Favorite Literary Quotes?

[Zenister 0]

two of mine..

Quote

Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It is that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember as certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon thats so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps 4 and 5 times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.

-The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles

Quote

To see the world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
-Auguries of Innocence, William Blake

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[kbordson 8]

"When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!"
Richard Bach (American Writer, author of 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull', b.1936)

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
— John Galt
Atlas Shrugged, © Copyright, 1957, by Ayn Rand

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
--From Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)
The good Willy Shakes (just being wicked here)

[masterrig 1]

" See the wapiti,
hippity, hoppity"
... Ogden Nash


Chuck

[tdog 0]

I always thought of the Moody Blues as being literary or poetic, so here is mine (from memory, ya I have it memorized)

When I snowboarded a lot and found myself in a lot of pain after a wipeout I would chant these lyrics outloud and soon find myself carving the most wicked lines even on a ice filled slope.


"Cold hearted orb that rules the night
removes the colors from our sight.
Red is gray and yellow white,
but we should decide which is right.
Pinprick holes in a colorless sky,
let insipid figures of light pass by.
Nighttime to some, a brief interlude
to others the fear of solitude.
Brave Helios wake up your steeds,
Bring the warmth the countryside needs."

[Icon134 0]

My favorite paragraph from the book Walden by Thoreau: also see my sigfile...

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices. I thought that there was no need of ice to freeze them. They talked to me of the age of the wine and the fame of the vintage; but I thought of an older, a newer, and purer wine, of a more glorious vintage, which they had not got, and could not buy. The style, the house and grounds and "entertainment" pass for nothing with me. I called on the king, but he made me wait in his hall, and conducted like a man incapacitated for hospitality. There was a man in my neighborhood who lived in a hollow tree. His manners were truly regal. I should have done better had I called on him.

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[DTOXX 0]

From Thomas Dylan's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night".

"Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight" Sounds like skydiving to me.

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D.T. Holder
SIMstudy