January 20th, 2007 | Published in Humor and Satire, Quotes
They claimed it was for the sake of their grandparents and grandchildren, but it was of course for the sake of their grandparent’s grandchildren, and their grandchildren’s grandparents.
–Douglas Adams, Young Zaphod Plays it Safe (1986) in The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide, p. 622
January 19th, 2007 | Published in Culture, Quotes, Religion, Truth
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
–C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1947), p. 26
January 18th, 2007 | Published in Culture, Internet, Quotes
I enjoyed this thought by Carl Trueman:
All publishers in the business of selling books will put blurbs of praise on the covers of their products. But it is a foolish man who chooses to believe them rather than be embarrassed by them; and it is an even more foolish man who then parades them on his own webpage as a means of attracting others. And foolishness is the essence of pride… (source)
I’m glad someone said it.
January 18th, 2007 | Published in Quotes, Sexuality
What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster.
–John Steinbeck, East of Eden (1952), p. 74
January 17th, 2007 | Published in Humor and Satire, Life, Quotes, Sexuality
At the other end of the row [on the airplane], divided by an empty seat from the man with the newspaper, a woman in a tailored suit is sitting with a legal pad on her lap…. Her taste and bearing are splendid. She is impeccable.
And Andy would like to give her a little peck on her ear. His mind is calling out to her: “Hello, my Tinkerbelle, my winsome, weensy crocodile. Come out! Come out! I know you’re in there somewhere.”
He says to his mind, “Shut up, you dumb bastard!”
–Wendell Berry, Remembering in Three Short Novels (2003), p. 199-200
January 16th, 2007 | Published in Culture, Life, Quotes, Technology
Even in the midst of all the trouble we are now in, even though no one knows which way to turn and which way to go, there still persists the notion that we must get there with ever greater speed.
–E. B. White, “Letter From the East” (1975) in Essays of E.B. White (1977), p. 76
January 15th, 2007 | Published in Animals, Nature, Quotes, Science
In another book I learn that ten percent of all the world’s species are parasitic insects. It is hard to believe. What if you were an inventor, and you made ten percent of your inventions in such a way that they could only work by harassing, disfiguring, or totally destroying the other ninety percent? These things are not well enough known.
–Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), p. 229
January 13th, 2007 | Published in Humor and Satire, Quotes, Technology
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
–Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984) in The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide, p. 475