failure is costly, both to society and to individuals. Pretending that all people are equal in their abilities will not change the fact that a person with an average IQ is unlikely to become a theoretical physicist, or the fact that a person with a l...
At last I understood that the way over, or through this dilemma, the unease at writing about 'petty personal problems' was to recognize that nothing is personal, in the sense that it is uniquely one's own. Writing about oneself, one is writing about ...
Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other, but one could sense, from passages marked with fresher traces of wheels and hooves, that once the meaning and even the very idea of a long journey was lost, sleep had not descended over i...
Is it possible that our world still knows better how to deal with a bandit, a murderer, and insurrectionist than it knows what to do with the Prince of Peace? There is a sense in which an assassin's attempt on the pope's life is less shocking to our ...
It is difficult to see ourselves as we are. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to have good friends, lovers or others who will do us the good service of telling us the truth about ourselves. When we don't, we can so easily delude ourselves, lose a sen...
Brick Pollitt: [Offering Big Daddy morphine] It'll kill the pain, that's all. Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: [Wincing with pain] It'll kill the senses too! You... you got pain - at least you know you're alive. [groans] Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: Brick...
Raoul Duke: Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Has it been five years? Six? It seems like a lifetime, the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Bu...
[in the hospital wing, Ron stirs] Lavender Brown: Ah! See? He senses my presence. [leans down] Lavender Brown: Don't worry, Won-Won! I'm here. I'm here. Ron Weasley: [croaks] Her... my... nee. Hermione... [Hermione takes Ron's hand. Lavender runs out...
Slevin: You're not as tall as I thought you'd be. Lindsey: Well, I'm short for my height. Slevin: That makes sense because I can usually tell how tall someone is by their knock. You have a deceptively tall knock. Congratulations. Lindsey: So it's a g...
Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris: The body knows what fighters don't: how to protect itself. A neck can only twist so far. Twist it just a hair more and the body says, "Hey, I'll take it from here because you obviously don't know what you're doing... Lie down...
Noodles: You've been around. Where'd you learn them "parlez-vous francais" dishes? Who's teaching you that stuff? Deborah Gelly: You mean a sugar daddy, who tries to teach me how to act? I read books. I want to know everything. Doesn't it make sense ...
Conrad "Con" Jarrett: [seeing Beth set the table] Can I help? Beth Jarrett: Help with what? Conrad "Con" Jarrett: With... this? Beth Jarrett: No. I'll tell you what you can do is go upstairs to that room of yours and clean out the closet. Conrad "Con...
Pete: You miserable little snake! You stole from my kin! Ulysses Everett McGill: Who was fixin' to betray us. Pete: You didn't know that at the time. Ulysses Everett McGill: So I borrowed it until I did know. Pete: That don't make no sense! Ulysses E...
Marian Starrett: You're both out of your senses. This isn't worth a life, anybody's life. What are you fighting for? This shack, this little piece of ground, and nothing but work, work, work? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of trouble. Joe, let's move. Let'...
Malcolm Crowe: [to Anna sleeping in a chair] Anna? Anna Crowe: [in her sleep] I miss you. Malcolm Crowe: I miss you too. Anna Crowe: Why, Malcolm? Malcolm Crowe: What, what is it? Anna Crowe: Why did you leave me? Malcolm Crowe: I didn't leave you. [...
Elinor Dashwood: You talk of feeling idle and useless. Imagine how that is compounded when one has no hope and no choice of any occupation whatsoever. Edward Ferrars: Our circumstances are therefore precisely the same. Elinor Dashwood: Except that yo...
Elinor Dashwood: Margaret has always wanted to travel. Edward Ferrars: I know. She's, eh, heading an expedition to China shortly. I am to go as her servant, but only on the understanding that I am to be very badly treated. Elinor Dashwood: What will ...
Sir John Middleton: You know what they're saying, of course. Hm? Word is, you've developed a taste for certain company. And why not, say I. A man like you in your prime... she'd be a very fortunate young lady. Colonel Brandon: Marianne Dashwood would...
Marianne: When is a man to be safe from such wit if age and infirmity do not protect him? Elinor Dashwood: Infirmity? Mrs. Dashwood: If Colonel Brandon is infirm then I am at death's door. Elinor Dashwood: It is a miracle your life has extended this ...
Edward Ferrars: Miss Dashwood... Elinor, I must speak to you. There is something of great importance that I need to, eh... t-tell you... a-about my, eh, education. Elinor Dashwood: Your education? Edward Ferrars: Yes. It w-was conducted, eh, oddly en...
Charlotte Palmer: Miss Dashwood, if only Mr Willoughby had gone home to Combe Magna, we could have taken Miss Marianne to see him, for we live but half a mile away. Mr. Palmer: Five and a half. Charlotte Palmer: No, I cannot believe it is that far, f...
