I know that an author must be brave enough to chop away clinging tentacles of good taste for the sake of a great work. But this is no great work, you see.
We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.
Those who suffer great adversity and sorrow and go on to serve their fellowmen develop a great capacity to understand others. Like the prophets, they have acquired a higher understanding of the mind and will of Christ.
Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics.
[633 on the previous owner of his restaurant] Cop663: He has great business sense. First he sold me fish and chips, then the whole thing.
Melvin B. Tolson: We're holding tryouts for the debate team. Henry Lowe: You sure you want somebody like me? Melvin B. Tolson: No. That's why you're trying out.
Ramsey: [in the first meeting with Von Luger is informed of the large amount of resources being used to guard the prisoners] Well, it's rather nice to know that you're wanted.
Dumbledore: It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.
Mirage: The supers are not gone, Mr. Incredible. You're still here. You can still do great things. Or... you can listen to police scanners. Your choice.
Smalls: Oh yeah, the Great Bambino. Of course! I thought you said the Great Bambi. Ham Porter: That wimpy deer? Smalls: Yeah, I guess. Sorry.
Han Solo: Where did you dig up that old fossil? Luke Skywalker: Ben is a great man. Han Solo: Yeah, great at getting us into trouble.
It takes great courage when you are suffering to see beyond your suffering to the clear relations between things, to the laws that cause and govern your suffering; it takes great courage to be ruthless with one's griefs.
There is not a great difference between a man and a tree. Both are created by God; both are originated from a seed; both grow and both have intention to serve the Universe. So is there a great difference between a man and a tree?
Mallory: [On Andrea] He's going to kill me when the war's over. Major Franklin: You're not serious. Mallory: Yes, I am. So is he. [pause] Mallory: About a year ago, I gave a German patrol a safe passage to get some of their wounded into hospital. I g...
[first lines] Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake: Radar. Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly: Yes, sir. I'll get ahold of Major Burns... Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake: I want you to get a hold of Major Burns... Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly: ...Tell him to hold a...
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
It was called the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. If not for the monks, everything the world had ever learned would have been lost. Well, we live in a similar time, when we're losing the vast majority of what we do and see and learn. But it doesn't have ...
Woolf criticism has not evolved smoothly, and it would be misleading to say that any one approach or interpretation has ever prevailed to the exclusion of others. There are continuities and discontinuities in trends and arguments, areas of common gro...
Now, these eager and apprehensive men of small property constitute the class which is constantly increased by the equality of conditions. Hence, in democratic communities, the majority of the people do not clearly see what they have to gain by a revo...
What he found impossible was to shut off his brain, to detach himself from the intriguing problems with which (he) was involved, or to leave alone the major problems of war and peace, race and poverty, man's inhumanity to man and the persistence of s...
depression in its major stages possesses no quickly available remedy: failure of alleviation is one of the most distressing factors of the disorder as it reveals itself to the victim, and one that helps situate it squarely in the category of grave di...