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All O Quotes

“On two chairs beneath the bole of the tree and canopied by a living bough there sat, side by side, Celeborn and Galadriel... Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright; but no sign of age was upon them, unless it were in the depths of their eyes; for these were keen as lances in the starlight, and yet profound, the wells of deep memory.”

“On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”

“On two subjects the overwhelming majority of people regarded their own opinions as Absolute Truth, and sincerely believed that anyone who disagreed with them was immoral, outrageous, sinful, sacrilegious, offensive, intolerable, stupid, illogical, treasonable, actionable, against the public interest, ridiculous, and obscene. The two subjects were (of course) sex and religion.”

“On Undecided Voter​s: "To put them in perspective, I think​ of being​ on an airplane.​ The flight attendant comes​ down the aisle​ with her food cart and, eventually,​ parks​ it beside my seat.​ “Can I inter​est you in the chick​en?​” she asks.​ “Or would​ you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broke​n glass​ in it?” To be undecided in this elect​ion is to pause​ for a moment and then ask how the chick​en is cooked.”

“On vaarallista omistaa rahaa. Rahaa kuluu, väistämättähän sitä kuluu, ja kuluttuaan se loppuu, loppuu kokonaan. Ellei rikas mies ole luontojaan ahne, hänestä rikastuttuaan sellainen tulee, totisesti tulee, se on rikastuneen miehen kohtalo. Rikasta miestä polttaa yksi ajatus, oikeastaan kaksi. Ensiksi se, miten säilyttää rikkautensa, ja heti perään se, miten kartuttaa rikkauttaan. Oikeastaan rikasta miestä polttaa kolmastin ajatus, ja se on se mitä tapahtuu hänen rikkauksilleen hänen kuolemansa jälkeen. Siksi rikas mies menee ennen pitkää naimisiin ja hankkii jälkeläisiä. Poikaansa rikas mies opettaa hankkimaan rikkautta lisää. Perintöjä pojilleen hän jättää kaksi. Hän jättää, joutuu rajan yli astuessaan jättämään, omaisuutensa pojilleen. Ja toiseksi perinnokseen hän jättää kasan neuvoja, loputtomia ohjeita siitä, miten hänen rikkauksiaan tulee vaalia ja lisätä hänen kuolemansa jälkeen. Rikkaan miehen ikuisuus on hänen poikiensa ja poikiensa poikien vaalima omaisuus, ja se vaaliminen tarkoittaa omaisuuden kartuttamista, rikkauksien kasvattamista.”

“On various occasions, especially in trying to think of western American history in the context of the worldwide history of colonialism, it has struck me that much of the mental behavior that we sometimes denounce as ethnocentrism and cultural insensitivity actually derives less from our indifference or hostility than from our clumsiness and awkwardness when we leave the comfort of the English language behind... [V]enturing outside the bounds of the English language exercises and stretches our minds in ways that are essential for getting as close as we can to the act of seeing the world from what would otherwise remain unfamiliar and alien perspectives.”

“On veut toujours que l'imagination soit la faculté de former des images. Or elle est plutôt la faculté de déformer les images fournies par la perception, elle est surtout la faculté de nous libérer des images premières, de changer les images. S'il n'y a pas changement d'images, unions inattendues d'images, il n'y a pas imagination, il n'y a pas d'action imaginante. Si une image présente ne fait pas penser à une image absente, si une image occasionnelle ne détermine pas une prodigalité d'images aberrantes, une explosion d'images, il n'y a pas imagination. Il y a perception, souvenir d'une perception, mémoire familière, habitude des couleurs et des formes. Le vocable fondamental qui correspond à l'imagination, ce n'est pas image, c'est imaginaire. La valeur d'une image se mesure à l'étendue de son auréole imaginaire. Grâce à l'imaginaire, l'imagination est essentiellement ouverte, évasive. Elle est dans le psychisme humain l'expérience même de l'ouverture, l'expérience même de la nouveauté. [...] Le poème est essentiellement une aspiration à des images nouvelles.”

“On voudrait pour conclure rappeler que cette évolution s'est déroulée dans un contexte politique agité qui n'a pas été sans répercussions. Face à l'offensive des nationalistes, l'institution d'un haut enseignement supérieur français est perçue par les autorités protectorales comme un antidote. Dans son rapport de 1947, Lévi-Provençal avait souligné l'importance de constituer comme au Caire, et parallèlement à la Zitouna, « un centre d'enseignement d'arabisme moderne et laïque ». Les professeurs de l'IHET eux-mêmes sont convaincus de l'importance de leur rôle dans « la défense de la culture et de la langue française qu'assure l'Institut dans son ensemble » ; leur volonté maintes fois réaffirmée est de développer les enseignements et les cursus afin d'attirer le plus d'étudiants musulmans possible. (p119)”

“On Waterloo Bridge where we said our goodbyes, the weather conditions bring tears to my eyes. I wipe them away with a black woolly glove And try not to notice I've fallen in love On Waterloo Bridge I am trying to think: This is nothing. you're high on the charm and the drink. But the juke-box inside me is playing a song That says something different. And when was it wrong? On Waterloo Bridge with the wind in my hair I am tempted to skip. You're a fool. I don't care. the head does its best but the heart is the boss- I admit it before I am halfway across”

“On Wednesday night, November 13, (1861), Lincoln went with Seward and Hay to McClellan's house. Told that the general was at a wedding, the three waited in the parlor for an hour. When McClellan arrived home, the porter told him the president was waiting, but McClellan passed by the parlor room and climbed the stairs to his private quarters. After another half hour, Lincoln again sent word that he was waiting, only to be informed that the general had gone to sleep. Young John Hay was enraged, " I wish here to record what I consider a portent of evil to come," he wrote in his diary, recounting what he considered an inexcusable "insolence of epaulettes," the first indicator "of the threatened supremacy of the military authorities." To Hay's surprise, Lincoln "seemed not to have noticed it specially, saying it was better at this time not to be making points of etiquette & personal dignity." He would hold McClellan's horse, he once said, if a victory could be achieved. Though Lincoln, the consummate pragmatist, did not express anger at McClellan's rebuff, his aides fumed at every instance of such arrogance. Lincoln's secretary, William Stoddard, described the infuriating delay when he accompanied Lincoln to McClellan's anteroom. "A minute passes, then another, and then another, and with every tick of the clock upon the mantel your blood warms nearer and nearer its boiling-point. Your face feels hot and your fingers tingle, as you look at the man, sitting so patiently over there...and you try to master your rebellious consciousness." As time went by, Lincoln visited the haughty general less frequently. If he wanted to talk with McClellan, he sent a summons for him to appear at the White House.”

“On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter "Z" constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter "Z" should be utterly excised--fully extirpated--absolutively heave-ho'ed from our communal vocabulary!”

“On weekdays, everyone would read Armistead Maupan's "Tales of the City," published as a novel in 1978. His leading character Michael "Mouse" Toliver, a clone-ish softie himself, laments the experience of meeting men– nice mustache, Levis, a starched khaki army shirt, strong– and trying to resist visiting the bathrooms, lest he encounter the giveaway, the fantasy-killer: face creams and shampoos for days." Mouse was only being wistful, but the underlying efemmophobia was pernicious on the scene. Masculinity can be something that gay men project onto one another, only to snatch it away at the first sign of inauthenticity. That they hadn't rolled out of bed looking ruggedly handsome, but required a beauty routine to get that way.”