A place where I can share the quotes that I have collected (and keep collecting) over the years. I have gathered them from all sorts of sources. The "Quote of the Day" posts will always be a quote from a book and may be on any topic.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Quotes of the Days: Jan 30 & 31


Sunday's Quote:

Oh, Albert, my dear good ape, do try and understand. You’re a sensible, reasonable, masculine soul. If you fell in love and something went wrong you’d think it all out like a little gent and think it all quietly away, taking the conventional view and the intelligent path and saving yourself no end of bother because your head plus your training is much stronger than all your emotions put together. You’re a civilised masculine product.

Valentine
The Fashion in Shrouds (124)
by Margery Allingham


Monday's Quote

But when it happens to me, when it happens to Georgia, our entire world slides round. We can't be conventional or take the intelligent path except by a superhuman mental effort. Our feeling is twice as strong as our heads and we haven't been trained for thousands of years. We're feminine, you fool!

Ibid.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Quote It! Saturday


This blog is, of course, devoted to quotes. But Freda's Voice as a wonderful meme called Quote It! that I cannot resist participating in. You can post as many quotes as you like. To participate, hop on over to Freda's place and join in!


Today's Quotes:

The dead need nothing from the living and the living can give nothing to the dead.

A Fine & Private Place
by Peter S Beagle

There are people who give, and there are people who take. There are people who create, people who destroy, and people who don't do anything and drive the other two kinds crazy. It's born in you, whether you give or take, and that's the way you are.

A Fine & Private Place
by Peter S Beagle





Friday, January 28, 2011

Quote of the Day; Jan 28

Friday's Quote:

I don't hate you. I reserve hate for special occasions.

Fern Arnold

The William Powell & Myrna Loy Murder Case
(p. 60)
by George Baxt

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Quotes of the Days: Jan 25, 26 & 27


Tuesday's Quote:

Anybody can be reasonable, but to be sane is not common.


Oscar Wilde (quoted in)

"The Permanence of Oscar Wilde"

A Jacques Barzun Reader (p. 284)
by Jacques Barzun



Wednesday's Quote:

Trying to make the best of a bad deal is a waste of time, and time is something we have less of the older we get. Dying branches can't bear fruit.

Laura Denning
The Affair at Royalties
(pp. 56-7)
by George Baxt


Thursday's Quote:

Could Laura be driven to murder? I suppose anybody could be driven to murder when hatred is the chauffeur.

The Affair at Royalties
(p. 91)
by George Baxt

Monday, January 24, 2011

Quotes of the Days: Jan 23 & 24


Sunday's Quote:

Resentment and indignation are feelings dangerous to the possessor and to be sparingly used. They give comfort too cheaply; they rot judgment, and by encouraging passivity they come to require that evil continue for the sake of the grievance to enjoyed.

"Science & Scientism"
A Jacques Barzun Reader (p. 52)
by Jacques Barzun



Monday's Quote:

...he [James Agate] reads anthropology and learns that man's brain has remained unchanged in 250,000 years: "Nonsense! I do not believe that pre-historic man was the colossal idiot that his successor has demonstrably become."

"James Agate & His Nine Egos"
A Jacques Barzun Reader (p. 103)
by Jacques Barzun

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Quote It! Saturday


This blog is, of course, devoted to quotes. But Freda's Voice as a wonderful meme called Quote It! that I cannot resist participating in. You can post as many quotes as you like. To participate, hop on over to Freda's place and join in!


Today's Quote (plus a few extra for the days I've missed this week):

Advice to expectant mothers: you must remember that when you are pregnant, you are eating for two. But you must remember that the other one of you is about the size of a golf ball, so let’s not go overboard with it. I mean, a lot of pregnant women eat as though the other person they’re eating for is Orson Welles.

—Dave Barry

I've noticed that one thing about parents is that no matter what stage your child is in, the parents who have older children always tell you the next stage is worse.
—Dave Barry

Calories are little units that measure how good a particular food tastes. Fudge, for example, has a great many calories, whereas celery, which is not really a food at all but a member of the plywood family, provided by Mother Nature so that we would have a way to get onion dip into our mouths at parties, has none.

Stay Fit and Healthy Until You Die

—Dave Barry


Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Quote of the Day Jan 19

The way I picture it, adulthood is a big, sleek jungle snake. It swallows you subtly, an inch at a time, so you barely notice the signs: you start reading the labels on things before you eat them; you find yourself listening to talk radio because the hit songs they play on the rock stations (can this really be you thinking this?) all begin to sound the same. Before you know it, your furniture is nice. And suddenly you realize that you'd rather sit around on your furniture and talk about the warning signs of colon cancer than, say, find out what happens when you set one of the milk jugs on fire. And if your kid sets a milk jug on fire, you yell at him "Somebody could get hurt!" and really mean it, from inside the snake.

by Dave Barry

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Quotes of the Days: Jan 16, 17 &18

Once again, I have been remiss in my Mistress duties. Here are quotes for the last several days.


Sunday's Quote:

(being proprietorial about dreams would be an odd vanity)

Nothing to Be Afraid Of (p. 147)
by Julian Barnes.


Monday's Quote:

I find that there's nothing ridiculous about dropping dead in the street, as long as one doesn't do it deliberately.

Stendahl quoted in
Nothing to Be Afraid Of (p. 218)
by Juilan Barnes


Tuesday's Quote:

Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

by James M Barrie

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Quote It! Saturday


This blog is, of course, devoted to quotes. But Freda's Voice as a wonderful meme called Quote It! that I cannot resist participating in. You can post as many quotes as you like. To participate, hop on over to Freda's place and join in!


Today's Quotes:

It was important to stick to what you know, right to the end, especially at the end.

"The Mountain"
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (p. 143)
by Julian Barnes


There always appear to be two explanations of everything. That is why we have been given free will, in order that we may choose the correct one.

Miss Ferguson
"The Mountain"
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (p. 154)
by Julian Barnes


Everything is connected, even the parts we don't like, especially the parts we don't like.

"The Survivor"
The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (p. 84)
by Julian Barnes


Friday, January 14, 2011

Quotes of the Days Jan 12, 13 & 14


Wednesday's Quote:

It's much more difficult to argue with stupid people than intelligent ones....

Elizabeth Hallum
The Skeleton in the Grass (p. 34)
by Robert Barnard




Thursday's Quote:

People prefer to get what they want rather than what they deserve.

Margaret
"The Dream"
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (p. 301)
by Julian Barnes


Friday's Quote:

N: And who lasts the longest? [in Heaven]
M: ...scholarly people, they tend to last as long as anyone. They like sitting around reading all the books there are. And then they love arguing about them. Some of those arguments--she cast an eye to the heavens--go on for millennium after millenium. It just seems to keep them young, for some reason, arguing about books.

Narrator; Margaret
"The Dream"
The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (p. 304)
by Julian Barnes

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Quote of the Day Jan 11


...what could be more vexing than to be feted on his birthday when he wants nothing so much as to retreat in solitude to ponder the approach of his own mortality?

Wild Enlightenment (p. 148)
by Richard Nash


In honor of my dear friend Richard's (yes, the author!) birthday. Today. Happy Birthday, Richard!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Quotes of the Day(s): Jan 9 & 10


Sunday's Quote:

A rage that persisted even after murder had to be a terrible thing indeed.

A Hovering of Vultures (p. 15)
by Robert Barnard







Monday's Quote:

...certainty is always next to impossible, and sometimes undesirable.

Chief Superintendant Collins
Last Post (p. 106)
by Robert Barnard

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Quote It! Saturday

This blog is, of course, devoted to quotes. But Freda's Voice has an awesome Saturday meme called Quote It! that I just can't resist participating in. To join us in the celebration of quotes, click on the meme link.



Today's Quote:



My sister Cristobel is used to finding bodies, and she knows exactly what to do. She goes off into a spectacular fit of hysterics.


The Cherry Blossom Corpse (p. 93)
by Robert Barnard

Friday, January 7, 2011

Quotes of the Day(s): Jan 6 and 7


Thursday's Quote:

Eavesdropping on a foreign conversation is a bit like observing the sex life of earwigs--a lot's going on, but you don't quite get the point of it all.

The Case of the Missing Bronte (p. 95)
by Robert Barnard






Friday's Quote:

Finally, the chairwoman declared that this discussion had been fascinating, stimulating, and everything it hadn't been (as chairmen do all over the world)....

The Cherry Blossom Corpse (p. 65)
by Robert Barnard

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Quotes of the Day(s): Jan 4 and 5


Tuesday's Quote:

Judith Macklehose was clearly one of those people for whom funny is never funny-peculiar, let alone funny ha-ha, but always funny-suspicious.

The Case of the Missing Bronte (p. 41)
by Robert Barnard


Wednesday's Quote:

The notice-board said he was in Room 423, but the number system, nominally consecutive, seemed to be applied on a plan that could only have been the lunatic or a mathematician.

The Case of the Missing Bronte (p. 48)
by Robert Barnard

Monday, January 3, 2011

Quote of the Day Jan 3


I'm a great believer in the idea that if you keep going in an old car, things will probably be all right: stopping only gives it the chance to meditate on what's wrong with itself.

The Case of the Missing Bronte (p. 8)
by Robert Barnard

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Quote of the Day Jan 2


It occurred to Ernest Clayton that what was unnerving about them [the brothers] was that ordinary men--not Father Anselm, of course, but middle-of-the-road-men--seemed to lose all individuality as soon as they got out of their every day clothes and into the monk's habit. It was as if our identity amounted to no more than the shade of a sports jacket, the strip of a tie.


Blood Brotherhood (p. 35)

by Robert Barnard

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Quote It! For New Year's Day

This blog is, of course, devoted to quotes. But Freda's Voice has an awesome Saturday meme called Quote It! that I just can't resist participating in. To join us in the celebration of quotes, click on the meme link.

Here's my New Year's edition of Quote It!


Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.

Benjamin Franklin


Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

Oprah Winfrey


And...in keeping with my other blog, a literary quote:

B: Does your lordship desire to be shaved?
LPW: Yes--let's start the New Year off with a clean face.

Bunter, Lord Peter Wimsey
The Nine Tailors (p. 17)
by Dorothy L Sayers