James Fields > James's Quotes

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
― Oscar Wilde

“man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Philosophy of Existentialism: Selected Essays

“Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.”
― Ray Bradbury, Bradbury Speaks: Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars

“The language he used was that of a man who was sick and tired of the world he lived in—though he had much liking for his fellow men—and had resolved, for his part, to have no truck with injustice and compromises with the truth.”
― Albert Camus, The Plague

“If a system is chaotic (most are), then it implies that however good the resolving power may be, the time over which the system is predictable is limited. Perfect predictability is not achievable, simply because we are limited in our resolving power.”
― Leonard Susskind, The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics

“In other words, if your boy is a poet, horse manure can only mean flowers to him; which is, of course, what horse manure has always been about.”
― Ray Bradbury

“Douglas opened one eye. And everything, absolutely everything, was there. The world, like a great iris of an even more gigantic eye, which has also just opened and stretched out to encompass everything, stared back at him.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

“He realized that all men were like this; that each person was to himself one alone. One oneness, a unit in a society, but always afraid.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

“LOG ENTRY: SOL 11 I wonder how the Cubs are doing.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian

“nothing is more rare than to find them using common sense; that is to say, the portion of judgment sufficient to know the most simple truths, to reject the most striking absurdities, and to be shocked by palpable contradictions.”
― Jean Meslier, Superstition In All Ages

“they compelled them to look into the air, for fear they should look to their feet;”
― Jean Meslier, Superstition In All Ages

“Crying loudly is childish, in that it reflects a belief, on the cryer’s part, that someone is around to hear the noise, and come a-running to make it all better. Crying in absolute silence, as Daniel does this morning, is the mark of the mature sufferer who no longer nurses, nor is nursed by, any such comfortable delusions.”
― Neal Stephenson, The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World

“They are stories I wrote because my friends are gone, a lot of them, and if you can’t be angry about it, how the hell much did you care to begin with?”
― Harlan Ellison, Angry Candy

“You show me someone who’ll eat lima beans without being at gunpoint, I’ll show you a pervert!”
― Harlan Ellison, Angry Candy

“And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better than you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

“She can break your fall Or let you fall and break And every time you jump You just know she’s going to catch you”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“A bum stood at the Lucky Market right in front of Artesia & Blossom. He was begging for money. He looked pretty pathetic, dressed in rancid, oily clothes. He smelled like cigarettes and urine. “Can you spare a dime?” he would ask. People would shake their heads or walk around him. He was getting nowhere. Two hours went by, no money, not a cent. “Please, a dime!” cried the bum. A middle-aged man walked by him, heard his plea and laid upon him a mint new dime. “Thank you, sir! Thank you!” shouted the bum. Dime in hand, the bum limped over to a phone booth and called in the airstrike.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I think that I’m running from something I heard on the radio That everybody’s working for the weekend When does the weekend start? What comes at the end of the week? The end? Picture a tired dog chasing its tail”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that’s their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.”
― Carl Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience

“Of my home Tatooine, I know full well That elsewhere lies my destiny, not here. Although my uncle’s will is that I stay, My heart within me bursts to think on it For out among the spheres I wish to roam— Adventure and rebellion stir my blood. Those oft-repeated words of my mate Biggs I do believe—that all the world’s a star. Beyond that heav’nly light I shall fly far! [Exit.”
― Ian Doescher, William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy: The Royal Imperial Boxed Set: Includes Verily, A New Hope; The Empire Striketh Back; The Jedi Doth Return

“The Prophet said: A man will come out of the East who will preach in the name of the family of Muhammad, though he is the furthest of all men from them. He will hoist black flags which begin with victory and end with unbelief.”
― James Waterson, The Ismaili Assassins: A History of Medieval Murder

“Without a doubt, this woman has been enveloped by a form of madness, thought Aomame. But she herself is not mad or psychologically ill. No, her mind is rock steady, unshakably cool. That fact is backed up by positive proof. Rather than madness, it’s something that resembles madness. A correct prejudice, perhaps. What she wants now is for me to share her madness or prejudice or whatever it is. With the same coolheadedness that she has. She believes that I am qualified to do that.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“flesh that does not exist will never die, and promises unmade are never broken.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“As the years passed the ugly boy grew up into an ugly youth, and before he knew it, into an ugly middle-aged man.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Once you’re born, the worst has already happened.”
― Rudy Rucker, Complete Stories

“Tell me, Tengo, as a novelist, what is your definition of reality?” “When you prick a person with a needle, red blood comes out—that’s the real world,” Tengo replied.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84