8 posts tagged “quotes”

I haven't cut my hair in 25 months now.
The result is a shaggy, mistakened-for-Jesus appearance.
Oh, well. There are worse people to be confused with.

Went to a friend's birthday party last night.
Had a blast being the sober person.

I'm lonely, but it's my own fault.
I'm alone, but it's what I wanted.
It's easier to hurt myself than to not live up to the expectations of others.

There's a growing fear I have that nags me in those moments before sleep.
It whispers that 27 is too old for a man to still be shiftless and desirable.
I guess I shouldn't watch the Wedding Singer anymore.

Holly: I mean, you know why she's marrying him, don't you?
Robbie: The money thing? Security? A nice house? I guess that's important to some people.
Holly: No, it's not important to some people, Robbie. It's important to ALL people.
Robbie: Really? Well, then I guess I'm in big trouble.

"If you don't know what you want," the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don't.
"
- Fight Club (novel)

'We don't have gods where I come from,' said Twoflower.
'You do, you know,' said the Lady. 'Everyone has gods. You just don't think they're gods.
'
- The Colour of Magic (novel)

"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that makes living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it.
"Cats," he said finally. "Cats are nice.
"
- Sourcery (novel)

"As for the Republicans—how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical 'American heritage'…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead."

• H.P. Lovecraft, Letter to C.L. Moore, August 1936

All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.
- The Salmon of Doubt

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
- Speech, Cambridge, UK, 1998

The great thing about being the only species that makes a distinction between right and wrong is that we can make up the rules for ourselves as we go along.
- Last Chance to See

He started to count to ten. He was desperately worried that one day sentient life forms would forget how to do this. Only by counting could humans demonstrate their independence of computers.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

It takes an awful long time to not write a book.

Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until a drop of blood forms on your forehead.

All quotes courtesy of the late Douglas Adams, whom most are familiar through his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. He was quite the humorist and his writing has been one of the few things to bring a smile to my face lately. I've taken the time to pull down my first edition copies of the H2G2 books and re-read them.

He's right... it takes an awfully long time not to write a book.

Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable.
- H. L. Mencken

I am miserable, but due only to the fact I am complacent. I laugh at myself for falling into this rut of existence. It is so easy to stop trying. It is a much simpler life when you stop reaching for the things you desire and settle for what is within grasp. However, a simple life is often dull. The contest between the part of me which would willingly give up and the part that desires the wild and weird of the world rages.

The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man — that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense — has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading.
- H. L. Mencken

Another lesson I too easily forget. Though I am often uncomfortable in my own skin, I seek to maintain a status quo around others. I work for an equilibrium in social situations. I bite my tongue and hold opinions. I need not do this.

Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm mad but not ill.
- Robert Anton Wilson

This goes hand in hand with the previous quote and exposition; the opinions that I hold need not be held back behind clenched teeth and the facade of a smile.

"Look, sir. Don't worry about me," I said. "I mean it. I'll be all right. I'm just going through a phase right now. Everybody goes through phases and all, don't they?"
- Chapter 2

"Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway."
- Chapter 16

"Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."
- Chapter 24

"That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose."
- Chapter 25

I recognize so much of myself in Holden.
The anger. The confusion. The mixture of apathy and concern.
I only wish I knew what it was I wanted to do.
What field is it I'll stand in, catching those who run towards the edge?

"I am but mad north-northeast; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw."
- Hamlet (2.2.272-3)

Much like the Prince of Denmark I fear I am situationally insane.
Tenuous grip on things is slipping and I'm on the precipice again, looking at a long fall.

"No rest tonight," she says, "no respite to be had."
Voices in my head reminding me of everything I've tried to leave behind.
The past haunting and threatening, a menacing whisper in my ear at all times.

"A waste, a waste, you've always been a waste."
Chanting like some sadistic child around the Maypole and binding me with the words.
Selective synesthesia, all my memories bloody daggers.
Synapses firing like gas explosions, the resulting fires burning out, burning me down.

Little is left but the foundation.
A rickety house built upon a shifting slope.
No safety to be had in this shelter for long, now or ever.
No security in this dank and drafty mind.

"Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm mad but not ill."
- Robert Anton Wilson

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.
- Søren Kierkegaard

[The Hebrew] word timshel—Thou mayest—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if Thou mayest—it is also true that Thou mayest not. [Thou mayest] makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth ... he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.
- John Steinbeck, East of Eden (pg. ~350)

I have declined to do a lot of things in my life because of fear. I have stared that venomous beast in the maw far too many times and backed down for the thought of those regret-tinged teeth tearing into me. I have hidden behind fear, cloaked myself in it's comforts, for there is a certain stability in the unchanging world.

This has not been for my best interest. There are opportunities past that shall never come again and doors that are closed forever. There are paths I will never tread now and fewer that I may still walk, though their markings are covered heavily by the underbrush of life.

As much I as truly wish to finish my degree and put college behind me for a time it becomes clearer every day that Alabama is no longer a healthy place for me to be. I am unable to 'get my head on right' while here, as everywhere I go there are ghosts and demons lingering in the shadows, tempting me with what has and could have been.

When I quit a salaried position with my own office and a set schedule to move to Louisiana with no job prospects and everything I owned in the back of my truck there were quite a few people who told me I was crazy. There were those who wished me well but seemed to view me as if I exuded an air of insanity. In 6 months I spent my entire life savings (at that time) and I do not regret a single moment of it. Kristin and Wendell and Tara and B-dog will always be keystones to one of my greatest triumphs of self -- when I managed to overcome my own fear of regret and live. While in Baton Rouge I met people who truly know the meaning of that word and showed me who I can be -- who I could be if only I would allow myself the opportunity.

There is change in the air. Though it has only just begun this year has teased with secrets and truths. I will coax each and every hidden word from this year.

I am hoping to live again.

I am hoping.