The same sensitivity that opens artists to Being also makes them vulnerable to the dark powers of non-Being. It is no accident that many creative people--including Dante, Pascal, Goethe, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Beethoven, Rilke, Blake, and Van Gogh--...
A victim evokes sympathy, right? Victims are not responsible, right? Victims have the moral high ground… someone else is causing the misery, right? Victims can easily justify why they are right. Victims allow themselves to be stuck in the status qu...
If you are forced to confront your fears on a daily basis, they disintegrate, like illusions when viewed up close. Maybe being always protected made me more fearful, and I would later dip cautiously into the outside world, never allowing myself to be...
Something went klunk. Like a nickel dropping in a soda machine. One of those small insights that explains everything. This was puberty for these boys. Adolescence. The first date, the first kiss, the first chance to hold hands with someone special. D...
Some people you don't give up on. Not because you can tell what they'll be or what will happen. Not because of that. It's because something inside you insists that you shouldn't---something knows more or knows better, stubbornly holds its ground, eve...
... Up telephone poles, Which rear, half out of leavage As though they would shriek Like things smothered by their own Green, mindless, unkillable ghosts. In Georgia, the legend says That you must close your windows At night to keep it out of the hou...
Every day you choose your own reality with the thoughts in your head and the actions you take or don’t take. We are all born with the same opportunity to live a full and happy life. Don’t blame your circumstances. An effective mindset is one that...
Christopher McCandless: The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily t...
Ordell Robbie: Goddamn girl, you gettin' high already? It's just 2 o'clock! Melanie: [chuckling] It's that late? Ordell Robbie: You know you smoke too much of that shit, that shit gonna rob you of your own ambition. Melanie: Not if your ambition is t...
Dr. Schreber: When they first brought us here, they extracted what was in us and stored the information, remixed it like so much paint, and gave us back new memories of their choosing. But they still needed an artist to help them. I understood the hu...
Gru: Whoa, whoa, whoa! What was that? She hit that. I saw that with my own eyes. Carnival Barker: Well, you see that little spaceship there? You see how it's not knocked over? Do you know what that means, Professor? It means you don't get the unicorn...
Frank Costello: Church wants you on your place. Kneel, stand, kneel, stand. If you go for that sort of thing, I don't know what to do for you. A man makes his own way. No one gives it to you. You have to take it. "Non serviam." Young Colin: James Joy...
Driver: If I drive for you, you get your money. You tell me where we start, where we're going, where we're going afterwards. I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours. No matter what. Anything a mi...
Master Sergeant Farell: Can I Help You Sir? Lt. Col. Bill Cage: [looks confused] [talks solemnly] Lt. Col. Bill Cage: Sergeant Farell? Master Sergeant Farell: [Takes a glimpse at the tag name on his own uniform] That is my name. [smiles] Master Serge...
[first lines] Bill: The following is my explanation. Well, more of an account of what happened. I'd been on my own for a while and getting kind of lonely... and bored... nothing to do all day. And that's when I started shadowing. The Policeman: Shado...
Seth Brundle: I farm bits and pieces out to the guys who are much more brilliant than I am. I say, "build me a laser", this. "Design me a molecular analyzer", that. They do, and I just stick 'em together. But, none of them know what the project reall...
Commodus: [to Falco] Lucius will stay with me now. And if his mother so much as looks at me in a manner that displeases me, he will die. If she decides to be noble and takes her own life, he will die. [to Lucilla] Commodus: And as for you, you will l...
Puppet Master: It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory s...
Howl: This war is terrible, they bomb from the southern coast to the northern border. It's all in flames now. Calcifer: I can't stand the fire and gunpowder. Those dopey guys have absolutely no manners. Howl: My own kind attacked me today. Calcifer: ...
Gobber: Look for its blind spot! Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike! [Tuffnut and Ruffnut huddle in front of the dragon's face] Ruffnut: [sniffing] Whoa! Do you *ever* bathe? Tuffnut: You don't like it, then just get your own blind...
Ron Weasley: [to Hermione and Ginny] He'll be here, soon. [starts eating] Hermione Granger: [smacks him on the arm with a book] Will you stop eating? Your best friend is missing! Ron Weasley: Turn around, you lunatic! [Hermione and Ginny looks toward...
