TheGriffinReads > TheGriffinReads's Quotes

“Have it compose a poem- a poem about a haircut! But lofty, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter S!!” [sic]….
Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
Silently scheming
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide."

("The First Sally (A) or The Electronic Bard"
THE CYBERIAD)”
― Stanislaw Lem

“…the extent to which a society focuses on the needs of its lowest common denominator is the extent to which that society’ll be mired in mediocrity. Whereas, if we would aim the bulk of our support at the brightest, most talented, most virtuous instead, then they would have the wherewithal to solve a lot of our problems, to uplift the whole culture, enlighten it or something, so that eventually there wouldn’t be so many losers and weaklings impeding evolution and dragging the whole species down…. Martyrs…just perpetuate human misery by catering to it…. Individuals have to take responsibility for their own lives and accept the consequences of their choices.”
― Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

“FOR EVERY STOIC WAS A STOIC BUT WHERE IN CHRISTENDOM IS THE CHRISTIAN?”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He whom the Gods love dies young.”
― Titus Maccius Plautus

“Such cathedrals are only built by heart[s] in monstrous despair or … Dionysian ecstasy,… only a Superman is capable of such creative despair.”

On Gaudi’s Familia Segrada”
― Hermann Finsterlin

“…not a fighter…
an adventurer.
He doesn’t attack, he engages;
He doesn’t defend, he expands;
He doesn’t destroy, he transforms;
He doesn’t reject, he explores; ….”
― Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

“Given a choice between a folly and a sacrament, one should always choose the folly—because we know a sacrament will not bring us closer to god and there’s always the chance that a folly will.”
― Erasmus

“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”
― Frank Zappa

“If the radical right had its way we’d all be church-going polyester heterosexuals driving around in white Cadillacs eating meatloaf and wax beans while mammoth bulldozers leveled all our forests and even hummingbirds were extinct.”
― John Nichols, The Voice of the Butterfly

“I am one for whom dangers are play-
things
One who empties men of their
strength as a nut from its shell
The charms you use I chop up for
relish on my porridge
Beware! I am a deadly mamba
Wrestler of legends
A hive of hornets
A man among men”
― Nancy Farmer, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy