Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

~ Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Love it....mind twisting!

[issybird]

Speaking of the happy new year, I wonder if any year ever had less chance of being happy. It’s as though the whole race were indulging in a kind of species introversion — as though we looked inward on our neuroses. And the thing we see isn’t very pretty… So we go into this happy new year, knowing that our species has learned nothing, can, as a race, learn nothing — that the experience of ten thousand years has made no impression on the instincts of the million years that preceded.
- John Steinbeck, January 1, 1941

From Steinbeck: A Life in Letters

[issybird]

And, from Tsar Nicholas II's diary exactly a hundred years ago:

The year 1916 was cursed; 1917 will surely be better!

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

From Steinbeck: A Life in Letters

A great summation of 2016.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by issybird

And, from Tsar Nicholas II's diary exactly a hundred years ago: The year 1916 was cursed; 1917 will surely be better!

Oh my. I don't think he got his wish.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by issybird

And, from Tsar Nicholas II's diary exactly a hundred years ago:

/Fun fact. I had 2 second great grandfathers who died in 1917. Second great grandfather Fallon was i. His 70s and had one of his sons pre-decease him that year. Second great grandfather Hindermann was barely 60 but he was the Consul from Austria-Hungary to New Orleans. Probably the stress of WWI had something to do with his date of death.

[kennyc]

"There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for."
- J.R.R. Tolkien (born 1/3/1892)

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

[covingtoncat73]

"Miss Patternost told the girls that jazz was the Negro’s great contribution to world culture and that as far as she was concerned they could eat as many missionaries as they wanted, as long as they continued to produce such beautiful music. After all, said Miss Patternost, the various societies were churning out hundreds of missionaries every week but there was only one Louis Armstrong."

Aaronovitch, Ben. Moon Over Soho (PC Peter Grant Book 2) (Kindle Locations 4143-4146). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[kennyc]

LOL! Love it!

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by kennyc

LOL! Love it!

Thanks, Kenny.

"Tell Master Shakespeare something more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night."

~Judi Dench as QEI in Shakespeare in Love

Also a good quote:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

[covingtoncat73]

"To all men whose Desire only is to be rich and so to live a short life, but a merry one, I have no hesitation in recommending New Orleans." ~Henry Bradshaw Fearson, Sketches of America, 1919

[AlexBell]

'They say philosophers and the truly wise are indifferent. It is
false: indifference is the paralysis of the soul; it is premature death.

...Tell me what you want, and I will tell you what manner of man you are.'

Anton Chekhov in A Dreary Story

[Billi]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Tell me what you want, and I will tell you what manner of man you are.

Anton Chekhov in A Dreary Story

As there are many proverbs "Tell me what you ... and I tell you what ... " - does anyone know if Chekhov coined this phrase or have there been older uses?

[kennyc]

"I’ll probably die propped up in bed trying to write a poem about America.”
- Carl Sandburg

Happy Birthdate today!

Fog
BY CARL SANDBURG
The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.


Grass
BY CARL SANDBURG
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.


Chicago - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe.../12840

[covingtoncat73]

"If you are mad, be gone. If you have reason, be brief." W. Shakespeare, Twelth Night