The intellectual equivalent of a ham sandwich.

Posts tagged ‘quotes’

Quotes of the Day!

Recently I read The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck. My wife loved it, I’ll give it a resounding “eh.” But Steinbeck did have a way with words, so while I didn’t love the book, I still really enjoyed his use of language. The quotes are of course better with the context of what is happening around them, but some are still nice even while isolated. And, I should add, the book is good, there is no doubt about that.

 

The banker’s voice became frosty. “I don’t understand.” His inflection said he did understand and found it stupid, and his tone twisted a bitterness in Ethan, and the bitterness spawned a lie.

 

It was the shocking discovery that makes a man wonder: If I’ve missed this, what else have I failed to see?

 

What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.

 

It has been my experience to put aside a decision for future pondering. Then one day, fencing a piece of time to face the problem, I have found it already completed, solved, and the verdict taken. This must happen to everyone, but I have no way of knowing that. It’s as though, in the dark and desolate caves of the mind, a faceless jury had met and decided.

 

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This, dear reader, is a picture of a good day.

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Quotes of the Day!

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Quotes of the Day!

Recently I read A Fine Balance (a recommendation from the fiance and many a ‘going to India’ reading list). The book is very good! I would definitely recommend it. A few quotes from the book won’t mean as much out of context, but I think a number of them are pretty even by themselves.

A lifetime had to be crafted, just like anything else, she thought, it had to be moulded and beaten and burnished in order to get the most out of it.

Their first day with Dina Dilal was over. Borne along by the homeward-bound flock, exhausted from ten hours of sewing, they shared the sanctity of the hour with the crowd, this time of transition from weariness to hope. Soon it would be night; they would borrow Rajaram’s stove, cook something, eat. They would weave their plans and dream the future into favourable patterns, till it was time to take the train tomorrow morning.

“You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.” He paused, considering what he had just said. “Yes,” he repeated. “In the end, it’s all a question of balance.”

“In those days,” continued Ishvar, “it seemed to me that that was all one could expect in life. A harsh road strewn with sharp stones and, if you were lucky, a little grain.”

“And later?”

“Later I discovered there were different types of roads. And a different way of walking on each.”

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Quotes of the Day!

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Quotes of the Day!

Recently I read Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain. This is the first time I’ve read a book by Mark Twain that was not for school … Classic, huh? Anywho, I finally read a book by him not by force and I enjoyed it. It was an interesting story, but much more so when you consider when he wrote it. Each chapter started with a little maxim from a work being done by one of the characters in the book (Pudd’nhead himself).

The following quotes are all from those pre-chapter maxims.

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Tell the truth or trump – but get the trick.

 

Adam was but human – this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

 

Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was, that they escaped teething.

 

Remark of Dr. Baldwin’s, concerning upstarts: We don’t care to eat toadstools that think they are truffles.

 

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

 

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

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