Most of my friends like words too well. They set them under the blinding light of the poem and try to extract every possible connotation from each of them, every temporary pun, every direct or indirect connection - as if a word could become an object...
People are more willing to support the exercise of authority over themselves when they believe it to be an objective, neutral feature of the natural world. This was the idea behind the concept of the divine right of kings. By making the king appear t...
For the normative self-understanding of modernity, Christianity has functioned as more than just a precursor or catalyst. Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous condu...
Milo Tindle: There it is! The original blunt instrument; the poker. Right! Andrew Wyke: Now steady... Milo Tindle: Where do you want it? Andrew Wyke: Don't get carried away. It's not a murder weapon you're talking about you know! Milo Tindle: No? And...
Brad Neary: I don't understand these fractions. Roy Neary: What's one third of sixty? Brad Neary: [bewildered] That's a fraction, I don't understand them. Roy Neary: [using a model train as an object lesson] Alright, let's say that this boxcar is six...
Auric Goldfinger: [Playing golf with Bond] Two holes to go. James Bond: Yes, and all's square. Auric Goldfinger: Then you have no objection to increasing the stakes? James Bond: No. What did you have in mind? Auric Goldfinger: Why, the bar of gold yo...
Earl McGraw: Well, give me the gory details, Son Number One. Edgar McGraw: It's a goddamn massacre, Pop. They wiped out the whole wedding party, execution-style. Earl McGraw: Give me a figure. Edgar McGraw: Nine dead bodies. And we're talking the who...
David Gale: Fantasies must be unrealistic. The minute you get something, you don't, you can't, want it anymore. To exist, desire needs absent objects. So desire supports itself with crazy fantasies. This is what Pascal means when he says the only tim...
Mr. Darcy: Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months have been a torment. I came to Rosings with the single object of seeing you... I had to see you. I have fought against my better judgment, my family's ...
Mr. Bennet: Lizzy, are you out of your senses? I thought you hated the man. Elizabeth Bennet: No, Papa. Mr. Bennet: He's rich, to be sure, and you will have more fine carriages than Jane. But will that make you happy? Elizabeth Bennet: Have you no ob...
Nikola Tesla: Mr. Angier, have you considered the cost of such a machine? Robert Angier: Price is not an object. Nikola Tesla: Perhaps not, but have you considered the *cost*? Robert Angier: I'm not sure I follow. Nikola Tesla: Go home. Forget this t...
Judge: [after Ness has discovered Capone bribed the jury to acquit him] Bailiff, I want you to go next door to Judge Hawton's court, where they've just begun hearing a divorce action. I want you to bring that jury in here, and take this jury to his c...
Mrs. Potts: Pardon me, Master... Beast: Leave me in peace. Mrs. Potts: But sir, the castle is under attack! Villagers: [singing outside and trying to knock the door down] Kill the Beast! Kill the Beast! Lumiere: [All the objects are trying to hold th...
The ruinous abdication by philosophy of its rightful domain is the consequence of the oblivion of philosophers to a great insight first beheld clearly by Socrates and re-affirmed by Kant as by no other philosopher. Science, concerned solely and exclu...
WE say then- that the Cause of all, which is above all, is neither without being, nor without life----nor with- out reason, nor without mind, nor is a body----nor has shape----nor form----nor quality, or quantity, or bulk----nor is in a place----nor ...
So the conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it -- perhaps as much more as the roots are more vital than grafts. It is good that new ideas should be heard, for the sake of the few that can be used; but it is also ...
I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! T...
I have been taunted on various platforms recently for becoming a neo-conservative, and have been the object of some fascinating web-site and blog stuff, from the isolationist Right as well as from the peaceniks, who both argue in a semi-literate way ...
At first, one only recognizes particular instances to be worth of critique; critique appears synonymous with rejection, implying deficiency in the object. Over time, one discovers that everything warrants critique. This can produce cynicism: nothing ...
A state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude, that if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision. Their love of the marvel...
[...] the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same obj...
