“The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane. Each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, is a mongrel mouthful of Chaucerian, Shakespearean, Miltonic, Johnsonian, Dickensian and American. Military, naval, legal, corporate, criminal, jazz, rap and ghetto discourses are mingled at every turn. The French language, like Paris, has attempted, through its Academy, to retain its purity, to fight the advancing tides of Franglais and international prefabrication. English, by comparison, is a shameless whore.”
― Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
“Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins”
― Gustave Flaubert, November
@edgarblythe,
Mr Fry has omitted sexual innuendo but he is said to be a bit ascetic.
@spendius,
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
Attributed to Groucho Marx
“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society
“Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.”
― Rumi, The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
“I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping...I hear it in the deep heart's core.”
― W.B. Yeats
@edgarblythe,
"I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFN6alT38x4
@spendius,
"Few talents are more commercially sought today than the knack of describing departures from the Protestant Ethic as reaffirmations of it."
William H. Whyte. The Organization Man. 1956.
“I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet
“It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago”
― Dan C. Quayle
@edgarblythe,
Poor Dan. Someday when he really says something ironic or sarcastic, funny or something else, everyone will still just think "Dumb ole Dan".
"The first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves."
Walter Anderson
@Lustig Andrei,
Have you ever tried it Andrei?
Or is it just one of those fanciful abstract ideas that allow you to pose as a superior being?
@spendius,
I try to do it constantly, Spendi. That's how I learned the difference between the words "humility" and "humiliation." To try and see oneself as one is and as others see one shows humility. To succeed in this effort often causes a sense of humiliation.
Of course I could always just quote Polonius' advice to Laertes to you.
@Lustig Andrei,
It sure does. What did Polonius have to say?
@spendius,
Forget it old boy. I know. Load of drivel imo. Piss taking.
@spendius,
I assumed you knew quite well what Polonius tells Laertes. His little spiel concludes with "And this, above all, to thine own self be true and it follows then, as day follows night, that thou canst be false to no man." That's quoted from memory so I might be off by a word or two but the gist of it is right. And, incidentally, I think the doddering old Polonius has been badly maligned by later commentators and Shakespearean scholars. His advice to Laertes is spot on. I don't for a moment believe that Shakespeare intended it to be taken satirically.
“The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti
“Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.”
― Norman Mailer
“CALVIN:
This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn't make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery?
If the guy exists why doesn't he ever show himself and prove it?
And if he doesn't exist what's the meaning of all this?
HOBBES:
I dunno. Isn't this a religious holiday?
CALVIN:
Yeah, but actually, I've got the same questions about God.”
― Bill Watterson
