John > John's Quotes

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.”
― Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
― Rachel Carson

“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. ”
― William S. Burroughs

“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”
― Bram Stoker

“Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common.”
― Dorothy Parker

“Oh, dear, no," said Lady Carlotta; "not at all tiresome - for me.”
― H.H. Munro (SAKI), H.H. Munro 'Saki': Masterpieces: Reginald, The Chronicles of Clovis, Beasts and Super-Beasts, The Toy of Peace... (Bauer Classics)

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
― Lewis Carroll

“Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.”
― Homer, The Iliad

“Romance at short notice was her specialty.”
― Saki, The Open Window and Other Short Stories

“Mike [Nichols] said:
Directing a movie is like sex. you never see anyone else doing it, so you're not sure you're doing it right... After the press screening of Murmurs of the Heart, Louis's mom said, "Louis, it brings back such memories!"...”
― Candice Bergen, A Fine Romance

“On October 23, 1963, Barefoot in the Park opened on Broadway. Just before his extremely nervous cast took the stage, Nichols gathered them for a final pep talk. “Everybody relax,” Redford says he told them. “You know your positions, you know your laughs, you know your lines, you know where the comfort zones are. So enjoy yourselves, and remember: Everything depends on tonight.”
― Mark Harris, Mike Nichols: A Life

“I never understand when people say, 'Do you do comedy or tragedy?' I don't think they're very much different. They both have to be true, and there isn't a great play in the world that doesn't have funny parts to it - as 'Salesman' does, as 'King Lear' does. The whole idea is to reflect life in some way, which means surely you have to have both.”
― Mike Nichols

“How beautiful black-and-white is. It's not literal. It's a metaphor automatically, already saying, this is not life, it's ABOUT life.”
― Mike Nichols

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
― Mark Twain

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”
― Dr. Seuss

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
― George Eliot