Quip Quotes

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.”
― Blaise Pascal

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”
― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

“Look on the bright side," said Simon, "If they need a human sacrifice, you can always offer me. I'm not sure the rest of you qualify anyway.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes

“When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Look, I asked you here for a reason. Much as I hate to admit it, vampire, we have something in common."
"Totally awesome hair?" Simon suggested.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

“I'm glad you think this is funny."
"You're not happy to see me, then?" Jace asked. "I have to say, I'm surprised. I've always been told my presence brightened up any room. One might think that went doubly for dank underground cells.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

“It doesn't hurt."
"But my eyes do," said a coolly amused voice from the doorway. Jace. He had come in so quietly that even Simon hadn't heard him; closing the door behind him, he grinned as Isabelle pulled Simon's shirt down. "Molesting the vampire while he's too weak to fight back, Iz?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure that violates at least one of the Accords."
"I'm just showing him where he got stabbed," Isabelle protested, but she scooted back to her chair with a certain amount of haste.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

“But you've never drunk fresh blood. Have you?"
Simon raised his eyebrows in response.
"Well, aside from mine, of course," Jace said. "And I'm sure my blood is fan-tastic.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

“This one incident I will not allow you to shrug off!"
"I wasn't planning to," Jace said. "I can't shrug anything off. My shoulder's dislocated."
-Hodge & Jace, pg.296-”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“I'm not sure you're quite sensible of the honor I'm doing you," Jace said. "you'll be the first mundane who has ever been inside the Institute."

"Probably the smell keeps the rest of them away.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain.
(Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)”
― Blaise Pascal, Pascal's Pensees

“What's your angle?" I asked, trying to sound more playful than demanding.
"Isosceles," Jack quipped.”
― Amanda Hocking, My Blood Approves

“As much as it hurts, I would rather miss someone than hit someone.”
― Brian Celio

“Doctors most commonly get mixed up between absence of evidence and evidence of abense”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“T.V. has brought murder back into the home where it belongs.”
― Alfred Hitchcock

“tomorrow's gone-we'll have tonight!”
― Dorothy Parker, The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker

“I will confess to you that, you know, one of the statements that’s been attributed to me that I’m sort of proud of is somebody said, you know, “What do we do about Osama bin Laden?” And they asked me, “Can we forgive him?” And I said, “Forgiveness is up to God. I just hope we hurry up the meeting.” And that’s the way I feel about him, really. [8 February 2003 show of Meet The Press, NBC News]”
― Norman Schwarzkopf

“Once is never. Twice is always.”
― James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burn

“Thad: “But this is a boy, and you need to think of your reputation if you’re spending time alone with him—”

Ari: ”Learning how to put a man's eye out or take him down at the knees. Very romantic stuff, Thad. Very romantic. Oh, and we also hid a body together, so we're practically engaged.”
― C.J. Redwine, The Wish Granter

“It must be an odd person indeed that can say for certain they are normal.”
― Initially NO, Percipience: Outside the Range of Understood Sense

“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.”
― Alan J. Perlis, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

“Gut?”
“General Unified Theory.” Kohler quipped. “The theory of everything.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“I could see why she felt attracted to Sam K. Barrows. Birds of a feather, or rather lizards of a scale.”
― Philip K. Dick, We Can Build You

“That's easy," Russell said. "Because everybody else in this here place is crooked as a dog's hind leg. ...”
― Les Standiford, Bone Key

“This isn't the time for bravado, Mr. Orsini,' he said.

Brentford couldn't help himself. 'No, it isn't,' he said. 'Perhaps you could come back later?”
― Jean-Christophe Valtat, Luminous Chaos

“Louella remarked that when foreign nations had intercourse with this country they knew they had been intercoursed.”
― Jack Woodford, The Autobiography of Jack Woodford

“Lydia, I couldn't figure you out with a four hundred page manual and a telephone help line.”
― John Conroe, God Touched

“[T]hat question is like asking what color Tuesday was. It’s meaningless.”
― James S.A. Corey, Caliban's War

“Sirius had the relaxed, confident demeanor Seatticans were known for...and an overall likable disposition. If you weren't being forced to marry him, that is.”
― Tammie Painter, Domna, Part One: The Sun God's Daughter