Bart Jr. > Bart's Quotes

“Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.”
― Hippocrates

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
― Helen Keller, The Open Door

“Maybe he used to like me, but I doubt he does anymore, now that I’ve insulted his bird fetish.”

Peter smiled.   “He’s not going to stop liking you over one little argument.   I don’t think he’s the type to just fall for someone and then hate them the next day.   We don’t live in that kind of world anymore, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”  

“Well, when there were thousands of possible mates to choose from, it was like being a huge candy store with a billion types of sugary things to choose from.   You could sample one of everything and not worry about whether you’d like it much or whatever, because there was always another jar of candy nearby.   But now, there’s no candy store.   There’s a single jawbreaker that you found in the gutter.   And there are no more jawbreaker factories.   No more candy stores.   No more refined sugar.   That one jawbreaker you found could be the only one you’ll ever have again.   You aren’t going to just eat it and say goodbye.”

His analogy wasn’t perfect but I saw where he was going with it.   “So I’m like a jawbreaker.   A dirty one you find in the gutter.”

“Yeah.   And he likes that candy.   It’s his favorite.   So he doesn’t care that it has smelly feet.”

I scowled at him.   “How do you know he likes jawbreakers so much?”

“I just know.   I can tell a good match when I see one.   He needs someone spunky and tough, someone different than other girls.   That’s you.”

I smiled, liking how Peter had described me.   “But what if he just decides to eat it real quick and then move on?   I mean, there are other jawbreakers out there.   They’re just more rare.”

“That’s not how he is.   He’s methodical.   A thinking person.   He’s not rash. And he knows his odds of finding a jawbreaker of this flavor?   Are pretty slim.”

“I’ve seen him do some stupid, rash things … like going after the candy at the Cracker Barrel.”

“That was all a very carefully-crafted way of making sure he had a good grip on his jawbreaker.   He wants to keep the candy happy.   Keep it sweet.”

I rolled my eyes.   “Ugh.   Your analogy is making me want to eye gouge you right now.”
― Elle Casey, Kahayatle

“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.”
― Rudyard Kipling

“That’s your mother. You and she are not equals. Here’s her,” he said, putting his hand high up above his head, “and here’s you,” he added, putting his other hand well below the table.”
― Justin Halpern, Sh*t My Dad Says

“It is a cruel, ironical art, photography. The dragging of captured moments into the future; moments that should have been allowed to be evaporate into the past; should exist only in memories, glimpsed through the fog of events that came after. Photographs force us to see people before their future weighed them down....”
― Kate Morton, The House at Riverton

“On Choosing One’s Occupation “You have to do something you love…. Bullshit, you clearly have not heard this speech before, because you’re working at Mervyn’s.”
― Justin Halpern, Sh*t My Dad Says

“On Friendship “You got good friends. I like them. I don’t think they would fuck your girlfriend, if you had one.”
― Justin Halpern, Sh*t My Dad Says

“On Selling His Beloved 1967 Two-Door Mercury Cougar “This is what happens when you have a family. You sacrifice. [Pause] You sacrifice a lot. [Long pause] It’s gonna be in your best interest to stay away from me for the next couple days.”
― Justin Halpern, Sh*t My Dad Says

“life never comes straight at you, it sneaks up and gives you whatever it gives, not what you want. No matter what you think.”
― Bart Hopkins Jr., Influence

“Kane tuned up Honey for a few minutes, then he reached into his case and pulled out his ball cap with the American flag on it. He rotated it around in his hands and worked the bill a little bit. Thought about what he’d done for his country, and the friends he lost. He didn’t regret any of it, even the parts that hurt. Loving his country wasn’t something that required effort on his part—it came naturally.”
― Bart Hopkins, The Bends

“I hate the people who think we’re just part of the great unwashed”
― Dean Koontz, The Crooked Staircase

“There is a certain dignity in going through life without the promise of Heaven or the threat of Hell.”
― Daniel Everett

“They have no craving for truth as a transcendental reality. Indeed, the concept has no place in their values. Truth to the Pirahãs is catching a fish, rowing a canoe, laughing with your children, loving your brother, dying of malaria. Does this make them more primitive? Many anthropologists have suggested so, which is why they are so concerned about finding out the Pirahãs notions about God, the world, and creation.

But there is an interesting alternative to think about things. Perhaps it is their presence of these concerns that makes a culture more primitive, and their absense that renders a culture more sophisticated. If that is true, the Pirahãs are a very sophisticated people. Does this sound far-fetched? Let's ask ourselves if it is more sophisticated to look at the universe with worry, concern, and a believe that we can understand it all, or to enjoy life as it comes, recognizing the likely futility of looking for truth or God?”
― Daniel L. Everett, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle