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Japher
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Ook! Ook! Ack! Ack! Ack!
Jun 2002
time: 05:30
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quote:
"Did I see it? I saw it. What more did I want? What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven! Rivets. " |
 , Don't know what that is from? Of course you do, if not read this:
"Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:
"`The horror! The horror!'
"I blew the candle out and left the cabin. The pilgrims were dining in the mess-room, and I took my place opposite the manager, who lifted his eyes to give me a questioning glance, which I successfully ignored. He leaned back, serene, with that peculiar smile of his sealing the unexpressed depths of his meanness. A continuous shower of small flies streamed upon the lamp, upon the cloth, upon our hands and faces. Suddenly the manager's boy put his insolent black head in the doorway, and said in a tone of scathing contempt:
"`Mistah Kurtz--he dead.'
"
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Ramo
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Austin, Texas, USA
Oct 1999
time: 23:30
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I don't know, but a passage in a short story I read a few months ago called "Old Music and the Slave Woman" (a story about an emmisary from a trade alliance of planets, in a world where a civil war over slavery is going on) by UK Leguin seems damn powerful to me:
quote:
"You said the bondspeople on a place like this, if they didn't join the Uprising, were collaborators, " Edsan said.
Tema was motionless, but listening.
"You don't think any of them might just not have understood what was going on? And still don't understand? This is a benighted place, zadyo. Hard to even imagine freedom here."
The young man resisted answering for a while, but Esdan talked on, trying to make some contact with him, get through to him. Suddenly something he said popped the lid.
"Usewoman," Tema said. "Get ****ed by blacks, every night. All they are, ****s. Jits' whores. Bearing their black brats, yesmaster yesmaster. You said it, they don't know what freedom is. Never will. Can't liberate anyone lets a black **** 'em. they're foul. Dirty, can't get clean. They got black jizz through and through 'em. Jit-jizz!" He spat on the terrace and wiped his mouth." |
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SKILORD
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Live free or Die
Mar 2002
time: 05:30
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quote:
Originally posted by Vesayen
Aldous Huxley is the greatest author in history, or one of them
What quote from anything you've ever read, was the most powerfull thing you've ever read that appealed to you personally?
For me, its a quote from brave new world-every time I hear it is brings up tremendous emotion:
"But I like inconveniences."
"We don't" said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right, then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be busy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
There was a long silence
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said. |
Goood God. That is beautiful. I apologise for my ignorance, but could you name the book?
-
As for me? Well, my mind likes having things arrayed politely for it to view. So the following quote isn't beautiful, only clever. I do not admire Ayn Rand for the beauty of her prose, rather for the brilliance of her philosohy (Though I am not an Objectivist):
"And what is the state but a servant and convienience for a large number of people, just like the electric light and the plumbing system? And wouldn't it be preposterous to claim that men lived for their plumbing and not the plumbing for the men?"
The rest of the book (We the Living) is medicre, with the occasional slump to awful. But that line, while failing to be beautiful, is very, very clever. I appreciate that.
It's not my favorite line in all of literature, I could find better and more inspiring in only a few hours. But it works. If we include works such as the 'Declaration of Independence as Literature (I can't see what discludes it but it seems rather unliterary to me) I would have to say that 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal' as my favorite quote. Each time I read it I realise something new, or find new conviction in something old. It is, in fact the basis for my entire personal philosophy.
I'll spare you any more.
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Dr Strangelove
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" Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth
Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be filled
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
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monolith94
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New England
Jan 1970
time: 00:30
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"Given that many of Le Guin's recent books have featured slave/master and colonized/colonizer dichotomies (and those relationships go as far back as 'The Word for World is Forest', and 'The Dispossessed') I'd say she's rather good at exploring those themes. I go to Edgar Rice Burroughs for mindless fun- not philosophical or anthropological explorations."
#1 - I wasn't talking about her use of the subject of slave/master relations - I was talking about her ridiculous use of 'colloqialisms', which give her writing a forced, staged and silly feel. It's like she's trying to emulate pulp fiction, to get hip with the kids.
#2 - If this is a thread about powerful quotes in literature, it should be assumed that any Burroughs mentioned is William S. B., not Edgar Rice B. For, of course, while ERB was known for tarzan and conan, fine works in their own right, WSB is the pioneering writer who has set up an army in his writing against the gods themselves.
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Kirnwaffen
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Tryin' hard to chill in the city of Dis
Jul 2000
time: 22:30
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I can't name the most powerful, per se, but here are two of my favorites, both from Inherit the Wind:
quote:
DRUMMOND: I object, I object, I object.
BRADY: On what grounds? Is it possible that something is holy to the celebrated agnostic?
DRUMMOND: Yes! The individual human mind. In a child's power to master the multiplication table there is more sanctity that in all your shouted "Amens!", "Holy, Holies!" and "Hosannahs!" An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is more of a miracle than any sticks turned to snakes or, the parting of waters! But are we now to halt the march of progress because Mr. Brady frightens us with a fable? Gentlemen, progress has never been a bargain. You've got to pay for it. Sometimes I think there's a man behind the counter who says, "All right, you can have a telephone; but you'll have to give up privacy, the charm of distance. Madam, you may vote; but at a price; you lose the right to retreat behind a powder-puff or a petticoat. Mister, you may conquer the air; but the birds will lose their wonder, and the clouds will smell of gasoline!" Darwin moved us forward to a hilltop, where we could look back and see the way from which we came. But for this view, this insight, this knowledge, we must abandon our faith in the pleasant poetry of Genesis. |
quote:
DRUMMOND: Is that the way of things? God tells Brady what is good! To be against Brady is to be against God!
BRADY: No, no! Each man is a free agent-
DRUMMOND: Then what is Bertram Cates doing in the Hillsboro jail? Suppose Mr. Cates had enough influence and lung power to railroad through the State Legislature a law that only Darwin should be taught in the schools!
BRADY: Ridiculous, ridiculous! There is only one great Truth in the world-
DRUMMOND: The Gospel according to Brady! God speaks to Brady, and Brady tells the world! Brady, Brady, Brady, Almighty!
BRADY: The Lord is my strength-
DRUMMOND: What if a lesser being - a Cates, or a Darwin - has the audacity to think that God might whisper to him? That an un-Brady thought might still be holy? Must men go to prison because they are at odds with the self-appointed prophet? Extend the testaments! Let us have a Book of Brady! We shall hex the Pentateuch, and slip you in neatly between Numbers and Deuteronomy!
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Dr Strangelove
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quote:
Originally posted by The Andy-Man
I can't rememeber the quote exactly, but here is something from Tolstoi:
'War is a Brutal thing and those who say 'take prisoners' are like the woman who swoons and faints when she see's a lamb's throat cut, but later on a dinner she has no qualms about eating her tasty veal cutlets.' |
I don't understand this quote. It seems to me that the author is saying that the Russians ate their prisoners. I assume that if the enemy were killed on the battlefield they ate them there, but if they were taken prisoner they ate them later. The desireability of taking prisoners would then depend on how successful the battle was. If you had defeated a larger force surely you'd want to save some for later, but if you had overrun a small detachment you might as well splurge.
This probably explains why the phrase "I'm hungry enough to eat a horse" translates into Russian as "I'm hungry enough to eat a dragoon."
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Zulu Elephant
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Quality quote from 'The West Wing' on why liberals should be more bold.
"somebody came along and said liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on Communism, soft on defense. And we're going to tax you back to the Stone Age because people shouldn't have to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying, 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave it to Beaver trip back to the '50s,' we cowered in the corner and said, 'Please don't hurt me'... "
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19-09-2003 21:30
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