Quotes

[Eaquae Legit]

That really does sound about right. Except he's a lot windier in person.

[Hegemon]

That really does sound about right. Except he's a lot windier in person.

Thanks to that statement, whenever i read the quote i imagine farting in the background.

[Young Val]

Narrator: You need an objective observer to pass the story along.
Witch: Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it.

-Into the Woods

[AnthonyByakko]

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms…" Thomas Jefferson

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy" James Madison

"The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right" James Madison (a personal favorite of my fellow capitalists.)3

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms" James Madison

"When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is." Ayn Rand

"A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims." Ayn Rand

"It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." Daniel Webster

And most importantly...:

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

[anonshadow]

Wesley: Something you probably won't like to hear is that both artifacts are considered objects of good.
Angel: Oh. So the Chinese guy and the boil guy...
Wesley: Were also aligned with the forces of good.
Angel: Damn! So hard to tell these days. You know, they should wear lapel pins or something.

[AnthonyByakko]

Lorne: "I hate to be the boy that cried Apocalypse nowish, but..."
--
Gunn: What happened to you, man?
Wesley: I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me.
--

[Hegemon]

"Everything in this room is eatable. Even I'm eatable. But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in civilized society"

-- Willy Wonka from the recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie.

[anonshadow]

Holtz: You said you worked for the law.
Lilah: No, I didn't. I said I'm a lawyer. I don't care about the law.

[AnthonyByakko]

Lilah: I could wear the glasses again...
Wesley: Don't embarass yourself.
------
Cordelia: Were we in love?
Angel: ...no.
Cordelia: Was I a nun? Was that why we weren't in love, because I was a nun?

[Dr. Mobius]

There I go and start think.

[Young Val]

She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty. -A Perfect Day For Bananafish

"Do you like wax?" Sybil asked.

"Do I like what?" asked the young man.

"Wax."

"Very much. Don't you?"

Sybil nodded. "Do you like olives?" she asked.

"Olives--yes. Olives and wax. I never go anyplace without 'em."

"Do you like Sharon Lipschutz?" Sybil asked.

"Yes. Yes, I do," said the young man. "What I like particularly about her is that she never does anything mean to little dogs in the lobby of the hotel. That little toy bull that belongs to that lady from Canada, for instance. You probably won't believe this, but some little girls like to poke that little dog with balloon sticks. Sharon doesn't. She's never mean or unkind. That's why I like her so much."

Sybil was silent.

"I like to chew candles," she said finally.

"Who doesn't?" said the young man, getting his feet wet. -A Perfect Day For Bananafish

Granted I'm off today. I keep a good neurotic's calendar, and it's three years, to the day, since Seymour killed himself. Did I ever tell you what happened when I went down to Florida to bring back the body? I wept like a slob on the plane for five solid hours. Carefully adjusting my veil from time to time so that no one across the aisle could see me--I had a seat to myself, thank God. About five minutes before the plane landed, I became aware of people talking in the seat behind me. A woman was saying, with all of Back Bay Boston and most of Harvard Square in her voice, ". . . and the next morning, mind you, they took a pint of pus out of that lovely young body of hers." That's all I remember hearing, but when I got off the plane a few minutes later and the Bereaved Widow came toward me all in Bergdorf Goodman black, I had the Wrong Expression on my face. I was grinning. Which is exactly the way I feel today, for no really good reason. Against my better judgment, I feel certain that somewhere very near here--the first house down the road, maybe--there's a good poet dying, but also somewhere very near here somebody's having a hilarious pint of pus taken from her lovely young body, and I can't be running back and forth forever between grief and high delight. -Zooey

...Advanced Writing 24-A loaded me up with thirty-eight short stories to drag tearfully home for the weekend. Thirty-seven of them will be about a shy, reclusive Pennsylvania Dutch lesbian who Wants To Write, told first-person by a lecherous hired hand. In dialect. -Zooey

all Salinger quotes. and not even hitting any of my favorites, yet.

[Hegemon]

"What kind of genitals do you have? You have the kind we don't like around here, so please go away"-- my prof on discrimination

[Young Val]

Angela Chase: Hatred can become, like, food. It gives you this energy. You can, like, live off it.

My So-Called Life




[edit rather than double-post]


Joan, a girl
Harper, her aunt


Harper: Well I have to tell you, when you've been married as long as I have. There are things people get up to, it's natural, it's nothing bad, that's just friends of his your uncle was having a little party with.

Joan: Was it a party?

Harper: Just a little party.

Joan: Yes because there wasn't just that one person.

Harper: No, there'd be a few of his friends.

Joan: There was a lorry.

Harper: Yes, I expect there was.

Joan: When I put my ear against the side of the lorry I heard crying inside.

Harper: How could you do that from up in the tree?

Joan: I got down from the tree. I went to the lorry after I looked in the window of the shed.

Harper: There might be things that are not your business when you're a visitor in someone else's house.

Joan: Yes, I'd rather not have seen. I'm sorry.

Harper: Nobody saw you?

Joan: They were thinking about themselves.

Harper: I think it's lucky nobody saw you.

Joan: If it's a party, why was there so much blood?


-Far Away, Caryl Churchill

[Hegemon]

*my prof in reference to being stoppd by a cop when driving*

"Never tell them you are a lawyer, otherwise they're going to Rodney King you.... Unless you are a prosecutor, they love those"

[Young Val]

...i had this friend in college. Shaul. he was not only one of my best friends there, but one of the best people i've ever met. smart. funny. talented writer. well-read. BITING wit. good company. i haven't seen him or spoken to him at all in any form since May, 2004.

i just signed on to myspace and had this message waiting for me (i didn't even know Shaul HAD a myspace):

When I think of the free spirits, the ones who picture themselves as superheroes of letters and words, those who suffer and indulge in it--the people who live to live, the people who find meaning in the universe for no other reason than to resonate amongst all the other voices that will one day be proven wrong, I think of k-ri. And I wonder...how the hell did she ever graduate after [name of professor] screwed her over like whoa.

And I think...she must be a success.

i don't think i've ever been more touched. or that this could possibly have come at a more needed time in my life.


i'm gonna go write now.

[Young Val]

'The best thing for being sad,' replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, 'is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.'

The Once and Future King, T.H.White

[AnthonyByakko]

1 Samuel 8
Israel Asks for a King

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." 6 But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."

10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." 21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."

[anonshadow]

"I really don't know life at all." - Joni Mitchell

[Young Val]

"And we talked about how exciting it is to find someone and have that moment of recognition-- you and I are made out of the same stuff -- and how it can get carried away and mistaken for something else, and so often it does between good friends, because a real human connection can be so startling and confusing and grand."

my friend, Sue, who just succinctly and gorgeously summed up one of the most overwhelmingly beautiful and painful interactions of my life. i've been trying to put it into words for seven years, now. the whole ordeal is all but over and done with, and never have i been able to articulate anything even resembling that relationship. she just nailed it.

[Oliver Dale]

Interesting quotes:

"Nonbelievers like myself stand beside you dumbstruck by the Muslim hordes who chant death to whole nations of the living. But we stand dumbstruck by you as well – by your denial of tangible reality, by the suffering you create in service to your religious myths, and by your attachment to an imaginary God."

-Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation

"Here is the atheist prayer: that our reason will subjugate our superstition, that our intelligence will check our illusions, that we will be able to hold at bay the evil temptation of faith."

-Gary Wolf, "Church of the Non-Believers," Wired magazine.

[AnthonyByakko]

Sounds good to me, Ollie.

[Young Val]

Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
The Cat: Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.
Alice: How do you know I'm mad?
The Cat: You must be. Or you wouldn't have come here.

lewis carroll, alice in wonerland.




oh, Alice, honey. i sympathize.

[RoyalMother]

Bill Cosby: I tell my kids, "This is not the same person I grew up with. You are looking at an old woman who is trying to get into Heaven."

[starlooker]

"The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analysed, women ... merely adored."

Oscar Wilde, The Ideal Husband

(That line never fails to crack me up.)

I'm going through a Wilde phase. Expect more quotes in the upcoming days.

[RoyalMother]

my sweet old etcetera

my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent

war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting

for,
my sister

Isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds)of socks not to
mention fleaproof earwarmers
etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that

i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my

self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et

cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)

ee cummings






anyone lived in a pretty how town
by E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn't he danced his did



Women and men(both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn't they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain



children guessed(but only a few

and down they forgot as up they grew

autumn winter spring summer)

that noone loved him more by more



when by now and tree by leaf

she laughed his joy she cried his grief

bird by snow and stir by still

anyone's any was all to her



someones married their everyones

laughed their cryings and did their dance

(sleep wake hope and then)they

said their nevers they slept their dream



stars rain sun moon

(and only the snow can begin to explain

how children are apt to forget to remember

with up so floating many bells down)



one day anyone died i guess

(and noone stooped to kiss his face)

busy folk buried them side by side

little by little and was by was



all by all and deep by deep

and more by more they dream their sleep

noone and anyone earth by april

wish by spirit and if by yes.



Women and men(both dong and ding)

summer autumn winter spring

reaped their sowing and went their came

sun moon stars rain

[anonshadow]

"Fine, I'll light your purple penguin on fire."

[starlooker]

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." -- Oscar Wilde, The Ideal Husband

[Hegemon]

"The second question on last year's exam was a bitch"

-- Student in my class to our prof (who taught that course).

[ValentineNicole]

Bartender: "Shaken or stirred?"
Bond: "Does it look like I give a damn?"

[Luet]

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

I actually saw this on a bumper sticker and wrote it down while driving so I could look it up online to see who said it. But it really resonated with me on a personal level since so much of what happened to me and what I got involved in was because he was able to convince me of things that I knew were not right or okay. The things I came to believe were absurd and yet he was so good at lying and being sincere at it, that he convinced me. And that led to me doing things that I can't believe I did. So, yeah, this quote seemed powerful to me.

[Young Val]

Elinor Dashwood: What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

this is from the 1995 movie version of Sense and Sensibility.

i'm desperate to reread the book at the moment, but alas, i haven't got my copy with me.

[LilBee91]

Continuing with the Sense and Sensibility trend:

Mrs. Dashwood: If you cannot think of anything appropriate to say you will please restrict your remarks to the weather.

I recently watched that movie for the first time a couple weeks ago and absolutely loved it. I really need to read the book![/i]

[Young Val]

"Writing 24-A loaded me up with thirty-eight short stories to drag tearfully home for the weekend. Thirty-seven of them will be about a shy, reclusive Pennsylvania Dutch Lesbian who Wants To Write, told first-person by a lecherous hired hand. In dialect."

Franny and Zooey, -Salinger.


and


best first line of a short story EVER:

“Understand that your cat is a whore and can’t help you.” Lorrie Moore, Amahl and the Night Visitors: A Guide to the Tenor of Love


lorrie moore is a genius. please stop stalling and go out and read everything she's ever written. now.

[Qing_Jao]

"It's all starting to add up now, isn't it? The levitation... the evil book reading. Them cream cookies you always eatin'... you a DAMN witch!" --Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force

[fawkes]

"Ai! laurie lantar lassi surinen,
Yeni u-not-ime ve ramar aldaron!
Yeni ve linte yuldar avanier
mi oro-mardi lisse-miruvore-va
Andune pella Vardo Tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
oma-ryo aire-tari-lirinen.
Si man i yulma nin en-quant-uva?
An si Tintalle Varda Oio-losseo
ve fanyar ma-rya-t Elen-tari ortane
ar sinda-norie-llo caita mornie
i falma-li-nnar imbe met, ar hisie
un-tupa Calaciryo miri oiale.
Si vanwaa na Romello vanwa, Valimar!
Namarie! Nai hir-uva-lye Valimar.
Nai elye hir-uva Namarie!

-J.R.R. Tolkein