founders.archives.gov/docume...2-02-0184-0002

Perfect! The Nostradamus of 1792!

[covingtoncat73]

From "The Fireman: A Novel" by Joe Hill -

“She came back from the eighties to save mankind. Martha Quinn is our only hope.”

And another from my re-read:

"Sometimes I think with half the world on fire—with so much dying and so much pain—it’s a special kind of sin to sing and feel good. But then I think, well, even before Dragonscale, most human lives were unfair, brutal, full of loss and grief and confusion. Most human lives were and are too short. Most people have lived out their days hungry and barefoot, on the run from this war and that famine, a plague here and a flood there. But people have to sing anyway. Even a baby that hasn’t been fed in days will stop crying and look around when they hear someone singing in joy. You sing and it’s like giving a thirsty person water. It’s a kindness. It makes you shine. The proof that you matter is in your song and in the way you light up for one another."