"It may be absurd," he acknowledged, "but it's completely accurate, and as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself." ~The dodecahedron, The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane. ~Jimmy Buffett To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e. e. cummings The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. ~Victor Hugo Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ~Macbeth, Macbeth, William Shakespeare Light, Dark, there is no difference, except to the weak minded who only believe that they see. ~Nathaniel Mannon "But finally you'll get into a man's office with your drawing, and you'll curse yourself for taking so much space of his air with your body, and you'll squeeze yourself out of his sight, so that he won't see you, but only hear your voice begging him, pleading, your voice licking his knees; you'll loathe yourself for it, but you won't care, if only he'll let you put up that building, because if he saw what's there he'd have to let you put it up. But he'll say that he's very sorry, but the commission has just been given to Guy Francon. And you'll go home, and do you know what you'll do there? You'll cry. You'll cry like a woman, like a drunkard, like an animal. That's your future, Howard Roark. Now, do you want it?" "Yes," said Roark. - Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead The world, it is an exercise-book, the pages on which you do your sums. It is not reality, although you can express reality there if you wish. You are also free to write nonsense, or lies, or to tear out the pages. ~Messiah's Handbook, from Illusions by Richard Bach She tried so hard, she stride so long That she lost her sense of right and wrong He said he heard a word come from above He said the closest thing to death is love ----The Clarks No one feels another's grief; no one understands another's joy. People imagine that they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by. Franz Schubert "I must love what I destroy, and destroy the things I love" -Sting "I feel better having screamed, don't you?" -R.E.M. i think that i will continue to see things as a child, it's not quite so far to fall ~t.p.t., of course they hurt you at home and they hit you at school they hate you if you are clever and they despise a fool 'til you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules a working class hero is something to be -John Lennon "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." Albert von Szent-Gyorgy Individuality is the salt of common life. You may have to live in a crowd, but you do not have to live like it, not subsist on its food. You may have your own orchard. You may drink at a hidden spring. ~Henry Van Dyke People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Breakfast of Champions "Don't bury me I'm not worth anything." -Blur i ran to the window and looked out, there were dead people all over the streets. within two minutes i had all my stuff together. i jumped in my car and was speeding down the highway past the deserted cars. in five minutes i was at the airport but there at the gates i saw what i suppose was one of these 'alien life forms.' i pulled my bazooka out of its bag in the back of my car and blew it to hell. as arranged dr. no was waiting for me in the terminal, we got in his private jet plane and took off, two hours later landing in zaire, where we met up with fu manchu, hannibal lecter, the hooded claw and all the rest of the gang. we boarded the rocket and soon we were shooting off for the stars and as we approached the space station i looked down and observed the earth, the us air force being annihilated and swarms of nuclear weapons soaring through the stratosphere destroying the earth- and i swear to god i laughed. ~"day of the triffids," ash. "...until an hour before the devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven." --Reverend Hale, The Crucible, Arthur Miller "...life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it." --Reverend Hale, The Crucible, Arthur Miller Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends. ~Richard Bach, Illusions; The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah Step outside, like a ghost into a fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white. And in between the moon and you, angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right. ~Counting Crows Children are of all people...the most imaginative. They abandon themselves without reserve to every illusion. ~Thomas B. Macaulay It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities If you aren't confused, you don't know what is going on. I dream to heal your wounds, but I bleed myself. ~Sunny Day Real Estate That a man is successful who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of the intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had. ~Robert Louis Stevenson Literature is a transmission of power. Textbooks, and treatises, dictionaries and encyclopedias, manuals and books of instruction-they are communications; but literature is a power line, and the motor is the reader. ~Charles P. Curtis Mathematics is the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the actual world, but every possible world must conform. ~Bertrand Russell I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one. ~Jean Baptiste Moliθre Tell a man that there are 300 billion stars in the universe, and he'll believe you... Tell him that a bench has wet paint upon it and he'll have to touch it to be sure. The test of intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle So many dragons lurking out in the fog So many crazy people mumblin' monologues It's not the tales of Stephen King that I've read I need protection from the things in my head ~Jimmy Buffett That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning. ~Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life. ~Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever Fear not. If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than steel! ~Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. Anne Morrow Lindbergh Education is one of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get. ~William L. Bryan It is a writer's privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and piety and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. ~William Faulkner Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent. ~Bruno Jasienski We come. We go. And in between, we try to understand. Rod Steiger Cuz when I look down I just miss all the good stuff when I look up I just trip over things. -Ani DiFranco "And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways," Yossarian continued. "There's nothing mysterious about it, He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?" Joseph Heller, Catch22 Damn my situation and the games I have to play with all the things caught in my mind Damn my education I can't find the words to say about the things caught in my mind ~"Don't Go Away," Oasis Get yourself out for me, get it all out and see, you've got so much to give, you've got so much to lose it may seem a little unfair so then you'll see ~"Get Out," ash. So get up off the floor and believe in life ~"D'You Know What I Mean?," Oasis And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. ~Abraham Lincoln If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things. ~Vincent Van Gogh I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. ~Thomas Paine We have been sleeping with the lights on, Just about every night. Because we are afraid of what the dark might bring ~"The Twistinside," Everclear "Ah, fair lady, why do I love thee? Because thou art fairest of all others, and yet thou showest never love to me or bounty. Alas, I must still love thee. And I may not blame thee, fair lady, for my eyes are the cause of this sorrow. And yet to love thee I am but a fool, for the best knight of the world loveth thee, and ye him in return; that is Sir Tristram of Lyoness. But the falsest king and knight is your husband, and most cowardly and full of treason is your lord, King Mark. Alas, that ever the fairest lady, peerless of all others should be matched with the most villainous knight of the world." ~Sir Dinadan, to La Belle Isoud, Le Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory Nothing endures but change. ~Heraclitus Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all--young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I will die of boredom.' The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!' But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current against the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!' And the one carried in the current said, 'I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.' But they cried all the more, 'Saviour!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again, he was gone, and they were left alone, making legends of a Saviour. ~Richard Bach, Illusions; Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah . . . all the times that I've cried, keeping all the things I knew inside. It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it. ~Cat Stevens Don't fear the world is ending today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. ~Jim Henson That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. William J.H. Boetcker "Hello, dearest," he said. He said it simply and clearly, as if he wanted to say it because it was real and right, and he needed to hold onto the concepts of reality and rightness. --Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged Patriotism is the willingness to be killed for trivial reasons. ~Bertrand Russell Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. ~George Bernard Shaw The universe is not indifferent to intelligence, it is actively hostile to it. One food for the rest of my life? That's easy. Cherry Pez. Cherry-flavored Pez. There's no doubt about it. ~Vern Tessio, "Stand By Me" Chewbacca: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh C-3PO: He made a fair move. Screaming about it can't help you. Han Solo: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wookiee. C-3PO: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid. Han Solo: That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that. Chewbacca: Grrf. C-3PO: I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the Wookie win. ~"Star Wars" Sometimes I don't thrill you Sometimes I think I'll kill you But don't let me fuck up will you Cause when I need a friend its still you --Dinosaur Jr. The Truth Is Out There ~The X-Files I was talking about . . . what: coming to the end of it, yes. So. There it is. You asked after all. That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we can stop. When we can stop. ~A, Three Tall Women, Edward Albee . . is to attempt seeing Truth without knowing Falsehood. It is the attempt to see the Light without knowing Darkness. It cannot be. ~Frank Herbert, Dune Use it up ... Wear it out. Make it do ... Or do without. --US World War II Message "Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds -- justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner." Anne Rice. "My dear, my dear, my dear you do not know me but I know you very well now let me tell you about the feelings I have for you when I cry" ---Pharcyde--- "Could you be the one they talk about- Hiding inside, behind another door? Is it only happiness you want? Does wanting a feeling matter anymore?" -Husker "He who asks a question may be a fool for five minutes. But he who never asks a question remains a fool forever" --Tom J. Connelly "Sitting on my bed or lying wide awake There are demons in my head and it's more than I can take. I think I'm on a roll, but I think it's kinda weak. I'm saying all I know is I gotta get away from me!" ~The Offspring "And I'll tell you things that you already know so you can say 'I really identify with you so much.' And all the time that you're needing me It's just the time that I'm bleeding you. Don't you get it yet? I'll come to you like an affliction, But I leave you like an addiction. You'll never forget me." ~Rollins Band Broken hearts are for assholes. --Frank Zappa There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here; because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit. ~Red, The Shawshank Redemption Money often costs too much. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Excuse me if I have some place in my mind where I go time to time --Tom Petty If Sigismund Unbuckle had taken a walk in 1426 and met Wat Tyler, the Peasant's Revolt would never have happened and the motor car would not have been invented until 2026, which would have meant that all the oil could have been used for lamps, thus saving the electric light bulb and the whale, and nobody would have caught Moby Dick or Billy Budd. -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac" Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but, rather, a manner of traveling. "...now the news is just another show, with sex and violence" --Jane's Addiction To know others is wisdom, to know oneself is enlightenment. ~Tao Te Ching We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. ~Albert Einstein I pull my collar up and face the pain on my own. --Smashing Pumpkins If you need someone to blame, throw a rock in the air, you're bound to hit someone guilty. --U2 "I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worth while?" Death thought about it. "Cats," he said eventually, "cats are Nice." Terry Pratchett, Sourcery And the real wonder of the world is that we don't jump too. -Tragically Hip Savor and taste each moment in life--for it soon shall be a memory. ~Shana Wiersum All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion. Leo Tolstoy, opening line of Anna Karenina I gave my whole life to become the person am right now... Was it worth it? ~Richard Bach Have you ever felt alone in a world of strangers, missing someone you've never met? ~Richard Bach Now it's over, I'm dead and I haven't done anything that I want, or I'm still alive and there's nothing I want to do ~They Might Be Giants "If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down." --Gin Blossoms today is the greatest day I've ever known can't live for tomorrow might not live that long -Smashing Pumpkins "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!" ~Albert Einstein If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? ~Stephen Levine Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin. ~Grace Hansen He went and pushed Caddy up into the tree to the first limb. We watched the muddy bottom of her drawers. Then we couldn't see her. We could hear the tree thrashing. Caddy smelled like trees. ~Benjy Compson, The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner "And yet I find Repeating in my head If I can't be my own I'd feel better dead" -Alice in Chains I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time. Are you at one or do you lie? We live in a wheel where everyone steals, but when we rise it's like strawberry fields. ~"Glycerine," Bush I'm so happy 'cause today I found my friends they're in my head ~Nirvana Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone the talking-machine, and the automobile, for t hese things had to be dreamed of before they became realities. So I believe that dreams -- daydreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing --are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to invent, and therefore to foster, civilization. ~L. Frank Baum I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. It's a monumental big screen kiss; It's so deep it's meaningless. --The Tragically Hip Try not! Do. Or do not. There is no try. ~Yoda "Five minutes of today are worth as much to me, as five minutes in the next millennium." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~Albert Einstein Character is power. ~Booker T. Washington In the rear view mirror, she looked back on her reflection. She was a long way from where she wanted to be, and a long way from perfection. --Soul Asylum-- "...the death sentence is abominable, as abominable as the crime itself. Our state must be based on love, not hatred and victimization. Our penal code must be based on rehabilitation rather than annihilation." Chenjerai Hove, poet, Zimbabwe "I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of a society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true -- that savagery begets only savagery." ~Andrei Sakharov If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. ~Herman Hesse The difficulty in life is the choice. ~George Moore "Only when the last tree has been felled, the last river poisoned and the last fish caught, man will know that he cannot eat money." ~Brazilian proverb It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. ~Theodore Roosevelt Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself. Friedrich Nietzsche I was watching CNN during the riots of Los Angeles a couple of years ago and they were showing video footage of a mob looting a radio shack. Running out of the Radio Shack were hi-fis, video cameras and everything they could pick up. But the Radio Shack was right next to a Macintosh dealership, which had PowerBooks in the window. And it was untouched. So here these incredible valuable portable very, very powerful computers was sitting untouched behind an unbroken shop-window while the poor people steal Sony Walkmans. I felt that was so sad, and so indicative of our real problem. ~William Gibson "All men should strive to learn before they die: what they are running from, and to, and why." ~ James Thurber, "The Shore and the Sea" "...because if there is a God what the hell is He for." ~Jewel Bundren, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner "That night I found ma sitting beside the bed where he was sleeping, in the dark. She cried hard, maybe because she had to cry so quiet; maybe because she felt the same way about tears as she did about deceit, hating herself for doing it, hating him because she had to. And then I knew that I knew." ~Darl Bundren, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner "He is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my own life, he will save me." ~Addie Bundren, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner He saw a girl standing on top of a pile of machinery on a flatcar. She was looking off at the ravine, her head lifted, strands of disordered hair stirring in the wind. Her plain gray suit was like a thin coating of metal over a slender body against the spread of sun-flooded space and sky. Her posture had the lightness and unself-conscious precision of an arrogantly pure self-confidence. She was watching the work, her glance intent and purposeful, the glance of competence enjoying its own function. She looked as if this were her place, her moment and her world, she looked as if enjoyment were her natural state, her face was the living form of an active living intelligence, a young girl's face with a woman's mouth, she seemed unaware of her body except as of a taut instrument, ready to serve her purpose in any manner she wished. -Ayn Rand, speaking of Dagny Taggart, Atlas Shrugged Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. ~Douglas Adams Though it's just a memory, some memories last forever -Rush The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life. ~Bertrand Russell Never meant half of the things I said to you So you know, there's a half that might be true -Toad the Wet Sprocket The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life. ~Samurai maxim What a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose. --Plato, The Republic. Book X. 601B "Hate, if you want to hate, if it keeps you safe, if it makes you brave" --Soundgarden, "My Wave" Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau, "Walden" I bet a fun thing would be to go way back in time to where there was going to be an eclipse and tell the cave men, "If I have come to destroy you, may the sun be blotted out from the sky." Just then the eclipse would start, and they'd probably try to kill you or something, but then you could explain about the rotation of the moon and all, and everyone would get a good laugh. ~Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey The Force is strong with this one. ~Darth Vader, "Star Wars" Education is an admirable thing, but nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~Oscar Wilde One day one of my little nephews came up to me and asked me if the equator was a real line that went around the Earth, or just an imaginary one. I had to laugh. Laugh and laugh. Because I didn't know, and I thought that maybe by laughing he would forget what he asked me. ~Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. ~Theodore Roosevelt Cynicism such a one finds frequently among the most highly educated young men and women of the West results from the combination of comfort with powerlessness. ~Bertrand A. Russell Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think. ~Jean de La Bruyθre And so castles made of sand melt into the sea eventually... ~Jimi Hendrix In dreams we catch glimpses of a life larger than our own... For one fleeting night a princelier nature captures us and we become as great as our aspirations. -- Helen Keller Could you talk to me, honestly? 'Cause I never heard a word you said, and I ain't just being mean. 'Cause all we are is what we're told, and most of that's been lies. It's like we're made for a TV movie, and I just blew my lines. -Goo-Goo Dolls "I remember you so clearly, the first one through the door. I woke up to find you drifting, too far from the shore... You were the one who made things different, you were the one who let me in, you were the one thing i could count on, after all, you were my friend." -"Don't Fade On Me," Tom Petty Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. ~Mark Twain The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are. ~Mark Twain The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them. ~Mark Twain What a long, strange trip it's been. ~Grateful Dead, "Truckin'" "Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say. Chained to all the places that he never wished to stay... as he faced the sun he cast no shadow" -Oasis, "What's the story, Morning Glory?" "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile." ~Grateful Dead "There were letters written in gold about the sword that said thus: Whoso pulleth this sword out of this stone and anvil is rightfully-born king of all England. He found no guards there, for they were at the jousting. So he took the sword by the handles, quickly and fiercely pulled it out of the stone, got on his horse, and rode on his way." ~Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. William Shakespeare, Hamlet "Don't it make you sad to know that life is more than who you are?" ~Goo Goo Dolls "Sitting on my bed or lying wide awake, there's demons in my head and it's more than I can take. I think I'm on a roll, but I think it's kinda weak. I'm saying all I know is I gotta get away from me." ~The Offspring Television is the first truly democratic culture--the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. ~Clive Barnes Squint your eyes and look closer I'm not between you and your ambition I am a poster girl with no poster I am 32 flavors and then some ... God help you if you are a phoenix And you dare to rise up from the ash A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy while you are just flying past ~Ani Difranco, "32 Flavors" Do you ever get the feeling that everybody else knows something you don't know? That everybody else in the world is taking for granted something you haven't even heard about...? ~Richard Bach, A Gift of Wings "Life gives you lemons -- you make some kind of fruity juice. I'm not good at sayings." --Conan O'Brian If you ain't makin' waves, you ain't kickin' hard enough. a warm hug and apple juice is what i need ~seymour. when i was young, i thought i was big and buff i was superman and undefeatable but now i've come to realize i was so far off now i understand i'm quite defeatable ~seymour. so this strange boy came to dinner and ruined my appetite as he explained another: we were talking about songs and he said that we all did the same stuff, but that the details were what mattered--what you were doing when you remembered your old toy fire engine, what the sky tasted like when you fell in love with the idiot in the 10th grade. i took it to mean that not everybody is lucky enough to be able to sob, and even fewer have the ability to laugh at the wealth of liquid pouring out of their faces. know what i mean? so if every little minute on this earth really counts, don't you wanna say hello to your mailman/woman every now and then? talk to someone who repulses you, just to see what it feels like? run around in the rain naked... at least once? the same way a pinball can appear to take forever deciding which lane to roll down, i get so sick of watching the hours flip by, being unsure. well here's my one minute advisory to you all. if you love it, sleep with it under your pillow, give it a birthday cake and dress it up for dinner. if you don't, actively despise it, figure out how to smash it into bits or give it to your enemies for christmas. tilt the machine. just do one true thing today and don't miss a bloody second ...tick...tick...tick. ~one minute advisory, from lz, 12-22-97 It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done. --Samuel Johnson People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first. The more we forget it's a play, and we're the players, the more senseless living becomes. But earthlife's the same as baseball and fencing ... as soon as the game's over, we remember ... oh, I play because I love the sport! -Richard Bach, Running from Safety For us believing physicists, the distiction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one. -Albert Einstein Anybody who's ever mattered, anybody who's ever been happy, anybody who's ever given any gift into the world has been a divinely selfish soul. No exceptions. ~Donald Shimoda, Illusions, Richard Bach A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed, It feels an impulsion...this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all the clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons. ~Messiah's Handbook, Illusions, Richard Bach Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur. (Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.) Every great achievement was once impossible. 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 "If you think that any human system of justice is infallible, then you are ignorant. If you think that no person has been falsely condemned to death, then you are naive. If you think that even one innocent person, ripped from their life and their passion and to put to death at the hands of the state is in any way justifiable, then you are evil." Joshua W. H. Steiner Schizophrenia beats being alone. "The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored. Last words of George Saunders True evil entered the world not with the first sin, nor even with the first murder. It came when an otherwise decent man first looked at a sinner, and at a guiltless stranger with a similar appearance... and punished both of them. So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. Bertrand Russell Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. Bertrand Russell Ye have enemies? Good, good-that means ye've stood up for something, sometime in thy life... ~Elminster of Shadowdale First-no lettuce Hence-no rabbits Hence-no disease! ~LN Ahoy there, fancy pants! -Venkat The Supreme Irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out alive. -Robert A. Heinlein He who fights monsters must take care that he does not become a monster; he who looks into the abyss must know that that the abyss looks back into him. ~Nietsche It would really suck if there wasn't any dirt. -Vanessa Ferdinand "Oh, as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means, Time held me green and dying, Though I sang in my chains, like the sea." --Dylan Thomas There is nothing worth thinking about but ourselves. -Doannie & Laura It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing ~Swing Kids I'm suspicious of people who always act the same emotion: it means they're hiding something. -DT i love learning new stuff and having new random facts to spew at inopportune times -a. "to be happy, all you need is a sense of humor, chocolate and a modem!" -a. If you are occasionally a little bit too verbose, you make up for it by being immensely too fascinating. --Oscar Wilde "Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there any purpose which the inevitable death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?" -Leo Tolstoy It's best not to be too moral. You cheat yourself out of too much life. Aim above morality. If you apply that to life, you're bound to live it fully. -Maude, Harold and Maude 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!' And the one carried in the current said, 'I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare to let go.' --Donald Shimoda, Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach Lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he's gonna want to see a fucking cross, man? --Bill Hicks Hamm: We're not beginning to... to... mean something? Clov: Mean something! You and I, mean something! [brief laugh] Ah, that's a good one! -Samuel Beckett, Endgame I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it. --Steven Wright, on The Tonight Show Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher. -Flannery O'Connor Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. ~Albert Einstein To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. ~Emily Dickinson Once you get inside my head, baby, there's no turning back. ~Ace Ventura Just as I believe in God is generally a synonym for I believe in not thinking, only too frequently I love you is a euphemism for I want to own you. --John Fowles, Daniel Martin My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife, you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher. --Socrates Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. -George Santayana We are what we pretend to be. -Vonnegut, Mother Night No one expected the Spanish Inquisition. -the Monty Python boys •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear. For I wear a thousand masks, masks that I am afraid to take off and none of them are me. Pretending is an art that's second nature with me, but don't be fooled. For God's sake don't be fooled. I give the impression that I am secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without, that confidence is my name and coolness my game; that the waters are calm and I am in command, and that I need no one. But don't believe me, please. My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is my mask, ever-varying and ever-concealing 'Neath this lies no complacence. Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, and aloneness. But I hide this. I don't want anybody to know. I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear of being exposed. That is why I frantically create a mask to hide behind; a nonchalant, sophisticated facade, to help me pretend, to shield me from the glance that knows. But such a glance is precisely my salvation. My only salvation. And I know it. That is, if it is followed by acceptance, if it is followed by love. It is the only thing that will assure me of what I can't assure myself, that I am worth something. But, I don't tell you this. I don't dare. I am afraid to. I am afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance and love. I am afraid you will think less of me, that you will laugh at me, and that you will see this and reject me. So I play my game, my desperate game, with a facade of assurance without, and a trembling child within. And so begins the parade of masks, and my life becomes a front. I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk. I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, of what is crying within me; So when I am going through my routine do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. What I would like to be able to say, what for survival I need to say, but I can't say. I dislike hiding, Honestly! I dislike the superficial game I am playing, the phony game. I would really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and me, but you have got to help me. You have got to hold out your hand, even when that is the last thing I seem to want. Only you can wipe away from my eyes that blank stare of breathing death. Only you can call me into aliveness. Each time you try to understand and because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings. With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding, you can breathe life into me. I want you to know that. I want you to know how important you are to me, how you can be the creator of the person that is me if you choose to. Please choose to. You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble, you alone can remove my mask. You alone can release me from my shadowworld of panic and uncertainty; From my lonely person. Do not pass me by. Please... do not pass me by. It will not be easy for you; a long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls. The nearer you approach me, the blinder I strike back. I fight against the very thing I cry out for. But I am told that love is stronger than walls, and in this lies my hope. Please try to beat down those walls with firm hands, but with gentle hands for a child is very sensitive. Who am I, you may wonder? I am someone you know very well. For I am every man you meet and I am every woman you meet.