Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[BenG]

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

--Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry

[WT Sharpe]

.....The sons of torture victims make good terrorists.
..........— André Georges Malraux (1901-1976), French writer, aviator, art historian and statesman. La Condition humaine (1933).

[kennyc]

"Perhaps the most extraordinary survival yet found was that of a Streptococcus bacterium that was recovered from the sealed lens of a camera that had stood on the Moon for two years."
-- Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything: Ch 20 Small World.

[WT Sharpe]

.....'I am not accustomed to talk rot,' he said. 'Then, for a beginner,' I said, 'you do it dashed well.'
..........— P.G. Wodehouse (1881 – 1975), English writer. Right Ho, Jeeves (1934).

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....'I am not accustomed to talk rot,' he said. 'Then, for a beginner,' I said, 'you do it dashed well.'
..........— P.G. Wodehouse (1881 – 1975), English writer. Right Ho, Jeeves (1934).

Nice avatar, Tom

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Nice avatar, Tom

Thanks! It'll revert to it's original state come the new year.

[mgscarsbrook]

On Quoting Shakespeare

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Bernard Levin

It's a long quote, but a great one!

- M. G. Scarsbrook
Author of The Marlowe Conspiracy
Website: http://www.mgscarsbrook.com

[WT Sharpe]

.....[E]ver will a coward show no mercy, and always a good man will do ever to another man as he would be done to himself.
..........— Sir Thomas Mallory (c. 1408-1471), author. Le Morte d’Authur (1485). Quoted in William Henry Schofield, Chivalry in English Literature: Chaucer, Malory, Spenser, and Shakespeare (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1912), page 96.

Detail from The Last Sleep of Arthur by Edward Burne-Jones, who often found inspiration in Le Morte d'Arthur.
(Public domain image downloaded from Wikipedia — click to enlarge.)

[WT Sharpe]

.....The less a man knows the more certain he is that he knows it, and the more a man knows the better satisfied he is that he is entirely ignorant.
..........— Col. Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), American lawyer, orator, freethinker. 44 Complete Lectures (M.A. Donohue & Company, 1924), "Intellectual Development."

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....The less a man knows the more certain he is that he knows it, and the more a man knows the better satisfied he is that he is entirely ignorant.
..........— Col. Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), American lawyer, orator, freethinker. 44 Complete Lectures (M.A. Donohue & Company, 1924), "Intellectual Development."

I love that one Tom! Seems I've heard the same idea expressed a few different ways. I wonder what the origin is....

[poohbear_nc]

When we were a soft amoeba, in ages past and gone,
Ere you were the Queen of Sheba, or I King Solomon,
Alone and undivided, we lived a life of sloth,
Whatever you did, I did; one dinner served for both.
Anon came separation, by fission and divorce,
A lonely pseudopodium I wandered on my course.

by Sir Arthur Shipley

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

When we were a soft amoeba, in ages past and gone,
Ere you were the Queen of Sheba, or I King Solomon,
Alone and undivided, we lived a life of sloth,
Whatever you did, I did; one dinner served for both.
Anon came separation, by fission and divorce,
A lonely pseudopodium I wandered on my course.

by Sir Arthur Shipley

I sometimes think it's sad that in some sense we have all been alive for the past three to four billion years, yet each one of us alive today after all that time shall surely die within decades. Perhaps my headstone should read, "WT Sharpe: 4,000,000,000 BCE - 2,0XX CE."

[WT Sharpe]

.....Be careful, — with quotations you can damn anything.
..........— André Malraux (1901-1976), French writer, aviator. Anti-censorship address, Assembly (November 12, 1966). Quoted in The Great Thoughts (1985, Introduction and a new compilation © 1996 by David Laskin) by George Seldes.

[WT Sharpe]

.....Foxx's own life was anything but a party.
.....He was born in 1922 as John Sanford in the ghetto of East St. Louis. His father walked out on the family, and his mother, who couldn't contend with John and his brother, Fred Sanford, sent them out to a Catholic boy's home in Chicago.
..........— Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon. Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America (2008), companion book to the PBS series of the same name.

.....In Harlem, John Sanford got the nickname Red because of his hair color and light skin, and he later added another d. Sometimes he was called Chicago Red to differentiate him from his pal Detroit Red — Malcolm Little, the young Malcolm X. "They busted suds together, they worked in the chicken shack tother,"� said Rey. "They were the best of friends. Redd and Malcolm whored together, stole things, robbed and stole. They did all sorts of little things, but they never got caught."
..........— Ibid.

[gmw]

it didn't stop being magic just because you found out how it was done

From The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

I've finished with the great and dark depths of Melville, I've started re-reading this one (and no, I'm not the targeted age-group, but I don't care, this is a great book).