Great quotes in literature

[Michael Redman]

Thucydides, commenting on prophecy:

Such was the nature of the calamity, and heavily did it weigh on the Athenians; death raging within the city and devastation without. Among other things which they remembered in their distress was, very naturally, the following verse which the old men said had long ago been uttered:

A Dorian war shall come and with it death.

So a dispute arose as to whether dearth and not death had not been the word in the verse; but at the present juncture, it was of course decided in favour of the latter; for the people made their recollection fit in with their sufferings. I fancy, however, that if another Dorian war should ever afterwards come upon us, and a dearth should happen to accompany it, the verse will probably be read accordingly.

The History of the Peloponnesian War, Chapter 7

 

[SteveW]

And just so I won't show my "poor" American ignorance and a penchant for Melville, I have always loved:

Wer reitet so spat durch nacht und wind, er ist der vater mit seinen kind.

And the last line still gives me the creeps:

Und in sienen armen, das kind,

war todt!

Nothing like a good Goethe poem on a dark and stormy night.

But then again, we poor ignorant Americans don't read other great literature ;(

 

[SteveW]

And it also occured to me, its ANY line in Salome.

Favorite though has to be:

I have kissed thy mouth, Iokanaan.

 

[Frostbite]

“North of the transverse gap, he drove into the huge sink of Candor Chasma, and now it was as if he were in a gigantic replica of the Painted Desert, with great deposition layers everywhere, bands of purple and yellow sediments, orange dunes, red erratics, pink sands, indigo gullies – truly a fantastic, extravagant landscape, disorienting to the eye because all the wild colors made it hard to figure out what was what, and how big it was, and how far away. Giant plateaus that seemed about to block his way would turn out to be curving strata on a distant cliff; small boulders next to the transponders would turn out to be enormous mesas half a day’s drive away. And in the sunset light all the colors blazed, the whole Martian spectrum revealed and blazing as if color was bursting out of the rock, everything from pale yellow to dark bruised purple. Candor Chasma! He was going to have to come back some time and explore it.”

- Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars

 

[Kerberos]

"this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you successed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you."

Machiavelli
The Prince

 

[sorgoth]

"this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you successed they are yours entirely;

successed?

 

[Ælfgifu]

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

George Orwell
1984

Have a nice day,
Kelly

 

[Bonobo Boy]

"Heathen, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel."

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

Fitting for these boards, methinks .

 

[Ed]

"They promised us peace and gave us a desolation"

Tacitus -The Germania

Also my sig from Daniel Deronda.

 

[Virgil]

"A hawk and a dove do not fly together - except if the hawk is hungry."
Polgara the Sorceress
David Eddings

I read all of D. Eddings books a long time ago. he has 3-4 ca. 6 books series. they weren't really great but they were real solid and I liked them.


Virgil

 

[Kerberos]

successed?

Damn, In my Danish translation it says roughly "as long as they benefit from you", but I was unsure of how to translate the passage, so I found it in English and copy-pasted, serves me right for not checking.

 

[Graham]

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

Douglas Adams


That always makes me giggle. That and the line from Hitchhikers about the guy who got lyched by a mob of rampaging physicists.



Graham

 

[Mike B.]

"Come Watson, The game is afoot."

Sherlock Holmes in the opening of "The Abby Grange" by Arthur Conan Doyle.

(I suppose you could also credit the Bard from Henry V)

 

[Timble]

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

Political revisionism in 'Animal Farm' George Orwell

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, that specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of the clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "

Joseph Heller, guess the book

"Take Care of the People, and God Almighty Will Take Care of Himself."

Kurt Vonnegut Sirens of Titan, a credo of the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent (IIRC)

 

[zer0vector]

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, that specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of the clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "

Great quote and book, here's another good one from the same:

"Men," he began his address to the officers, measuring his pauses carefully. "You're American officers. The officers of no other country in the world can make that statement. Think about it." He waited a moment to permit them to think about it.

 

[Oregon_Skeptic]

Great idea for a thread. I know Moby-Dick has already been quoted often, but it then again deserves to be. I have always loved The Quarter-Deck, chapter 36, particularly Ahab’s lines. They are such fun to read aloud:

“Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perditions’ flam before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts
black blood and rolls fin out.”

And from another large, sweeping novel that deals with a grand quest:

“Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.”

Ellison’s Invisible Man

 

[Beanbag]

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and when they catch you, they will kill you.

But first they must catch you."

Watership Down

 

[FIfteen Iguana]

Oh, this is a fun one...

"Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them." -Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

"Here I was, swimming in paperwork with my hands tied, and out on the street were jerks on parade: unassuming, pleasant, perfectly normal people except that they had an extra bone in their head and less moral sense than God gave badgers." -Garrison Keiller, "The Current Crisis in Remorse"

"Good manners are a sign of strength." -Dick Francis, Proof

"A Spaniard will seek to persuade you that the bull-ring is an institution got up chiefly for the benefit of the bull." -Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men on the Bummel

"Love means having something to betray." -John LeCarre, The Perfect Spy

"Unfortunately, he was not very skillful at expressing himself in Russian (although he knew no other language)." -Feodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

"When you deny something your power is much more conspicuous than when you approve it." -Vladimir Voinovich, The Ivankiad

"How dare you stand there with every evidence of a criminal nature showing in your attitude and demeanor and conceal from the authorities the reason for your arrest?" -Don Marquis, Archyology II

"I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud." -Kurt Vonnegut, jr. Cat's Cradle

"Life is not fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all." -William Goldman, in The Princess Bride

"What good is an obscenity trial except to popularize literature?" -Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

"Let Lawyers, Parsons, and Physicians loose, to rob, impose on, and to kill the World." -Henry Fielding, in Tom Thumb

"Money can't buy off the lightning." -Stephen King, The Dead Zone

"I am too old and stiff-necked to change my memories now." -Willard R. Espy , Oysterville

 

[Cleopatra]

I don't know what makes a good quote in Literature. Maybe a well written phrase is enough.

Anyway take those two for starters and I will think of more

"I truthfully feel none of us have anyone to blame for whatever we have done with our own personal lives. It has been proven that at the age of 7 most of us have reached the age of reason -- which means we do, at this age, understand and know the difference between right and wrong. Of course -- environment plays an awfully important part in our lives such as the Convent in mine and in my case I am grateful for that influence. In Jimmy's case -- he was the strongest of us all. I remember how he worked and went to school when there was no one to tell him and it was his own WILL to make something of himself. We will never know the reasons for what eventually happened, why he did what he did, but I still hurt thinking of it. It was such a waste. But we have very little control over our human weaknesses, and this applies also to Fern and hundreds of thousands of other people including ourselves -- for we all have weaknesses. In your case -- I don't know what your weakness is but I do feel -- IT IS NO SHAME TO HAVE A DIRTY FACE -- THE SHAME COMES WHEN YOU KEEP IT DIRTY.

Truman Kapote -- In Cold Blood"

The next one is a favorite. Bold face mine.

"What gets me about D.B., though, he hated the war so much, and yet he got me to read this book A Farewell to Arms last summer. He said it was so terrific. That's what I can't understand. It had this guy in it named Lieutenant Henry that was supposed to be a nice guy and all. I don't see how D.B. could hate the Army and war and all so much and still like a phony like that. I mean, for instance, I don't see how he could like a phony like that and still like that one by Ring Lardner, or that other one he's so crazy about, The Great Gatsby. D.B. got sore when I said that, and said I was too young and all to appreciate it, but I don't think so. I told him I liked Ring Lardner and The Great Gatsby and all. I did, too. I was crazy about The Great Gatsby. Old Gatsby. Old sport. That killed me. Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.

Salinger,The Catcher in the Rye "

 

[bjornart]

I like this passage from Pratchett's Hogfather (Caps intentional):

All right,' said Susan. 'I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable.'

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

'Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little - '

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

'So we can believe the big ones?'

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

'They're not the same at all!'

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET - Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

The rest of the passage can be found at http://www.geocities.com/hogswatch_grotto/meaning1.htm (or better yet, in Hogfather )