Religion should be subject to commonsense appraisal and rational review, as openly discussible as, say, politics, art and the weather. The First Amendment, we should recall, forbids Congress both from establishing laws designating a state religion an...
Dill Harris: Hey. Jem: Hey yourself. Dill Harris: I'm Charles Baker Harris. I can read. I can read anything you've got. [swinging on the gate] Dill Harris: Folks call me Dill. Jem: How old are you? Four and a half? Dill Harris: Going on seven. Jem: W...
Homer Stokes: [as Grand Kleagle at a KKK rally] Brothers! Oh, brothers! We have all gathered here, to preserve our hallowed culture and heritage! We aim to pull evil up by the root, before it chokes out the flower of our culture and heritage! And our...
Sergeant: [Three of Andy's army men are preparing to jump out the window with parachutes] We've done our duty. Andy's grown up. Army Man 1: Let's face it. When the trash bags come out, we army guys are the first to go. Buzz Lightyear: Trash bags? Woo...
[Little Bill tells the real story of English Bob's gunfight] Little Bill Daggett: First off, Corky never carried two guns. Though he should have. W.W. Beauchamp: No, no, he was, he was called "Two-Gun Corcoran." Little Bill Daggett: Yeah well, a lot ...
Little Bill Daggett: [to W. W. Beauchamp, referring to the passage in Beauchamp's book where English Bob claims to have killed "Two Gun" Corcoran because Corcoran insulted a lady's honor] Yeah, well, a lotta folks did call him "Two Gun," but that was...
Lyle Gorch: [the Bunch is riding into Angel's village] Hey, Angel! Why don't you tell your folks to feed them dogs? Angel: Any insult to my family while we are here and I will kill you! Lyle Gorch: Hey, Angel; do you have a sister? Angel: [angrily] S...
[first lines] [indistinct voices] Rev. Wainscoat: Do not drink wine or strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, least ye shall die. Look not though upon the wine when it is red, and when it bringeth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself arig...
Why are so many of us enspelled by myths and folk stories in this modern age? Why do we continue to tell the same old tales, over and over again? I think it's because these stories are not just fantasy. They're about real life. We've all encountered ...
A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest ...
Displaced Person’s Song If you see a train this evening, Far away, against the sky, Lie down in your woolen blanket, Sleep and let the train go by. Trains have called us, every midnight, From a thousand miles away, Trains that pass through empty ci...
What came first, the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person? People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers ...
Mockingbirds are the true artists of the bird kingdom. Which is to say, although they're born with a song of their own, an innate riff that happens to be one of the most versatile of all ornithological expressions, mocking birds aren't content to mer...
He had never got so much back for himself from any pupil as he did from Miss Kronborg. From the first she had stimulated him; something in her personality invariably affected him. Now that he was feeling his way toward her voice, he found her more in...
Tevye: [in song] Do you love me? Golde: [speaking] I'm your wife! Tevye: [speaking] I know! [in song] Tevye: But do you love me? Golde: [singing] Do I love him? For twenty-five years I've lived with him, fought with him, starved with him. Twenty-five...
Young J.R.: [to Young Jack] How come you're so good? Young Jack Cash: [laughs] I aint! Young J.R.: You pick 5 times more than me. Young Jack Cash: Well, I'm bigger than you are. Young J.R.: You know every story in the scripture. Young Jack Cash: Well...
Loving a band with all your heart is something you understand when it happens to you. On the surface, others can see its a petty obsession, but they'll just never know the feeling of putting so much fail into a few people on the other side of the wor...
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Some days, the music is not in tune, but it's always a song worth singing. That's the best description of a good marriage I've ever heard...
Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.
Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble. A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog is also a hedonist.