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Favorite Quotes
- Thread starter AbsoluteZero
- Start date
Ms.
New Member
''Could this have been love? Grant it to be one form of love, for even though at first glance it seemed to retain its pristine form forever, simply repeating that form over and over again, it too had its own unique sort of debasement and decay. And it was a debasement more evil that that of any normal kind of love. Indeed, of all the kinds of decay in this world, decadent purity is the most malignant.
Nevertheless, in my unrequited love for Omi, in this the first love I encountered in life, I seemed like a baby bird keeping its truly innocent animal lusts hidden under its wing. I was being tempted, not by the desire for possession, but simply by unadorned temptation itself.
To say the least, while at school, particularly during a boring class, I could not take my eyes off Omi’s profile. What more could I have done when I did not know that to love is both to seek and to be sought? For me love was nothing but a dialogue of little riddles, with no answers given. As for my spirit of adoration, I never even imagined it to be a thing that required some sort of answer.'' - Confessions Of A Mask - Yukio Mishima (Pages 72-73)
Nevertheless, in my unrequited love for Omi, in this the first love I encountered in life, I seemed like a baby bird keeping its truly innocent animal lusts hidden under its wing. I was being tempted, not by the desire for possession, but simply by unadorned temptation itself.
To say the least, while at school, particularly during a boring class, I could not take my eyes off Omi’s profile. What more could I have done when I did not know that to love is both to seek and to be sought? For me love was nothing but a dialogue of little riddles, with no answers given. As for my spirit of adoration, I never even imagined it to be a thing that required some sort of answer.'' - Confessions Of A Mask - Yukio Mishima (Pages 72-73)
Libre
Member
"You see, I went on with this research just the way it led me. That is the only way I ever heard of research going. I asked a question, devised some method of getting as answer, and got - a fresh question. Was this possible, or that possible? You cannot imagine what this means to an investigator, what an intellectual passion grows about him. You cannot imagine the strange colourless delight of these intellectual desires. The thing before you is no longer an animal, a fellow-creature, but a problem."
The Island of Dr. Moreau H.G. Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau H.G. Wells
Breaca
Member
'I never looked for it, gave it no name, yet I knew it always, when the gift of peace came.' Voyager - Diana Gabaldon
'I look back on my course of action as lunacy; and yet at the time it seemed the only way out.' Watcher in the Shadow - Geoffrey Household
'Sometimes incredbly good things happen even late in the game.' 'Life offers you a thousand chances... all you have to do is take one.' Under the Tuscan Sun
'I look back on my course of action as lunacy; and yet at the time it seemed the only way out.' Watcher in the Shadow - Geoffrey Household
'Sometimes incredbly good things happen even late in the game.' 'Life offers you a thousand chances... all you have to do is take one.' Under the Tuscan Sun
MonkeyCatcher
New Member
I was laughing for a long time over this one:
"[the lock for the key]could be a safe-deposit box...or some kind of fire-retardant cabinet." That made me crack up a little, even though I know there's nothing funny about being a mental retard - Oskar Schell - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
"[the lock for the key]could be a safe-deposit box...or some kind of fire-retardant cabinet." That made me crack up a little, even though I know there's nothing funny about being a mental retard - Oskar Schell - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Here's one of my favourite quotes from Joyce; a priest explaining one of the torments of hell:
-- Last and crowning torture of all the tortures of that awful place is the eternity of hell. Eternity! O, dread and dire word. Eternity! What mind of man can understand it? And remember, it is an eternity of pain. Even though the pains of hell were not so terrible as they are, yet they would become infinite, as they are destined to last for ever. But while they are everlasting they are at the same time, as you know, intolerably intense, unbearably extensive. To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell for ever? For ever! For all eternity! Not for a year or for an age but for ever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny little grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness; and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of the air: and imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been all carried away, and if the bird came again and carried it all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals, at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would scarcely have begun.
Blows my mind every time!
(from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ch. 3)
-- Last and crowning torture of all the tortures of that awful place is the eternity of hell. Eternity! O, dread and dire word. Eternity! What mind of man can understand it? And remember, it is an eternity of pain. Even though the pains of hell were not so terrible as they are, yet they would become infinite, as they are destined to last for ever. But while they are everlasting they are at the same time, as you know, intolerably intense, unbearably extensive. To bear even the sting of an insect for all eternity would be a dreadful torment. What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell for ever? For ever! For all eternity! Not for a year or for an age but for ever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny little grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness; and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of the air: and imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been all carried away, and if the bird came again and carried it all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals, at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would scarcely have begun.
Blows my mind every time!
(from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ch. 3)
WoundedThorns
New Member
"if there is a god, then he's not worth praying to"
from white oleander
i just love it. i dunno why. simple and to the point. i'm not too religious and i'm at that phase where i do question the existance of god b/c of my past/present.
and i do agree with it. if there is a god, he's not worth praying to
from white oleander
i just love it. i dunno why. simple and to the point. i'm not too religious and i'm at that phase where i do question the existance of god b/c of my past/present.
and i do agree with it. if there is a god, he's not worth praying to
SFG75
Well-Known Member
--"The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. "You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray, what remains for you?"
"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up for it.-- The Sign of the Four.
"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up for it.-- The Sign of the Four.
Scout11
New Member
Favourite Book Quotes
What are some of your favorite book quotes? I am making a list of mine!
Some include...
“ Naw Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
~To Kill A Mockingbird
“Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting”
~The Kite Runner
“Love me, because love doesn’t exist, and I have tried everything that does”
~ Everything Is Illuminated
What are some of your favorite book quotes? I am making a list of mine!
Some include...
“ Naw Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
~To Kill A Mockingbird
“Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting”
~The Kite Runner
“Love me, because love doesn’t exist, and I have tried everything that does”
~ Everything Is Illuminated
eyez0nme
New Member
What do you consider the best quote?
In one of our member's signature?
I remember, something to the effect: When you try to impress, and not communicate, you've already failed.
That was profound and meaningful to me, maybe, because I'm a writer.
Do you know who that is? So I can correctly quote his sig?
In one of our member's signature?
I remember, something to the effect: When you try to impress, and not communicate, you've already failed.
That was profound and meaningful to me, maybe, because I'm a writer.
Do you know who that is? So I can correctly quote his sig?
mehastings
Active Member
More merging here.
KinkedSlinky
New Member
"I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health. Yes I meant for him to die."
"Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."
"Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle."
"All hours are midnight."
-George R.R. Martin
-A Strom of Swords (or) A Feast for Crows
"will he always come between us?"
"Yes," said Ela. "Like a bridge he'll come between us, not a wall."
-Orson Scott Card
-Speaker For the Dead
"Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."
"Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle."
"All hours are midnight."
-George R.R. Martin
-A Strom of Swords (or) A Feast for Crows
"will he always come between us?"
"Yes," said Ela. "Like a bridge he'll come between us, not a wall."
-Orson Scott Card
-Speaker For the Dead
bookworm fellow
Member
Oh I knew there was a thread about quotes somewhere in these forums Great, I was looking for it.
My undergoing reading is very interesting. Balzac’s pen is great for basically three reasons: a) his tales are interesting; b) his personages are very well detailed in its physical look and demeanor, what brings to the reader a higher level of reality or “inside-tale sensation” (I’ve just crazily invented this expression. Is it understandable? lol); and c) he described his society - the XIX Paris society – also very well and detailed. And it’s not me who says, but Friedrich Engels (really, I read about it in a Balzac biography, as I previously said in another post).
And there is a scene in this “The harlot high and low” in which a personage named Peyrade, an old guy who worked as a spy in many historically important events of the French history, says to his daughter that they will have to find a husband for her and then he asks the girl if she ever had seen someone she would like to marry. She says she was interested in a guy named Lucien de Rumbempré. For those who don’t know the tale, I’d better give an idea of who is this Lucien guy: he’s a good looking personage of some other Balzac’s “Human Comedy” series that lives a fortunate life without actually working. He basically uses his uncommon high level of physical beauty to seduce the rich women and marry them. That’s it, I’ll not give any more explanations about him since it’s not the place neither the time to do so. The thing is that the girl’s father Peyrade answers her the following - and this very speech of him is the quotation I think it's opportune in this thread’s discussion:
“The fact that a man is handsome is not always a sign of goodness. Young men gifted with an attractive appearance meet with no obstacles at the beginning of life, so they make no use of any talent; they are corrupted by the advances made to them by society, and they have to pay interest later for their attractiveness!”
I saw an interesting point in this balzacian quotation due to the time it was written. In the XIX century men were supposed to work and women were supposed to do only these three things: to be petty, to marry someone male and rich or from a good/respected family and to do housework. Well, concerning this last duty, I think some women – the really rich ones – were not expected to do. I think. I’m not sure. Anyway, this social conception seem to become to change only in the XX century, thanks to the feminist movements around the world. There is a famous book published in the US in the middle of the XX century entitled “The Feminine Mystique” (I don’t know if anyone ever read it, but I think it’s possible that some of you mates did) that explains very well this women’s movements. And it says that before the feminism - and it includes the Balzac’s lifetime period - women were supposed to do those functions I’ve exposed above, because there was a social though according to which women were not capable to make their own money and that the only way for a woman to be realized in her life would be trough marriage, otherwise she would be fated to misery or prostitution. Bizarre though, but it was accepted for almost everyone in that époque. Of course it has changed after the feminism, due to the wars and the need for workers in the factories, since men went to war and many of them died, etc, and etc...
I’ve never seen or heard of other literary work from the XIX century in which a male personage was doing what women were supposed to do, according to the époque’s common manners. I was surprised Balzac exposed this truth, breaking that stereotype. It’s like he was careless enough about the critiques to say there are men that make money without working, that it was a fact and that men were hypocrite to say the contrary. The more I read balzacian stuff I realize better why some say he did a great social favor to women.
That doesn’t means this author was a women protector. He just exposed the reality in his fictitious tales. (Hum… that sounds interesting, huh? A very original way to expose sociological aspects of a society…) Because there are male personages of the “Human Comedy” that are very… how can I say… distinguished or exemplary, whatever. But the rule is that balzacian personages are very human, I mean, they’re very real. I'm saying that there are no heroes (males or neither females) between these personages. Each one has their own bad characteristics.
Great, I was looking for it.My undergoing reading is very interesting. Balzac’s pen is great for basically three reasons: a) his tales are interesting; b) his personages are very well detailed in its physical look and demeanor, what brings to the reader a higher level of reality or “inside-tale sensation” (I’ve just crazily invented this expression. Is it understandable? lol); and c) he described his society - the XIX Paris society – also very well and detailed. And it’s not me who says, but Friedrich Engels (really, I read about it in a Balzac biography, as I previously said in another post).
And there is a scene in this “The harlot high and low” in which a personage named Peyrade, an old guy who worked as a spy in many historically important events of the French history, says to his daughter that they will have to find a husband for her and then he asks the girl if she ever had seen someone she would like to marry. She says she was interested in a guy named Lucien de Rumbempré. For those who don’t know the tale, I’d better give an idea of who is this Lucien guy: he’s a good looking personage of some other Balzac’s “Human Comedy” series that lives a fortunate life without actually working. He basically uses his uncommon high level of physical beauty to seduce the rich women and marry them. That’s it, I’ll not give any more explanations about him since it’s not the place neither the time to do so. The thing is that the girl’s father Peyrade answers her the following - and this very speech of him is the quotation I think it's opportune in this thread’s discussion:
“The fact that a man is handsome is not always a sign of goodness. Young men gifted with an attractive appearance meet with no obstacles at the beginning of life, so they make no use of any talent; they are corrupted by the advances made to them by society, and they have to pay interest later for their attractiveness!”
I saw an interesting point in this balzacian quotation due to the time it was written. In the XIX century men were supposed to work and women were supposed to do only these three things: to be petty, to marry someone male and rich or from a good/respected family and to do housework. Well, concerning this last duty, I think some women – the really rich ones – were not expected to do. I think. I’m not sure. Anyway, this social conception seem to become to change only in the XX century, thanks to the feminist movements around the world. There is a famous book published in the US in the middle of the XX century entitled “The Feminine Mystique” (I don’t know if anyone ever read it, but I think it’s possible that some of you mates did) that explains very well this women’s movements. And it says that before the feminism - and it includes the Balzac’s lifetime period - women were supposed to do those functions I’ve exposed above, because there was a social though according to which women were not capable to make their own money and that the only way for a woman to be realized in her life would be trough marriage, otherwise she would be fated to misery or prostitution. Bizarre though, but it was accepted for almost everyone in that époque. Of course it has changed after the feminism, due to the wars and the need for workers in the factories, since men went to war and many of them died, etc, and etc...
I’ve never seen or heard of other literary work from the XIX century in which a male personage was doing what women were supposed to do, according to the époque’s common manners. I was surprised Balzac exposed this truth, breaking that stereotype. It’s like he was careless enough about the critiques to say there are men that make money without working, that it was a fact and that men were hypocrite to say the contrary. The more I read balzacian stuff I realize better why some say he did a great social favor to women.
That doesn’t means this author was a women protector. He just exposed the reality in his fictitious tales. (Hum… that sounds interesting, huh? A very original way to expose sociological aspects of a society…) Because there are male personages of the “Human Comedy” that are very… how can I say… distinguished or exemplary, whatever. But the rule is that balzacian personages are very human, I mean, they’re very real. I'm saying that there are no heroes (males or neither females) between these personages. Each one has their own bad characteristics.
helgi
New Member
hey scout, I like the icon of the glasses on the open book!!..... It reminds me of when my girlfriend lost her glasses while she was sun bathing!