Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain-storms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelting; when an early twilight ushered in a long eveni...
Having spent a long time in open spaces, whether sea or desert, it is a luxury to be able to take refuge in towns with narrow streets which provide a fragile fortress against the assaults of the infinite. There is such a sense of security against the...
One of my greatest difficulties in consenting to think of religion was that I thought I should have to give up my beautiful thoughts and my love for the things God has made. But I find that the happiness springing from all things not in themselves si...
For more than half a century I have tried to confront greatness directly, hardly a fashionable stance, but I see no other justification for literary criticism in the shadows of our Evening Land. Over time the strong poets settle these matters for the...
As the sun began to rise, the man reached out to the woman, and they clasped hands. He cradled her, and languidly they lifted themselves up to their feet, their bodies brushing, their eyes lost in each other's. Sensuously, deliberately, they danced, ...
The theme of invisibility has haunted me for many years, since earliest girlhood. A woman often feels ‘invisible’ in a public sense precisely because her physical being - her ‘visibility’ - figures so prominently in her identity. She is judge...
I think people should take mythology much more seriously, because it tells us an awful lot about the history of the human race. We tend to dismiss it as 'fairy tales,' when it isn't. Fairy tales in themselves are about fundamentals of human nature. A...
Now If diversity were inherently good, inherently valuable, inherently wonderful, why would we have to have the highly-paid profession know as 'diversity consultant' to manage it? Things that are inherently good, to enjoy them, or to make the most of...
In so far as I listen with interest to a record, it’s usually to figure out how it was arrived at. The musical end product is where interest starts to flag. It’s a bit like jigsaw puzzles. Emptied out of the box, there’s a heap of pieces, all s...
[Women's magazines]ignore older women or pretend that they don’t exist; magazines try to avoid photographs of older women, and when they feature celebrities who are over sixty, ‘retouching artists’ conspire to ‘help’ beautiful women look mo...
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...
Vincent: They project onto you their flaws, what they don't like about themselves. I had a father like that. Max: Mothers are worse. Vincent: Wouldn't know. My mother died before I remember her. Max: What about your father? Vincent: Hated everything ...
Vincent: Limos, huh? Max: Don't start. Vincent: Hey, I'm not the one lying to my mother. Max: She hears what she wants to hear. I don't disillusion her. Vincent: Yeah, right. Maybe she hears what you tell her. Max: Whatever I tell her is never good e...
Almásy: Let me tell you about winds. There is a, a whirlwind from southern Morrocco, the aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. And there is the... the ghibli, from Tunis... Katharine Clifton: [giggling] The "ghibli"? Almá...
Tom Hagen: When a plot against the Emperor failed... the plotters were always given a chance... to let their families keep their fortunes. Right? Frank Pentangeli: Yeah, but only the rich guys, Tom. The little guys got knocked off and all their estat...
Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Dear Mother, They learn, learn quickly, faster than white troops it seems to me. They are almost grave and sedate under instruction and they restrain themselves. But the moment they are dismissed from drill every tongue is rel...
Paul Edgecomb: Men under strain can snap; hurt themselves, hurt others. That's why our job is talking, not yelling. You'll do better to think of this place like an intensive care ward in a hospital. Percy Wetmore: I think of it as a bucket of piss to...
[Donovan wants Indy to get the Grail] Walter Donovan: You could go down in history. Indiana Jones: As what? A Nazi stooge like you? Walter Donovan: The Nazis? Is that the limit of your vision? The Nazis want to write themselves into the Grail legend,...
[Frodo and Sam are lowering themselvs down a cliff] Sam: Can you see the bottom? Frodo: No. Don't look down, Sam, just keep going! Sam: [drops a small box] Ouagh! Catch It! Grab it, Mr. Frodo! [Frodo catches it, loses his grip and then lands on the g...
[first lines] [Title card]: Miami, Florida, Three-Twenty P.M., April the Twenty-Fourth, Nineteen Hundred and Forty-Six... [reporters and photographers converse amongst themselves outside the courtroom] Judge: Is there any legal reason why sentence sh...
