“Only in books the flat and final happens,
Only in dreams we meet and interlock….”
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Philip Larkin 42
English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian 1922–1985Related quotes
“We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.”
Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 443, 540 (1953) (concurring)
Judicial opinions
Context: Reversal by a higher court is not proof that justice is thereby better done. There is no doubt that if there were a super-Supreme Court, a substantial proportion of our reversals of state courts would also be reversed. We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.
Nicholas Sparks, Epilogue, p. 355
2000s, Three Weeks with My Brother (2004)
Source: The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang-Tzu
Context: How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know the way home? Lady Li was the child of a border guard in Ai. When first captured by the state of Jin, she wept so much her clothes were soaked. But after she entered the palace, shared the king's bed, and dined on the finest meats, she regretted her tears. How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life? One who dreams of drinking wine may in the morning weep; one who dreams weeping may in the morning go out to hunt. During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense! You and Confucius are both dreaming, and I who say you are a dream am also a dream. Such is my tale. It will probably be called preposterous, but after ten thousand generations there may be a great sage who will be able to explain it, a trivial interval equivalent to the passage from morning to night.
Source: Epigrams, p. 373
“Destiny gave me only two things: a few accounting books and the gift of dreaming.”
Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Duas coisas só me deu o Destino: uns livros de contabilidade e o dom de sonhar.
Source: Sundays at Tiffany's
Source: Shyam Sundar Vattam At 81, Gowda Lives on Ragi Mudde on the Campaign Trail http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/At-81-Gowda-Lives-on-Ragi-Mudde-on-the-Campaign-Trail/2014/03/28/article2135490.ece#.UzU21qiSySo, The New Indian Express, 28 March 2014
