When it comes to developing a worldview, we tend to face this false division: Either you are a realist who says the world is terrible, or a naïve optimist who says the world is wonderful and turns a blind eye. [Jack] Gilbert takes this middle way, a...
Life itself consists of phases in which the organism falls out of step with the march of surrounding things and then recovers unison with it—either through effort or by some happy chance. And, in a growing life, the recovery is never mere return to...
[the morning after Schindler leaves Brinnlitz, a Russian officer finds the workers] Russian officer: You have been liberated by the Soviet army! Itzhak Stern: Have you been in Poland? Russian officer: I just came from Poland. Itzhak Stern: Are there ...
Stoick: Either we finish them, or they'll finish us! It's the only way we'll be rid of them! If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home! One more search, before the ice sets in. Viking: Those ships never com...
Sorting Hat: Hmm, difficult. VERY difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh yes. And a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you? Harry: Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin. Sorting Hat: Not Slytherin, eh? Are you ...
Lara Anderton: How do you take your coffee? Danny Witwer: Cream and sugar. Lara Anderton: I don't have any cream, sorry. Danny Witwer: Just sugar, then. You and John ever come here? Lara Anderton: [begins to walk away towards the kitchen] We used to....
Westley: Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. He took me to his cabin and he told me his secret. 'I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts' he said. 'My name is Ryan; I inherited the ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will i...
Patton: [apologizing to his troops after the "slapping" incident] I can assure you that I had no intention of being either harsh or cruel in my treatment of the... soldier in question. My sole purpose was to try to restore in him some sense of apprec...
Bird in the Tree: A serpent! Help! Help! A serpent, a serpent! Alice: But please! Please! Bird in the Tree: Off with you! Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Serpent! Serpeeeent! Alice: I'm not a serpent! Bird in the Tree: You? Indeed? Then just what are you? Alice...
Ennis Del Mar: Tent don't look right. Jack Twist: [pauses from playing the harmonica] Well, it ain't goin' nowhere. Let it be. Ennis Del Mar: That harmonica don't sound quite right either. Jack Twist: That's 'cause it got kinda flattened when that ma...
Ken: [looking at a surreal Bosch painting] It's Judgment Day, you know? Ray: No. What's that then? Ken: Well, it's, you know, the final day on Earth, when mankind will be judged for the crimes they've committed and that. Ray: Oh. And see who gets int...
Suddenly, she doesn't want to die. She has no real reason not to, no sudden revelation, except that it's equally pointless to die as not to die. Why doesn't she die? She lives because she's meant to live, because she's already alive and it's comparat...
Today is a new day! Let today be the day you free your mind from the prison of self doubt. Your thoughts can either hinder you or propel you to the next level. Precautions are necessary to maintain your safety and well-being. But fear and precautions...
I consider marriage a very important institution, but it is important when and if two people have found the person with whom they wish to spend the rest of their lives—a question of which no man or woman can be automatically certain. When one is ce...
...After all, acknowledging unfairness then calls decent people forth to correct those injustices. And since most persons are at their core, decent folks, the need to ignore evidence of injustice is powerful: To do otherwise would force whites to eit...
There’s no reason to live, but there’s no reason to die, either. The only way we can still show our contempt for life is to accept it. Life is not worth the bother of leaving it. Out of charity, one might spare a few individuals the trouble of li...
Oh! why was I born with a different face? why was I not born like the rest of my race? when I look,each one starts! when I speak, I offend; then Im silent & passive & lose every friend. Then my verse I dishonour, my pictures despise, my person degrad...
Renouncing false beliefs will not usher in the millennium. Few things about the strategy of contemporary apologists are more repellent than their frequent recourse to spurious alternatives. The lesser lights inform us that the alternative to Christia...
A true Democratic Spirit is up there with religious faith and emotional maturity and all those other top-of-the-Maslow-Pyramid-type qualities that people spend their whole lives working on. A Democratic Spirit's constituent rigor and humility and sel...
If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to ...
If all goes well, we will be back in time for a proper memorial service [for your father], Ben. I promise." Ben looked up, and all the bitterness was gone from his eyes, replaced somehow by both resignation and determination. "And if all doesn't go w...
