Let me see,” Opal said. She quickly slurped up the rest of her lunch and then took the collar. She examined it very closely. Sure enough, she could see bits of evergreen fur pinched along the buckle strap. As she looked closer, she noticed somethin...
I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same fifty percent rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't...Same as the four-leaf clover and th...
Reason and justice grip the remotest and the loneliest star. Look at those stars. Don’t they look as if they were single diamonds and sapphires? Well, you can imagine any mad botany or geology you please. Think of forests of adamant with leaves of ...
I came to see myself one day and it was like looking into a mirror. I came to see that at any given moment, I am both equally ready to stay and to leave. It’s like I always have my luggage with me and I can unpack or repack on short notice. I guess...
Some readers may have noticed an icy little missive from Noam Chomsky ["Letters," December 3], repudiating the very idea that he and I had disagreed on the "roots" of September 11. I rush to agree. Here is what he told his audience at MIT on October ...
May He give us all the courage that we need to go the way He shepherds us. That when He calls we may go unfrightened. If He bids us come to Him across the waters, that unfrightened we may go. And if He bids us climb a hill, may we not notice that it ...
The Actor, noticing a closed bookshop, dismounted from the horse which he tied to a street lamp. He woke up the bookseller and bought a Spanish grammar and dictionary. He set out again across town marveling at the way that the words of the foreign la...
She asked him to come and see her that night. He agreed, in order to get away, knowing that he was incapable of going. But that night, in his burning bed, he understood that he had to go see her, even if he were not capable. He got dressed by feel, l...
The master in us all lives behind the masks and roles and wounds and beliefs. It calls us to live deep, full, radical lives. It asks us not to wait until we are told by anyone that we have arrived. It invites us forward, across the line of fear and u...
If Jesus had been an actual historical figure we have a thorny paradox. Either this Jesus was a remarkable individual who said and did a host of amazing, revolutionary things – but no one outside his fringe cult noticed for over a century. Or he di...
Haven’t you noticed that men struggle every day to correct the defects of my work? What is a plane or a diving suit but an emendation to my work? Even those who worship me spend their lives disagreeing with me and trying to improve on what I made. ...
A historic transition is occurring, barely noticed. Slowly, quietly, imperceptibly, religion is shriveling in America, as it has done in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and other advanced societies. Supernatural faith increasingly belongs to the Thi...
Over the years, I have noticed that the child who learns quickly is adventurous. She's ready to run risks. She approaches life with arms outspread. She wants to take it all in. She still has the desire of the very young child to make sense out of thi...
Kaa: [hypnotizing Mowgli and coiling him up] Please, go to sleep, sleep tight little man-cub, rest in peace... sleep... sleep... Mowgli: Ba... Bagheera? [chokes] Bagheera: Now, it's no use arguing anymore. No more talk until morning. Kaa: [laughs] He...
Itzhak Stern: I'm sorry, Herr Direktor, you're running very late. Here, this is for the Obersturmbahnführer and this is for his niece, it's her birthday, Greta. Greta as in Garbo. Oskar Schindler: By the way, don't *ever* do that to me again. Didn't...
Professor Levy: You will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that, when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as ch...
Capt. Colin Maud: [walking up to a stalled vehicle] My old grandmother used to say anything mechanical, give it a good bashing. [Hits hood with his swagger stick] Capt. Colin Maud: Try it now. [vehicle cranks] Private Flanagan: [to Clough] Sure, now;...
General Custer: A scout has a certain look... Kit Carson, for example. You look like... a muleskinner! Jack Crabb: Uh, General I don't know anything about mules... General Custer: Lieutenant, it's amazing how I can guess the profession of a man just ...
Gonzo: He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scr... [noticing the smudged window of Scrooge's office] Gonzo: Boy, this really *is* a dirty city! Rizzo the Rat: Heh, you're tellin' me! [Gonzo grabs Rizzo and uses him to wipe off the window pan...
Flora: One day when my mother and father were singing together in the forest, a great storm blew up out of nowhere. But so passionate was their singing that they did not notice, nor did they stop as the rain began to fall, and when their voices rose ...
Elizabeth: You didn't tell them about the curse. Jack Sparrow: I noticed neither did you. For the same reason, I expect. Elizabeth: He wouldn't have risked it. Jack Sparrow: Could have gotten him drunk. Oh, don't get me wrong, love. I admire a person...
