Words of Moment.


 
 
 
God, The Book of St. Matthew What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
Mt. 16:26, NIV
James Joyce, Ulysses -You're not a believer, are you? Haines asked. I mean, a believer in the narrow sense of the word. Creation from nothing and miracles and a personal God. 
-There's only one sense of the word, it seems to me, Stephen said.
R.E.M., "The Great Beyond" I'm breakin' through, I'm bending spoons, I'm keepin' flowers in full bloom, I'm lookin' for answers from the Great Beyond...
Jonah Goldberg, The Goldberg File on NRO "...gay as road rash on velvet..."
George Orwell, 1984 WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Jack Kerouac, On the Road But then they danced down the street like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
P. J. O'Rourke, "How to Explain Conservatism to Your Squishy Liberal Friends" Individual liberty is lost when government stops asking "What is good for all individuals?" and starts asking "What is good?"
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch "As one judge said to another: 'Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary.'"
Ovid, The Metamorphoses Now I shall tell of things that change, new being
Out of old: since you, O Gods, created
Mutable arts and gifts, give me the voice
To tell the shifting story of the world
From its beginning to the present hour.
--transl. H. Gregory
George Thorogood and the Destroyers, "Haircut" Get a haircut and get a real job.
Homer, The Iliad Rage-- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
--transl. R. Fagles
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas This was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody-- or at least some force-- is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel.
William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, noncommittal language.
The Road Warrior "You have defied me! You will know the vengeance of the Lord Humongous!"
Archilochus, "On Drowned Bodies" Hide we away these painful gifts of the lord Poseidon.
--transl. R. Lattimore
from Yentl (sung by Barbra Streisand) Why is it that everytime I close my eyes he's there,
The water shining on his skin, the sunlight in his hair,
And all the while I'm thinking thoughts that I can never share
With him...
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court "Fair sir, will ye just?" said this fellow.
"Will I which?"
"Will ye try a passage of arms for land or lady or for--"
"What are you giving me?" I said. "Get along back to your circus, or I'll report you."
Now what does this man do but fall back a couple hundred yards and then come rushing back at me as hard as he could tear, with his nail keg bend down nearly to his horse's neck and his long spear pointed straight ahead. I saw he meant business, so I was up the tree when he arrived.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause...
This is Spinal Tap "Well I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation."
Aristophanes, The Wasps CHORUS:
You'll have to weave a crafty web to make that boast come true.
The person who gets beaten is more likely to be you.
It takes a clever speaker to convert a hostile jury:
You'd better think of ways and means of conquering our fury.
[ANTICLEON clears his throat and takes up the posture of a professional orator.]
ANTICLEON:
It is a difficult undertaking, requiring a degree of skill and understanding far beyond the scope of the average - hm - comic poet, to cure the City of such an inveterate and deep-seated malady.
--transl. D. Barrett
Henry Miller, Sexus To be joyous is to be a madman in a world of sad ghosts.

  
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