One way of emphasizing the singularity of the recent past is [..] to observe that the total number of humans ever to have lived is estimated at around (a bit less than) 100 billion. One of Walt Whitman's poems has a memorable image—thinking of all ...
For his thirtieth birthday he had filled a whole night-club off Regent Street; people had been queuing on the pavement to get in. The SIM card of his mobile phone in his pocket was overflowing with telephone numbers of all the hundreds of people he h...
To say that men and women are equally eligible for a certain profession is to say that for the purposes of that profession their sex is irrelevant. We are, in that context, treating both as neuters. As the State grows more like a hive or an ant-hill ...
She wanted to tell him so much, on the tarmac, the day he left. The world is run by brutal men and the surest proof is their armies. If they ask you to stand still, you should dance. If they ask you to burn the flag, wave it. If they ask you to murde...
Most of us believe we can spot a drowning person when we see one. But we always make the mistake of thinking that drowning only involves what. believe it or not, you have missed quite a number of drowned and drowning people. Some of us are thought to...
It seems to me that no matter whether you marry, settle down or live with a bird or not, certain ones simply have your number on them, like bombs in the war; and even if you don’t happen to like them all that much there’s nothing you can do about...
Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, ti...
There are men who put the weight of a coffin into their deliberations as they bargain for Cashmere shawls for their wives, as they go up the staircase of a theatre, or think of going to the Bouffons, or of setting up a carriage; who are murderers in ...
Ever since the beginning of the middle-class era, with its faith in progress, belief in progress has dominated the upbringing of children too. Childhood now came to be understood only as the preliminary stage on the way to the full personhood of the ...
It seemed to a number of philosophers of language, myself included, that we should attempt to achieve a unification of Chomsky's syntax, with the results of the researches that were going on in semantics and pragmatics. I believe that this effort has...
After the birth of printing books became widespread. Hence everyone throughout Europe devoted himself to the study of literature... Every year, especially since 1563, the number of writings published in every field is greater than all those produced ...
Lorenzo: A number of the inmates, as tough as they acted during the day, would often cry themself to sleep at night. There were other cries, too. Diffrent from those full with fear and lonelyness. They were low and muffled, the sounds of pain and ang...
[while Grumpy overpowers two of the tellers in the bank, Happy and Dopey wait for the silent alarm to come] Dopey: Here comes the silent alarm... [disables it by pressing a button] Dopey: And there it goes. [pause] Dopey: That's funny, it didn't dial...
[in front of the library ghost, their first ghost sighting] Dr. Peter Venkman: So... what do we do? [Egon and Ray stare at each other in silence. Peter grabs Ray's ear] Dr. Peter Venkman: Would you come over here, please? That's it, c'mere Francine. ...
Psychiatrist: Tell me, Harold, how many of these, eh, *suicides* have you performed? Harold: An accurate number would be difficult to gauge. Psychiatrist: Well, just give me a rough estimate. Harold: A rough estimate? I'd say [savoring the thought] H...
Agent Smith: It seems that you've been living two lives. One life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, pay your taxes, and you... help your landlady carry out her garbage. T...
Dr. King: [At the sleep clinic, referring to the monitor's brainwave display] A nightmare now would be plus or minus five or six. She's about three. Marge: [Nancy begins twitching, as you hear Freddy's knives] Doctor, what's she doing now? Is she asl...
Ellen Griswold: Clark, I need my vanity case. We've got to go back and look for it. All my credit cards are in it. Clark: Honey, Number 1: I've already called the bank and told them you lost them. B: there's no way we're going to find it when we don'...
Cornelius: [reading from the sacred scrolls of the apes] Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not bre...
Blofeld: Three men were found dead on the Orient Express train at Trieste. One of them was Grant. What have you got to say about that Number Five? Kronsteen: It was Klebb's choice. Her people failed. Rosa Klebb: It was your plan they followed implici...
[the traitorous Benny shoots George/Kuato] Benny: Congradulations, Quaid. You led us right to him. Douglas Quaid: Benny? Why? Melina: How can you do this? You're a mutant. Benny: [shrugs] I got four kids to feed. Douglas Quaid: So what happened to nu...
