Source: The Great Gatsby
“There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.”
“It's time that we move from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions.”
Sound bite reported in <i>Time</i>, February 20, 2008. http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1715169,00.html
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)
27
Les Caractères (1688), De la société et de la conversation
Context: To speak and to offend is with some people but one and the same thing; they are biting and bitter; their words are steeped in gall and wormwood; sneers as well as insolent and insulting words flow from their lips. It had been well for them had they been born mute or stupid; the little vivacity and intelligence they have prejudices them more than dullness does others; they are not always satisfied with giving sharp answers, they often attack arrogantly those who are present, and damage the reputation of those who are absent; they butt all round like rams — for rams, of course, must use their horns. We therefore do not expect, by our sketch of them, to change such coarse, restless, and stubborn individuals. The best thing a man can do is to take to his heels as soon as he perceives them, without even turning round to look behind him.
“(…) inspiring words are eternal; the physical body will go, it is perishable.”
Inspiration
Source: The Teachings of Babaji, 17 August 1983.
Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
“The playful nip denotes the bite, but it does not denote what would be denoted by the bite.”
From Part 4, section 2: A Theory of Play and Fantasy
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
the good combat soldier, who gets his sense of power by developing fighting skills that he is quite content to use in blind obedience to his superiors
"Autonomy", paragraph 43
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)
"The Protestant Mystics", p. 72
Forewords and Afterwords (1973)
Context: The mystics themselves do not seem to have believed their physical and mental sufferings to be a sign of grace, but it is unfortunate that it is precisely physical manifestations which appeal most to the religiosity of the mob. A woman might spend twenty years nursing lepers without having any notice taken of her, but let her once exhibit the stigmata or live for long periods on nothing but the Host and water, and in no time the crowd will be clamoring for her beatification.
