Donald Robert Perry Marquis citations

Page 2

“an optimist is a guy
that has never had
much experience”

“a robin said to an
angleworm as he ate him
i am sorry but a bird
has to live somehow the
worm being slow witted could
not gather his
dissent into a wise crack
and retort he was
effectually swallowed
before he could turn
a phrase”

“a little more
conversation revealed
that warty bliggens
considers himself to be
the center of the said
universe
the earth exists
to grow toadstools for him
to sit under
the sun to give him light
by day and the moon
and wheeling constellations
to make beautiful
the night for the sake of
warty bliggens”

“I have noticed that when chickens quit quarreling over their food they often find that there is enough for all of them i wonder if it might not be the same with the human race”

“well well boss there is
something to be said
for the lyric and imperial
attitude
believe that everything is for
you until you discover
that you are for it
sing your faith in what you
get to eat right up to the
minute you are eaten
for you are going
to be eaten”

“each generation wastes a little more
of the future with greed and lust for riches”

“dance mehitabel dance
caper and shake a leg
what little blood is left
will fizz like wine in a keg”

“men talk of money and industry
of hard times and recoveries
of finance and economics
but the ants wait and the scorpions wait
for while men talk they are making deserts all the time
getting the world ready for the conquering ant
drought and erosion and desert
because men cannot learn”

“A demagogue is a person with whom we disagree as to which gang should mismanage the country.”

“the octopus's secret wish
is not to be a formal fish
he dreams that some time he may grow
another set of legs or so
and be a broadway music show”

“i
have often noticed that
ancestors never boast
the descendants who boast
of ancestors i would
rather start a family than
one blood will tell but often
it tells too much”

“how beautiful is the universe
when something digestible meets
with an eager digestion
how sweet the embrace
when atom rushes to the arms
of waiting atom”

“oh i should worry and fret
death and i will coquette
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai”

“breakfast breakfast
i am full of breakfast
and they are at breakfast
in heaven
they breakfast in heaven
all s well with the world”

“dedicated to babs
with babs knows what
and babs knows why”

“dear boss i relay this information
without any fear that humanity
will take warning and reform”

“amen said a beetle who had
preceded him into the
interior that is the way i
feel myself is it not
wonderful when one arrives
at the place
where he can give up his
ambitions and resignedly
nay even with gladness
recognize that it is a far
far better thing to be
merged harmoniously
in the cosmic all
and this confortable situation
in his midst
so affected the marauding
robin that he perched
upon a blooming twig
and sang until the
blossoms shook with ecstacy
he sang
i have a good digestion
and there is a god after all
which i was wicked
enough to doubt
yesterday when it rained”

“it is a cheering thought to think
that god is on the side of the best digestion”

“i asked him
why is it that you
are so greatly favored
ask rather
said warty bliggens
what the universe
has done to deserve me”

“no insect likes human beings
and if you think you can see why
the only reason i tolerate you is because
you seem less human to me than most of them”

“there is bound to be a certain amount of
trouble running any country
if you are president the trouble happens to you
but if you are a tyrant you can arrange things so
that most of the trouble happens to other people”

“what man calls civilization
always results in deserts”

“demons and fishhooks
he exclaimed
i am losing my personal
identity as a worm
my individuality
is melting away from me
odds craw i am becoming
part and parcel of
this bloody robin
so help me i am thinking
like a robin and not
like a worm any
longer yes yes i even
find myself agreeing
that a robin must live
i still do not
understand with my mentality
why a robin must live
and yet i swoon into a
condition of belief”

“We shall know that the Almost Perfect State is here when the kind of old age each person wants is possible to him. Of course, all of you may not want the kind we want... some of you may prefer prunes and morality to the bitter end.”