Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[FlorenceArt]

PRESENT, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope.

Bierce, Ambrose. The Devil's Dictionary.

[covingtoncat73]

“... there's the fact of her being a hundred and four years old. I keep saying that's her age, but actually I'm just guessing. We don't really know for sure how old she is, and she claims she doesn't remember, either. When you ask her, she says, "Zuibun nagaku ikasarete itadaite orimasu ne."

.... (footnote) Zuibun nagaku ikasarete itadaite orimasu ne -- "I have been alive for a very long time, haven't I?" Totally impossible to translate, but the nuance is something like: "I have been caused to live by the deep conditions of the universe to which I am humbly and deeply grateful. P. Arai calls it the "gratitude tense," and says the beauty of this grammatical construction is that "there is no finger pointed to a source." She also says, "It is impossible to feel angry when using this tense.”

― Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

“... there's the fact of her being a hundred and four years old. I keep saying that's her age, but actually I'm just guessing. We don't really know for sure how old she is, and she claims she doesn't remember, either. When you ask her, she says, "Zuibun nagaku ikasarete itadaite orimasu ne."

.... (footnote) Zuibun nagaku ikasarete itadaite orimasu ne -- "I have been alive for a very long time, haven't I?" Totally impossible to translate, but the nuance is something like: "I have been caused to live by the deep conditions of the universe to which I am humbly and deeply grateful. P. Arai calls it the "gratitude tense," and says the beauty of this grammatical construction is that "there is no finger pointed to a source." She also says, "It is impossible to feel angry when using this tense.”

― Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

Hmmm, to me it sounds just like a very polite way to refuse to answer the question. The gratitude form doesn't really mean one is grateful, it's like when you say "Bless you" in English to someone who just sneezed, even if you couldn't care less wether they are about to die from avian flu or it's just a slight allergy.

[bfisher]

"Every time I learn a students name I forget a fish." - David Starr Jordan, icthyologist and founding President of Stanford
from "The Founding Fish" by John McPhee

[BenG]

"I am practicing being kind over being right.”
― Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook

[covingtoncat73]

A quote about love from Sandman, Vol. 9, The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman for your pre-Valentine's Day edification.

[covingtoncat73]

And it is Darwin's Birthday...

Originally Posted by BenG

"I am practicing being kind over being right.”
― Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook

From the film Harvey (Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd).

Elwood P. Dowd: Years ago, my mother used to say to me, she'd say "In this world, Elwood, you can be oh so so smart, or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.

And another,

Elwood P. Dowd: Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella." Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey... and he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that's envy, my dear. There's a little bit of envy in the best of us.

[BenG]

the snow doesn’t give a soft white damn Whom it touches.

― ee cummings

[BenG]

"His huff arrived and he departed in it."
― Alexander Woollcott.

[covingtoncat73]

“Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and selfand purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift. Your sister may be able to see the future, but you yourself can shape it, boy. Do not forget that... there are many kinds of magic, after all.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

[Angst]

When you drink alcohol you are just borrowing happiness from tomorrow.

--Anonymous

[BenG]

I want like hell to tell you. But I can’t. I quite literally can’t. Because, don’t you see, what I know is what I am? And I can’t tell you that. You have to find it out for yourself. I’m like a book you have to read. A book can’t read itself to you. It doesn’t even know what it’s about. I don’t know what I’m about.
— Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man

[xg4bx]

''Bewildered as he might be, sometimes a man's highest calling is simply to stand, and hug.'' Brent Weeks~The Blinding Knife

[WT Sharpe]

....."It has everything to do with it," Perry Mason said. A jury is an audience. It's a small audience, but it's an audience just the same. Now, the playwrights who are successful with plays have to know human nature. They recognize the fickleness of the mass mind. They know that it’s incapable of loyalty; that it’s incapable of holding any emotion for any great period of time. If there hadn’t been a chance to laugh after that dramatic scene in the play you saw, the play would have been a flop."
..........— Erle Stanley Gardner (1889 – March 11, 1970), American author and lawyer. From The Case of the Howling Dog (1934).