Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[covingtoncat73]

“He remembered the words of Arsenius the Great: I have often regretted the things I have said, but I have never regretted my silence.”

― Evgenij Vodolazkin, Laurus

[AlexBell]

'Tell me! Tell me! Why is it so difficult to write simply -- and not only simply but sotto voce, if you know what I mean? That is how I long to write. No fine effects -- no bravura. But just the plain truth, as only a liar can tell it.'

Katherine Mansfield, in 'A Married Man's Story'.


I apologise if this should have gone in the Writing quotes thread. I'm not a writer, and felt uncomfortable putting it there.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

'Tell me! Tell me! Why is it so difficult to write simply -- and not only simply but sotto voce, if you know what I mean? That is how I long to write. No fine effects -- no bravura. But just the plain truth, as only a liar can tell it.'

Katherine Mansfield, in 'A Married Man's Story'.


I apologise if this should have gone in the Writing quotes thread. I'm not a writer, and felt uncomfortable putting it there.

Doesn't matter - I expect most of the writers read this thread too

And, I love the quote as a reader and a writer.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by gmw

Doesn't matter - I expect most of the writers read this thread too

And, I love the quote as a reader and a writer.

Thanks.

[BenG]

“How do we know Stephanie’s not just watering a friend’s plants?”
“Oh, she’s watering his plants all right,” said Keane.
“Congratulations,” I said. “That’s the worst euphemism for intercourse I’ve ever heard.”
“No,” said Keane. “Intercourse is the worst euphemism for intercourse you’ve ever heard."
― Robert Kroese, The Big Sheep

[kennyc]

Euphemistically speaking....

[covingtoncat73]

"So, that husband of yours is going to be at the party –
Well, I hope he chokes; let him drop dead, who cares?
How am I going to act? – just stare at the girl I'm in love with,
Be just one more guest, let some one else feel your breast,
Let some one else put his arms around you whenever he wants to,
Sit at your side, rub knees, lean on your shoulder a bit?"

Ovid, The Art of Love

[kennyc]

"People surprise you, Frank, with just how fuckin stupid they are."
- Richard Ford, The Sportswriter

[covingtoncat73]

"The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.

Here was another piece of evil nonsense which children were taught: that the sea pirates eventually created a government which became a beacon of freedom to human beings everywhere else."

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.

Here was another piece of evil nonsense which children were taught: that the sea pirates eventually created a government which became a beacon of freedom to human beings everywhere else."

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

[gmw]

As people grow older they come at length to live so much in memory that they often think with a kind of pleasure of losing their dearest blessings. Nothing can be so perfect while we possess it as it will seem when remembered. The friend we love best may sometimes weary us by his presence or vex us by his infirmities. How sweet to think of him as he will be to us after we have outlived him ten or a dozen years! Then we can recall him in his best moments, bid him stay with us as long as we want his company, and send him away when we wish to be alone again.

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Poet at the Breakfast Table", 1872

[WT Sharpe]

He’s a genuine example of a once common and now vanishing species known as the working-class intellectual, a blue-collar champion who not only isn’t afraid of books, but who embraces them with the religious conviction of self-improvement.

~ Chuck Thompson, Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession.

[BenG]

On vegetarianism:

"What kind?"
"Uh . . . you know, strict."
"With occasional lapses into lacto and ovo, huh?"
"Yes. Except on weekends and nights when I'm stoned. Then I'm a steako-lacto-ovo . . . or maybe a porkchopo-lacto-ovo . . ."

― Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City

[AlexBell]

'Peterle's grandmother pinned on shawl and apron ... and went forth to char ... This setting out of a morning was her panacea, her method of surmounting the dullness of existence. She savoured the excitement of seeing below the surface of strange households; forgot herself and her home troubles in sipping at the overflow of other people's fates.'

Henry Handel Richardson, in 'Life and death of Peterle Lundy'

[kennyc]

"Compassion is the basis of morality."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Goodreads Quote of the Day and Schopenhauer's birthday.
Influential German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (born February 22, 1788) wrote The World as Will and Representation, a Buddhist-influenced text that impacted the work of Nietzsche, Jung, and Freud, as well as Einstein.