Monday, January 21, 2008

Snippets I

     Why are you looking at that roof?
     I'm terrified that the roofer is going to fall, but that miserable man hasn't yet!

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     Forthrightness: I never gossip about anyone; I just say what I think.

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     The locust is not an Egyptian plague; locusts are an Egyptian plague, because there are so many of them. It's the same with stupid people.

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     Nationalist: To hell with the nation; for us it's only about its prestige.

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     Economist: Today's outlook is horrible; it's because the economy's not being run by my theories.

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     To hell with the nation; for us it's only about its prestige.

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     Captain of Industry: I work to earn my living; but what robust work! and what a robust life!

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     I am one hundred percent convinced...
     Sir, couldn't you discount that a bit?

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     Caiaphas' Thoughts: I would like to know who that Nazarene was paid by, and how much.

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     My cousin is a bastard, but it's an insult to our family honor if someone else says so.

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     To criticize is to convince the author that he's not doing it the way I would have done it if I had done it.

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     One of the greatest horrors of civilization: the educated fool.

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     Even the revolutionary spirit has its pedantry.

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     Wise is our speech: it makes a fundamental distinction between "I am convinced" and "I have convinced."

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     Better to abide the official instead of his platitudes.

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     Religious fundamentalism: Who is not with me is against me. Political fundamentalism: Who is not with me is rabble.

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     In the debate: What is it to me what's right if I'm not?

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     Only a few people struggle for prestige; most of them have it.

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     The age of machines: replacing purpose with speed.

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     Imagine the silence if people only said what they knew!

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     Nature created struggle, but man created hatred.

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     I'll never change again, said the stump.

LN, 12 February 1933

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