Brian > Brian's Quotes

“(A)ll mortal greatness is but disease.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“In life we pay for the evil that in life we do.”
― Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche

“if you gobern de shark in you, why den you be angel; for all angel is not'ing more dan de shark well goberned.”
― Herman Melville

“When you tire of living, change itself seems evil, does it not? for then any change at all disturbs the deathlike peace of the life-weary.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz

“(T)he cadet was too young to believe in death after life.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honour

“The cities were sucking all the life of the country into themselves and destroying it. Men were no longer individuals but units in a vast machine, all cut to one pattern, with the same tastes and ideas, the same mass-produced education that did not educate but only pasted a veneer of catchwords over ignorance. Why do you want to bring that back?”
― Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow

“If you're not honest with yourself, life will never be honest with you.”
― Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow

“There's never been an act done since the beginning, from a kid stealing candy to a dictator committing genocide, that the person doing it didn't think he was fully justified. That's a mental trick called rationalizing, and it's done the human race more harm than anything else you can name.”
― Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow

“May all your dreams come true, save one.”
― david gemmell

“Elend: I kind of lost track of time…
Breeze: For two hours?
Elend: There were books involved.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension

“Nothing, I believe, is so full of life under the microscope as a drop of water from a stagnant pool.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage

“There is too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will. I must concede you the Devil. God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're so busy punishing ourselves.”
― Agatha Christie, The Moving Finger

“Of course, if you’ve made up your mind about it, you’ll find an answer to everything.”
― Agatha Christie, A Murder Is Announced

“Good responded nobly to this tax upon his inventive faculties. Never before had I the faintest conception of the breadth and depth and height of a naval officer's objurgatory powers. For ten minutes he went on in several languages without stopping, and he scarcely ever repeated himself.”
― H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

“Just for the sake of amusement, ask each passenger to tell you his story, and if you find a single one who hasn’t often cursed his life, who hasn’t told himself he’s the most miserable man in the world, you can throw me overboard head first.”
― Candide, Candide

“How many plays have been written in France?' Candide asked the abbe.

'Five or six thousand.'

'That's a lot,' said Candide. 'How many of them are good?'

'Fifteen or sixteen,' replied the abbe.

'That's a lot,' said Martin.”
― Voltaire, Candide

“Nothing is stronger than habit.”
― Ovid

“And anyway who the devil should I want to murder?"

"That would be a very good question," said Miss Marple. "I have not yet had the pleasure of sufficient conversation with you to evolve a theory as to that."

Mr. Rafter's smile broadened.

"Conversations with you might be dangerous," he said.

"Conversations are always dangerous, if you have something to hide," said Miss Marple.”
― Agatha Christie

“If you're going to do something that crazy, save it for when it'll make a difference, Lieutenant Skaaiat had said, and I had agreed. I still agree.

The problem is knowing when what you are about to do will make a difference.”
― Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Translation is always a treason, and as a Ming author observes, can at its best be only the reverse side of a brocade- all the threads are there, but not the subtlety of colour or design.”
― Kakuzo Okakura, Book of Tea

“Our standards of morality are begotten of the past needs of society, but is society to remain always the same? The observance of communal traditions involves a constant sacrifice of the individual to the state. Education, in order to keep up the mighty delusion, encourages a species of ignorance. People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to behave properly. We are wicked because we are frightfully self-conscious. We nurse a conscience because we are afraid to tell the truth to others; we take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves. How can one be serious with the world when the world itself is so ridiculous!”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

“One can even buy a so-called Religion,
which is really but common morality sanctified with flowers and music. Rob the Church of her accessories and what remains behind?”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

“Tea ... is a religion of the art of life.”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

“The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Alloy of Law

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Some things are more precious because they don't last long.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray