"Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die" from The Importance of Being Earnest-Oscar Wilde
"Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die" from The Importance of Being Earnest-Oscar Wilde
Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions!
the whole boatload of sensitive!
— Allen Ginsberg, Howl II.
More good Orwell:
"Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings."
"The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it."
"As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me." [He was fighting in the Spanish Civil War at the time]
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
"I have no particular love for the idealised 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on."
Smart man, that Eric Arthur Blair.
What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
- Gertrude Stein
A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
- Virginia Woolf
"Not only does the English Language borrow words from other languages, it sometimes chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the head, and goes through their pockets." - Eddy Peters
I had a booger of a time finding this quote in its original form, attributed to the correct person. Anyway, it's apparently fairly common in lexical circles, but even if it should some day become a cliche I'll still be free to love it because I found it before the world did! ^_^
I also love the quote in my signature--Kate DiCamillo is the author of the book it's from. She's the one that wrote "Because of Winn-Dixie," which won a Newbery Honor (*is jealous*) and which I STILL haven't read because somebody stole it from the university library!
The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer, dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story.- The Tale of Despereaux
"Time's glory is to command contending kings,
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light."
-Shakespeare
What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
- Gertrude Stein
A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
- Virginia Woolf
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
Samuel Becket
Se puede matar el hombre
Pero no mataran la forma
En que se alegraba su alma
Cuando souaba ser libre
......
They can kill a man/but they cannot kill the way /his soul rejoices/when it dreams/that it is free
....
A folklore song from Venecuela
Oooo. The quote in your signature is quite nice, Summer.Originally Posted by SummerSolstice
"Not only does the English Language borrow words from other languages, it sometimes chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the head, and goes through their pockets." - Eddy Peters
I had a booger of a time finding this quote in its original form, attributed to the correct person. Anyway, it's apparently fairly common in lexical circles, but even if it should some day become a cliche I'll still be free to love it because I found it before the world did! ^_^
I also love the quote in my signature--Kate DiCamillo is the author of the book it's from. She's the one that wrote "Because of Winn-Dixie," which won a Newbery Honor (*is jealous*) and which I STILL haven't read because somebody stole it from the university library!
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
Isn't it, though? If you have even a passing interest in fairy tales or children's lit, or just have a bit of sentimentality and innocence in you that hasn't been seared away by modern cynicism, you should read that book. It's really pretty short, despite its ponderous size (thanks to large print, deep margins, and glorious full-page pencil illustrations every now and then).
The full title is The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread. The whole book has the very same lovely, personal, cozy tone of the quote, which precedes the story on a little page by itself. The narrator frequently makes asides to the audience, whom she addresses as "Dear Reader," and the balance of focus and pacing she achieves is so ideal for a story of this kind that I personally believe it could never, ever be improved upon. I checked it out from the library, read it through three times (not counting the parts I read again just because I liked them so much) over the couple of weeks I carried it around in my backpack before I regretfully returned it. I'm going to ask for my own copy for Christmas.
(Can you tell I liked this book?)
The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer, dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story.- The Tale of Despereaux
Is not a uniform suffering preferable to one which , by its ups and downs, is liable at certain moments to encourage the view that perhaps after all it is not eternal?
Becket
Se puede matar el hombre
Pero no mataran la forma
En que se alegraba su alma
Cuando souaba ser libre
......
They can kill a man/but they cannot kill the way /his soul rejoices/when it dreams/that it is free
....
A folklore song from Venecuela
It will come to those who wait - Tolstoy
At thunder and tempest, At the world's coldheartedness,
During times of heavy loss And when you're sad
The greatest art on earth Is to seem uncomplicatedly gay.
To get things clear, they have to firstly be very unclear. But if you get them too quickly, you probably got them wrong.
If you need me urgent, send me a PM
"In return to all these concessions, I desire of the philosophers to grant me that there is in some (I believe in many) human breasts a kind and benevolent disposition which is gratified by contributing to the happiness of others. That in this graification alone, as in friendship, in parental and filial affection, and indeed in general philanthropy, there is a great and exquisite delight. That if we will not call such disposition love, we have no name for it. That though the pleasures arising from such pure love may be hightened and sweetened by the assistance of amorous desires, yet the former can subsist alone, nor are they destroyed by the intervention of the latter."
-Fielding in Tom Jones
What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
- Gertrude Stein
A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
- Virginia Woolf
"Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't even be human"
-Phillip Pullman (who, I hope to nobody's surprise, writes stories for a living).
What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
- Gertrude Stein
A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
- Virginia Woolf
"Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us."
-Tolstoy
What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
- Gertrude Stein
A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
- Virginia Woolf
"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." ~ James Joyce, Ulysses
"Haunt me, take any form. Only, do not leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you."
"I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish."
Curious Incident of Dog at Mid-night Time
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
"While there is tea, there is hope." Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
"Where mind meets matter, both should woo!"Currently reading:
* Paradise Lost by John Milton
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