-Jack Douglas-
"There are two things you can never trust: schools and churches."
-Herbert Borer-
Referring to WWII: "The second time Western Civilization tried to commit suicide."
-Kurt Vonnegut- Timequake, 1997
"Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality the cost becomes prohibitive."
-William F. Buckley-
"We expect too much out of kids today"
-Dr. Linda Newman-
"Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to."
-H. Mumford Jones-
"Some men are born mediocre, some men acheive mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them."
-Joseph Heller- Catch-22
"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who have not got it."
-George Bernard Shaw-
"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them."
-Nietzsche-
"Truth is more of a stranger than fiction."
-Mark Twain-
"You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing."
-Michael Pritchard-
"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it"
-Robert E. Lee-
"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
-W. Somerset Maugham-
"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."
-Lenin-
"The only reason Europeans and Americans control the world is because they came damn close to wiping out everyone else."
-Fred Uebele-
"All my possessions for a moment of time."
-last words of Elizabeth I-
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
-Mark Twain-
"Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it and wiser than the one that comes after it."
-George Orwell-
"A conservative is a man who believes nothing should be done for the first time."
-Alfred E. Wiggam-
"War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory."
-Georges Clemanceau-
"It is said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this."
-Bertrand Russell-
"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
-Abraham Lincoln-
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
-Gailileo-
"If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innnocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe."
-Lord Salisbury-
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."
-George Bernard Shaw-
"Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance."
-Sam Brown-
Life is a long lesson in humility.
-James M. Barrie-
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
-Jules de Gaultier-
The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.
-Oscar Levant-
There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.
-Gore Vidal-
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
-Noel Coward-
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
-Leo Tolstoy-
I find nothing more depressing than optimism.
-Paul Fussell-
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
-Barry LePatner-
I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.
-Orson Welles-
Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.
-David T. Wolf-
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
-Gore Vidal-
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
-Edith Wharton-
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
-Sir Winston Churchill-
What happens when the future has come and gone?
-Robert Half-
I refuse to be considered manic-depressive...the situations around me are manic and I respond accordingly.
-Fred Uebele-
Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.
-John Russell-
You get fifteen democrats in a room, and you get twenty opinions.
-Senator Patrick Leahy-
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
-Jules de Gaultier-
Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
-Brendan Gill-
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
-Albert Einstein-
There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
-Andre Gide-
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
-John Kenneth Galbraith-
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
-Frank Tibolt-
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
-Thomas Jefferson-
Life is the punchline of a joke told backwards.
-Joe Frank-
It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead.
-Dame Rose Macaulay-
Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.
-Miguel de Cervantes-
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
-Edith Wharton-
You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.
-Vicomte de Chateaubriand-
The young have aspirations that never come to pass; the old have reminiscences of what never happened.
-Saki-
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
-Michel de Montaigne-
-Randolph Browne-
"When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice."
-Bismarck-
"All generations are dangerous, even this one."
-Alexandre Dumas-
"Scratch a cynic and you will find a disillusioned idealist."
-Unbearable Lightness of Being-
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
-Mark Twain-
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
-Winston Churchill-
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception."
-Groucho Marx-
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."
-H.L. Mencken-
"I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages."
-William H. Martin-
"Silence has many meanings; talking only has one."
-Fred Uebele-
"Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo."
-H.G. Wells-
"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."
-Jane Austen-
"I think we spend too much time on getting things done; not enough on living life."
-Dr. Linda Newman-
"Talking about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself."
-Nietzsche-
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
-Bertrand Russell-
"The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness, you'll never find it."
-C.P. Snow-
"Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success."
-Christopher Lasch-
"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage concludes that it will also make better soup."
-H.L. Mencken-
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
-Soren Kierkegaard-
"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule."
-Nietzsche-
"The average person thinks he isn't."
-Earry Lorenzoni-
"Every decent person is ashamed of the government he lives under."
-H.L. Mencken-
"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made."
-Jean Giraudoux-
"A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days."
-Goethe-
"The more I study religoins the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself."
-Sir Richard F. Burton-
"There are only two ways of telling the complete truth - anonymously and posthumously."
-Thomas Sowell-
"It is always the best policy to speak the truth - unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar."
-Jerome K. Jerome-
"If you cannot convince them, confuse them."
-Harry S. Truman-
"When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong - or absolutely right."
-Albert Guinon-
"If you're born dumb and you don't learn anything, you stay dumb."
-Nickels-
I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.
-Herbert Rappaport-
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
-Anatole France-
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
-Voltaire-
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
-John Ciardi-
You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
-Indira Gandhi-
Learning to dislike children at an early age saves a lot of expense and aggravation later in life.
-Robert Byrne-
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
-Robertson Davies-
A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.
-Ludwig Erhard-
Gay marriage is to the right-wing what George Bush is to the rest of us.
-Allan Friedman-
"Crucifix" and "Christ" are intimately connected...by nails.
-Steven Fanning-
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
-Bertrand Russell-Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?
There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.
-Cyril Connolly-
At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; At 45 they are caves in which we hide.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald-
Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
-P. D. James-
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
-Nietzsche-
I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world.
-Georges Duhamel-
There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee.
-Lester J. Pourciau-
There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.
-George Bernard Shaw-
You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
-Indira Gandhi-
After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done.
-Unknown-
There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed.
-Peter Sellers-
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
-P. D. James-
I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.
-Mark Twain-
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
-Blaise Pascal-
Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you--if you don't play, you can't win.
-Robert Heinlein-
Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
-Michel de Montaigne-
Life is a sexually transmitted disease.
-R. D. Laing-
- ...the discovery of America was the beginning of the death of art.
- All ways end at the same point...disillusion.
- Skepticism is the beginning of faith.
- Don't be led astray by the the paths of virtue.
- There is no sin except stupidity.
- ...a thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
- Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.
- I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- Yes. I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
- Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.
- One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.
- You must not find symbols in everything you see. It makes life impossible.
- Religion is the fashionable substitute for Belief.
- I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never any use to oneself.
- There is only one thing in this world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
- I am not young enough to know everything.
- Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.
- Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
"We are the authors of ourselves, coauthoring a gigantic Dostoyevsky novel starring clowns."
-Speed Levitch-
"And on really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion."
-Speed Levitch-
"Remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting."
-Speed Levitch-
"What is the most universal human characteristic: fear or laziness?"
-Louis Mackey-
"They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"
-Jason T. Hodge-
"When it was over, all I could think about was how this entire notion of oneself, what we are, is just this logical structure, a place to momentarily house all the abstractions. It was a time to become conscious, to give form and coherence to the mystery, and I had been a part of that. It was a gift. Life was raging all around me and every moment was magical. I loved all the people, dealing with all the contradictory impulses - that's what I loved the most, connecting with the people. Looking back, that's all that really mattered."
-Mona Lee-
The Royal Tenenbaums
"Oh that's right. We got another body buried here."
-Royal Tenenbaum-
"I don't think you're an asshole, Royal. I just think you're a real son of a bitch."
-Henry Sherman-
Requiem For A Dream
"I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you, and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. What have I got, Harry, hm? Why should I even make the bed, or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old. (Harry: You got friends, Ma.) Ah, it's not the same. They don't need me. I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress and the television and you and your father. Now, when I get the sun, I smile.
-Sara Goldfarb-
The Talented Mr. Ripley
"Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head? You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person."
-Tom Ripley-
The Hours
"This is my right; it is the right of every human being. I choose not the suffocating anesthetic of the suburbs, but the violent jolt of the Capital, that is my choice. The meanest patient, yes, even the very lowest is allowed some say in the matter of her own prescription. Thereby she defines her humanity. I wish, for your sake, Leonard, I could be happy in this quietness. (pause) But if it is a choice between Richmond and death, I choose death."
-Virginia Woolf-
"That is what we do. That is what people do. They stay alive for each other."
-Clarissa Vaughn-
"I remember one morning, getting up at dawn; there was such a sense of possibility. You know? That feeling? And I remember thinking to myself, ‘So this is the beginning of happiness.’ This is where it starts, and of course there will always be more. (laughs) It never occurred to me; it wasn’t the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment; right then."
-Clarissa Vaughn-
Before Sunset
"Memory is a good thing if you don't have to deal with the past."
-Celine-
Garden State
"You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone. You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this right of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for you kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place."
-Andrew Largeman-
"You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies until every human becomes an emperor, becomes his own God...and where can you go from there?"
-John Milton-
"Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts! He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste! Taste, don't swallow. Ahaha! And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He's laughin' His sick, fuckin' ass off. He's a tight-ass! He's a sadist! He's an absentee landlord! Worship that?! Never!"
-John Milton-
The Third Man
"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
-Harry Lime-
One Hour Photo
"Nobody takes a picture of something they want to forget."
-Sy Parrish-
All About Eve
"I detest cheap sentiment."
-Margo Channing-
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
-Margo Channing-
"You're maudlin and full of self-pity. You're magnificent!"
-Addison DeWitt-
"I am a critic and commentator. I am essential to the theatre - as ants to a picnic, as the boll weavil to a cotton field."
-Addison DeWitt-
All That Jazz
"If I die, I'm sorry for all the bad things I did to you. And if I live, I'm sorry for all the bad things I'm gonna do to you."
-Joe Gideon-
Moulin Rouge!
"You may see me only as a drunken, vice-ridden gnome whose friends are just pimps and girls from the brothels. But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being."
-Toulouse-Lautrec-
Men In Black
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals."
-Jay-
Lost In Translation
"The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you."
-Bob Harris-
Dead Poets Society
"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"
-John Keating-
The Insider
"Ordinary people under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency?"
-Lowell Bergman-
