We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. “How he’s grown!” we exclaim, “How time flies!” as though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It is as strange as if a fish were repeate...
Learn the discipline of being surprised not by suffering but by joy. As we grow old, there is suffering ahead of us, immense suffering, a suffering that will continue to tempt us to think that we have chosen the wrong road. But don't be surprised by ...
The lakes are something which you are unprepared for; they lie up so high, exposed to the light, and the forest is diminished to a fine fringe on their edges, with here and there a blue mountain, like amethyst jewels set around some jewel of the firs...
No one would have believe in the last years of the nineteenth century we were being scrutinised like a scientist looks through his microscope at transient beings that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. And yet from the gulf of space minds immesur...
The light of memory, or rather the light that memory lends to things, is the palest light of all. I am not quite sure whether I am dreaming or remembering, whether I have lived my life or dreamed it. Just as dreams do, memory makes me profoundly awar...
In the story of Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized that he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do b...
When you see a fish you don't think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water. Well, I've tried to express just that. If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a patt...
I don't know who made the first Aquaman joke. I'm sure it was comics readers; maybe we all did. But it's the idea that the perpetuated story of Aquaman is that he only has powers in water, and he talks to fish. I think it's the idea of him in the mid...
Swift as a deer. Quiet as a shadow. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Quick as a snake. Calm as still water. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Strong as a bear. Fierce as a wolverine. Fear cuts deeper than swords. The man who fears losing has already lost. F...
And why does England thus persecute the votaries of her science? Why does she depress them to the level of her hewers of wood and her drawers of water? Is it because science flatters no courtier, mingles in no political strife? ... Can we behold unmo...
How language is webbed in the senses. Out of sand-blazed brilliance into quirky minds such as his, into touch, taste and fragrance. He thought he'd linger just a bit longer, let the bath take total hold, ease and alleviate, before he put on clothes a...
I looked over at Augustus Waters, who looked back at me. You could almost see through his eyes they were so blue. "There will come a time," I said, "when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining t...
[Explaining the facts of life to his son] Ben Hood: On the self-abuse front - and this is important - I don't think it's advisable to do it in the shower. It wastes water and electricity and because we all expect you to be doing it there in any case....
Taxi Driver: Right there's the town hall. Right over there's the old fire station. Played a lot of checkers over there, sure did. All this land's gonna be covered with water - best thing ever happened to this town. [a truck in front of the cab is car...
Bob Roland: Message from the front, sir. Rufus T. Firefly: Oh, I'm sick of messages from the front. Don't we ever get a message from the side? - What is it? Bob Roland: General Smith reports a gas attack. He wants to know what to do. Rufus T. Firefly...
[Finds Bela ailing] Bela Lugosi: This happens all the time. Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Is there anything I can get for you? Water or a blanket? Bela Lugosi: Goulash. Edward D. Wood, Jr.: I don't know how to make goulash. [See the track marks on Bela's arm]...
Mr. Fox: [after animals have dug through the wall] You scared the cuss out of us! Badger: A lot of good animals... [starts screaming] Badger: ... are probably going to die, because of you! Half the woods have been obliterated, nobody can get out, and...
Augustus Waters: I am in love with you. And I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed. And that one day all our labor will be returned to dust. And I know that the sun will swallow the ...
Officer Devereux: Hey, you know we've been looking for you two guys for a long time. You guys are always leaving the water running whenever you break in, now we know each and every house you guys have hit. Marv: Yeah. But remember, we're the wet band...
Young Sophie: Calcifer. Calcifer: Sophie, I'm so tired. Young Sophie: If I give Howl back his heart, what will happen to you? Calcifer: I'll be okay if you do it, I think. I mean, you dumped water on me and Howl and we both survived. Young Sophie: I'...
Harold: Maude? Maude: Yeah? Harold: [pulls the stamped coin from the arcade out of his pocket] Here. Maude: A gift! [reads the engraving] Maude: "Harold loves Maude."... and Maude loves Harold. This is the nicest gift I've received in years. [she thr...
