Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but...
The mercy bullet I envy horses: if they break a leg and feel humiliated because they can no longer charge back and forth in the wind, they are cured by a mercy bullet. So if something in me gets broken, physically or spiritually, I would do well to l...
It was the same Dimitri from long ago, the fierce one who was willing to risk his life for what was right. I almost wished he'd go back to being annoying, distant Dimitri, the one who told me to stay away. Seeing him now brought back too many memorie...
I believe the message in the hymn “Rise Up, O Men of God” (Hymns, no. 324) is a plea, a call, a divine invitation for us to rise above the telestial tinsel of our time; to deny ourselves of ungodliness and clothe ourselves in the mantle of holine...
Stirton's work, he says, is now all about investigation. 'You literally are trying to find out what's happening and, finally, manoeuvre yourself to the point where you can take a picture, and then you're presented with a 20-minute window where it's: ...
A certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who mad...
That was when it was all made painfully clear to me. When you are a child, there is joy. There is laughter. And most of all, there is trust. Trust in your fellows. When you are an adult...then comes suspicion, hatred, and fear. If children ran the wo...
In bullfighting there is an interesting parallel to the pause as a place of refuge and renewal. It is believed that in the midst of a fight, a bull can find his own particular area of safety in the arena. There he can reclaim his strength and power. ...
In 1231, Pope Gregory ordered the Dominicans to take charge of papal courts and decisions and so prevent mob rule and guarantee that the accused received a fair trial and the right of defence. This was the foundation of the Inquisition, and it was a ...
All zoos, even the most enlightened, are built upon the idea both beguiling and repellent—the notion that we can seek out the wildness of the world and behold its beauty, but that we must first contain that wildness. Zoos argue that they are fighti...
When we search for "ourselves" in the eyes of others, we have imprisoned our own-selves in believing that our self-worth is nothing unless others validate who we are. Unless we approve of whom we are, what we are, and what we are capable of doing as ...
In the recumbence of depression, your information-gathering system collates its intelligence and reports to you these facts: (1) there is nothing to do; (2) there is nowhere to go; (3) there is nothing to be; (4) there is no one to know. Without mean...
Education should aim at destroying free will so that pupils thus schooled, will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished. . . . Influences of the home are obstructiv...
The Joker: Joker here. TV Technician: We got interference. Call the OB unit, will ya? The Joker: Now you fellas have said some pretty mean things. Some of which *were* true under that fiend, Boss Grissom. He *was* a thief, and a terrorist. On the oth...
Old Man Dantes: [Making a toast] May this moment be the dawn of a new and wonderful life for you both... Gendarmes Captain: [after smashing open the door] Which one of you is Edmond Dantes? Edmond: I am. Gendarmes Captain: Edmond Dantes, you are unde...
Roy Neary: Is that it? Is that all you're gonna ask me? Well I got a couple of thousand goddamn questions, you know. I want to speak to someone in charge. I want to lodge a complaint. You have no right to make people crazy! You think I investigate ev...
The Joker: You know. I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us, Harvey. When you and, uh... Harvey Dent: Rachel! The Joker: Rachel were being abducted. I was sitting in Gordon's cage. Now, *I* didn't rig those charges. Harvey Dent: Your m...
Ronan: With all due respect, Thanos, your daughter made this mess, and yet you summon ME? The Other: I would lower my voice, Accuser! Ronan: First, she lost a battle to some primitive... The Other: Thanos had put Gamora under your charge! Ronan: ...t...
[during the final rounds of dragon training, Astrid notices Hiccup next to her and yanks his shield down, thrusting her face next to his] Astrid: Stay out of my way! I'm winning this thing! Hiccup: Uh... please, by all means. [Astrid approaches the G...
Sheriff Hartwell: Aiding an escaped criminal and a little charge of kidnapping. Fred, the Mayor: Well, looks like about ten years a piece for you two birds. Walter Burns: Does it? [unimpressed] Hildy Johnson: If you think you've got The Morning Post ...
Aragorn: [to the corsair ships] You may go no further! You will not enter Gondor. Captain: Who are you to deny us passage? Aragorn: Legolas, fire a warning shot past the bosun's ear. Gimli: Mind your aim! [Legolas aims; Gimli knocks the bow as he sho...