Bit more Eliot:
“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table.”
Don’t know why that image is so strong, as I can’t really envisage it. But it is.
I’ve kept a commonplace book of quotes that have meant a lot to me over the years - from literature mostly - and decided to share this one. Unfortunately, I don’t have the source nearby, but I’ll post the quote anyway:
“Something began me that had no beginning; something will end me that has no end,”
“Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.” - Bertrand Russell
“The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are.” - Schiller
“Why should I care about posterity? What’s posterity ever done for me?” - Groucho Marx
I have led you to the treasure house of the world. Blame yourselves if you go away empty handed.
I encountered the quote in George MacDonald Frasier’s The Pyrates, but I think he was quoting Sir Francis Drake.
‘Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage’
- Shakespeare
Also:
‘Uh oh’
- last words transmitted from the space shuttle Challenger
‘Allright, then! Let her drive!’
- alleged last words transmitted from the space shuttle Challenger
Sorry…
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
(E.A. Poe - Alone)
I am the captain of my fate:
I am the master of my soul.
(W.E. Henley - Invictus)
Just think! some night the stars will gleam
Upon a cold, grey stone,
And trace a name with silver beam,
And lo! 'twill be your own.
(R.W. Service - Just Think)
If I ever had to choose a single passage from any book or song, it would have to be Billy Joel’s keeping the faith, I adore this song.
I especially like the passage that goes:
“You can get just so much from a good thing
You can linger too long in your dreams
Say goodbye to the “Oldies But Goodies”
Cause the good ole days weren’t always good
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems”
I also like the final paragraph that says:
“Now I told you my reasons for the whole revival
Now I’m going outside to have an ice cold beer in the shade
Oh, I’m going to listen to my 45’s
Ain’t it wonderful to be alive
When the rock ‘n’ roll plays, yeah
When the memory stays, yeah
I’m keeping the faith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith”
What a great lyricist this man is…
"The way you swim must be the Dolphin’s way …
Out on your own,
Filling the element with signatures on your own frequency.
Echo soundings, Searches, Probes,Allurements,
Elver-gleams in the dark of the whole sea. "
— paraphrased from “Station Island” by Seamus Heaney —
I knew that. :smack:
I have the poem more or less memorized, but it’s been awhile. Time to brush up!
Prufrock is defintely one piece that merits memorizing (so many of its lines are “quotable” - almost the entire thing!).
OK, here’s some other Eliot that has stayed with me for decades (this is all from memory, so please forgive all the mistakes that you’re about to see):
’In an old house, more is heard than is spoken’.
(from The Family Reunion - I think)
’Here I am. An old man in a dry month
Being read to by a boy
Waiting for rain’.
(from Geronition)
’In a world of fugitives, the person taking the opposite direction will appear to be running away’.
(maybe from Murder in the Cathedral?)
’The man who returns will have to meet the boy who left’.
(also from The Family Reunion)
’In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse’.
(from, where else, Prufrock)
“I’ll tell you what the human soul is; It’s the part of you that knows when your brain isn’t working right.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos
“Most people would very much like science to prove the existence of God but not to take the measure of his capacity.”
(paraphrased) E. O. Wilson
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
Omar Khayyam
This I read a hundred years ago (not really! only 98!) in high school in an excerpt. I copied it out as part of a larger passage and it’s stuck with me since.
“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“I will make no metaphors to describe the pain in my head, because the brain, which makes metaphors, should not be forced to be clever at its own expense. My ribs ached like a kingdom that has lost a war, and my stomach swelled with the nausea of all the seas, but my head, well, it hurt. It really hurt.”
– Mark Helprin (Memoir from Antproof Case)
I may engrave this one on my tombstone.
“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intellingent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
As an Atheist I have quoted this piece in answer to the old question "What is the purpose of life?
I took my sig line from this passage from Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, referring to this picture:
I still don’t know how accurate my signature line is, but I’m going to assume its true because it tells you everything you need to know about Lincoln’s pragmatism, which led him to exemplify what Shelby Foote once described as “the American genius for compromise”.