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Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury Quotes

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Famous Ray Bradbury Quotes

“And he remembered thinking then that if she died, he was certain he wouldn't cry. For it would be the dying face of an unknown, a street face, a newspaper image, and it was suddenly so very wrong that he had begun to cry, not at death but at the thought of not crying at death, a silly empty man near a silly empty woman.”

IfsThinkingMenWould BeFacesCertainStreetsDyingCryEmotionalEmptyDiedSillyNewspapersRememberedNumbness
Book:Ray Bradbury 3-Book Collection: Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man
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“There are two races of people -- men and women -- no matter what women's libbers would have you pretend. The male is motivated by toys and science because men are born with no purpose in the universe except to procreate. There is lots of time to kill beyond that. They've got to find work. Men have no inherent center to themselves beyond procreating. Women, however, are born with a center. They can create the universe, mother it, teach it, nurture it. Men read science fiction to build the future. Women don't need to read it. They are the future.”

PeopleMenNeedsTwoMatterMotherPurposeUniverseWomenBornRaceFictionTeachMen And WomenNo Matter WhatScience FictionMalesMotivatedToysInherentNurtureTime To Kill
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“How men envy and often hate these warm clocks, these wives, who know they will live forever. So what do we do? We men turn terribly mean, because we can't hold to the world or ourselves or anything. We are blind to continuity, all breaks down, falls, melts, stops, rots, or runs away. So, since we cannot shape Time, where does that leave men? Sleepless. Staring.”

KnowsMenWorldMeanDoeRunningHateTurnsFallBreakForeverWifeShapesBlindWarmEnvyClockStaringRunning AwayBreaking DownLeaving MeContinuityLive Forever
Book:Something Wicked This Way Comes
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“They crashed the front door and grabbed at a woman, though she was not running, she was not trying to escape. She was only standing, weaving from side to side, her eyes fixed upon a nothingness in the wall as if they had struck her a terrible blow upon the head. Her tongue was moving in her mouth, and her eyes seemed to be trying to remember something, and then they remembered and her tongue moved again: "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”

IfsMenTryingPlayLightEyeRunningRememberMovingSidesGraceDoorsFrontsMastersWallTerribleMouthsStandingEnglandMovedBlowTongueRememberedFixedThis DayCandleNothingnessHer EyesGod's GraceMoving InWeavingFront DoorsRemember Something
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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“You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.”

PeopleIfsMenFacesYoungMistakeCuttingIgnoranceFineBeatsInstrumentsSticksMaking MistakesFortyBlunt
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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“Last night I thought about all the kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before...It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it's all over.”

ThinkingMenWorldYearsFirstsLongTwoBookLastsPastUsedNightBehindsMinutesTenPaperLong TimeFirst TimeLifetimeI RealizedLast NightWorld And Life
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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“What is it about fire that's so lovely? No matter what age we are, what draws us to it?...The thing man wanted to invent, but never did...If you let it go on, it'd burn our lifetimes out. What is fire? It is a mystery. Scientists give us gobbledygook about friction and molecules. But they don't really know. Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences.”

IfsKnowsMenGivingRealMatterAgeWantedResponsibilityFireMysteryGoes OnDrawsConsequenceScientistNo Matter WhatLifetimeLovelyLet It GoMoleculesFrictionReal Beauty
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)”

IfsMenFeelsKindMayMeanStillsHardStoriesCareersVirtueWrittenSixLaborConstantMathInterviewsRaysShort StoryOld FashionedGreat WritersTypingBradbury
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“I would not see our candle blown out in the wind. It is a small thing, this dear gift of life handed us mysteriously out of immensity. I would not have that gift expire... If I seem to be beating a dead horse again and again, I must protest: No! I am beating, again and again, living man to keep him awake and move his limbs and jump his mind... What's the use of looking at Mars through a telescope, sitting on panels, writing books, if it isn't to guarantee, not just the survival of mankind, but mankind surviving forever!”

IfsMenWritingMindBookUseSeemsMovingScienceForeverMankindWindSurvivalSittingHorseDearAwakeGuaranteesProtestCandleAgain And AgainMarsLimbsSmall ThingsSurvivingWriting A BookStar GazingTelescopesImmensityGifts Of LifeBeating A Dead Horse
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

MenWayWellsLongHas BeensSaidRealMatterHandsMightDifferencesCuttingHe ManLike YouLifetimeChaosLegacyTouchedTouchingGardenerLawnsCreative PersonCuttersLeaving A Legacy
Book:Fahrenheit 451: A Novel
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“When I was a young man, I didn't think about having a family. My wife and I were too poor to have babies. Then all of a sudden, one came along and scared the hell out of us because we had no money. Once the baby arrives, you make do somehow. You fall in love with the baby and life adjusts itself. You find you don't need as much money as you thought. When that happens, you can ask the questions that should have come before the baby.”

ThinkingMenNeedsShouldHappensYoungFallAsksPoorHellWifeBabyShould HaveParentingFalling In LoveScaredMy WifeYoung ManNo Money
Author:Ray Bradbury
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