Quotes about running
page 5

Frank Zappa photo

“The cool-person syndrome is peculiarly American. Part of that has to do with the way the educational business is run in the U.S. It’s not based on how much you can teach your child: it’s based on how much money the suppliers of basic materials can make off your child.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Oui interview (1979)
Context: The cool-person syndrome is peculiarly American. Part of that has to do with the way the educational business is run in the U. S. It’s not based on how much you can teach your child: it’s based on how much money the suppliers of basic materials can make off your child. Somewhere along the line most people pick up the desire to be a cool person, which is just another way to make them buy things. Once you’ve decided that you need to be a cool person, it makes you a possible victim of anyone whose products are the equivalent of bottled smoke. Somebody tells you to buy this particularly useless item and you’ll be a cool person. No matter how stupid it seems, you have to buy it. Pet Rocks. Pringle’s potato chips. whatever it is — the newest, the latest. Since the cool-person thing is something you learn in school, and since the school business is pretty suspicious and definitely tied up with the government, it makes you wonder whether or not the desire to be cool is part of a government plot to make you buy stupid things.

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“They will instantaneously run in person in various parts of the world, without motion. They will see the greatest splendour in the midst of darkness.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Of dreams
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XX Humorous Writings
Context: Men will seem to see new destructions in the sky. The flames that fall from it will seem to rise in it and to fly from it with terror. They will hear every kind of animals speak in human language. They will instantaneously run in person in various parts of the world, without motion. They will see the greatest splendour in the midst of darkness. O! marvel of the human race! What madness has led you thus! You will speak with animals of every species and they with you in human speech. You will see yourself fall from great heights without any harm and torrents will accompany you, and will mingle with their rapid course.

Napoleon I of France photo

“What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

As quoted in Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito (1788 - 1815) as translated by Frances Cashel Hoey and John Lillie (1881), Vol. II, p. 94
Context: What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run. Do you imagine that I triumph in Italy in order to aggrandise the pack of lawyers who form the Directory, and men like Carnot and Barras? What an idea!

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Letter to John Hay, American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, London, written in Washington, DC http://www.trsite.org/content/pages/speaking-loudly (June 7, 1897)
1890s
Context: Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.

Virgil photo

“Let my delight be the country, and the running streams amid the dells—may I love the waters and the woods, though I be unknown to fame.”
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes, Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius.

Book II, lines 485–486 (tr. Fairclough)
Georgics (29 BC)

Galileo Galilei photo

“In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.”

Source: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632), p. 322
Context: In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads. Such arguments in support of their fixed idea as they hit upon themselves or hear set forth by others, no matter how simple and stupid these may be, gain their instant acceptance and applause. On the other hand whatever is brought forward against it, however ingenious and conclusive, they receive with disdain or with hot rage — if indeed it does not make them ill. Beside themselves with passion, some of them would not be backward even about scheming to suppress and silence their adversaries.

Al Gore photo

“I'm going to be candid with you. I had hoped to be back here this week under different circumstances, running for re-election. But you know the old saying: you win some, you lose some. And then there's that little-known third category.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Referring here to the controversial US presidential election of 2000
Quotes, DNC Address (2004)
Context: I'm going to be candid with you. I had hoped to be back here this week under different circumstances, running for re-election. But you know the old saying: you win some, you lose some. And then there's that little-known third category.
But I didn't come here tonight to talk about the past. After all, I don't want you to think that I lie awake at night counting and recounting sheep. I prefer to focus on the future, because I know from my own experience that America's a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote.

Christopher Morley photo

“Printer's ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years.”

The Haunted Bookshop (1919)
Context: Printer's ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries.

Karl Marx photo

“The process is so complicated that it offers ever so many occasions for running abnormally.”

Vol. II, Ch. XXI, p. 500.
Das Kapital (Buch II) (1893)

Robert Frost photo

“It should be of the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same as for love. No one can really hold that the ecstasy should be static and stand still in one place. It begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life-not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion. It has denouement. It has an outcome that though unforeseen was predestined from the first image of the original mood-and indeed from the very mood.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

The portion of "The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom." is often misquoted as: Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Context: It should be of the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same as for love. No one can really hold that the ecstasy should be static and stand still in one place. It begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life-not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion. It has denouement. It has an outcome that though unforeseen was predestined from the first image of the original mood-and indeed from the very mood. It is but a trick poem and no poem at all if the best of it was thought of first and saved for the last. It finds its own name as it goes and discovers the best waiting for it in some final phrase at once wise and sad-the happy-sad blend of the drinking song.

George Washington photo

“We are apt to run from one extreme into another. To anticipate & prevent disasterous contingencies would be the part of wisdom & patriotism.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to John Jay (15 August 1786) http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/constitution/1784/jay2.html
1780s
Context: If you tell the Legislatures they have violated the treaty of peace and invaded the prerogatives of the confederacy they will laugh in your face. What then is to be done? Things cannot go on in the same train forever. It is much to be feared, as you observe, that the better kind of people being disgusted with the circumstances will have their minds prepared for any revolution whatever. We are apt to run from one extreme into another. To anticipate & prevent disasterous contingencies would be the part of wisdom & patriotism.
What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable & tremendous! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal & falacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend.
Retired as I am from the world, I frankly acknowledge I cannot feel myself an unconcerned spectator. Yet having happily assisted in bringing the ship into port & having been fairly discharged; it is not my business to embark again on a sea of troubles. Nor could it be expected that my sentiments and opinions would have much weight on the minds of my Countrymen — they have been neglected, tho' given as a last legacy in the most solemn manner. I had then perhaps some claims to public attention. I consider myself as having none at present.

Dylan Thomas photo

“Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

" Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=265", st. 1 (1934), st. 1
Context: Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads,
The things of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.

George S. Patton photo

“You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Remark to his nephew about his copious profanity, quoted in The Unknown Patton (1983) by Charles M. Province, p. 184
Context: When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag. … As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence.

Sappho photo
Novalis photo

“There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide.”

Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer

As quoted in "The Mystery Of Marie Rogêt" (1842) by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted from Fragments from German Prose Writers (1841) by Sarah Austin
Context: There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events, so that it seems imperfect, and its consequences are equally imperfect. Thus with the Reformation; instead of Protestantism came Lutheranism.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave OTHERS is a “sacred right of self-government.” These principles can not stand together. They are as opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to the one, must despise the other.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)
Context: Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave OTHERS is a “sacred right of self-government.” These principles can not stand together. They are as opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to the one, must despise the other. [... ] Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska, are utter antagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“So long as we call Slavery wrong, whenever a slave runs away they will overlook the obvious fact that he ran because he was oppressed, and declare he was stolen off. Whenever a master cuts his slaves with the lash, and they cry out under it, he will overlook the obvious fact that the negroes cry out because they are hurt, and insist that they were put up to it by some rascally abolitionist.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Allow the humblest man an equal chance (1860)
Context: These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only; cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Douglas's new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that Slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State Constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected of all taint of opposition to Slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. So long as we call Slavery wrong, whenever a slave runs away they will overlook the obvious fact that he ran because he was oppressed, and declare he was stolen off. Whenever a master cuts his slaves with the lash, and they cry out under it, he will overlook the obvious fact that the negroes cry out because they are hurt, and insist that they were put up to it by some rascally abolitionist.

AnnaSophia Robb photo

“I don't have time, really, to work out or play a sport. But I love to dance. I like to run in the springtime or in the fall. I like to go outside. I don't like running on a treadmill. I get tired… I just get sick of it. But if I'm outside, I could just run for ages. Or walk, if I need a break.”

AnnaSophia Robb (1993) American actress, singer, and model

Radio Free Entertainment interview (2007)
Context: I like to climb. I don't love to work out. Actually, I hate to work out. You know, I tell myself, "AnnaSophia, you have to work out. You haven't gotten any exercise in the longest time." You know, I don't have time, really, to work out or play a sport. But I love to dance. I like to run in the springtime or in the fall. I like to go outside. I don't like running on a treadmill. I get tired... I just get sick of it. But if I'm outside, I could just run for ages. Or walk, if I need a break.

Terry Pratchett photo

“Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants”

the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare from becoming a mere lower-class brawl.
The Carpet People (1971; 1992)

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“We cannot afford to run the risk of having in time of war men working on our railways or working in our munition plants who would in the name of duty to their own foreign countries bring destruction to us.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Context: We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than fifty years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being. We cannot afford to build a big industrial plant and herd men and women about it without care for their welfare. We cannot afford to permit squalid overcrowding or the kind of living system which makes impossible the decencies and necessities of life. We cannot afford the low wage rates and the merely seasonal industries which mean the sacrifice of both individual and family life and morals to the industrial machinery. We cannot afford to leave American mines, munitions plants, and general resources in the hands of alien workmen, alien to America and even likely to be made hostile to America by machinations such as have recently been provided in the case of the two foreign embassies in Washington. We cannot afford to run the risk of having in time of war men working on our railways or working in our munition plants who would in the name of duty to their own foreign countries bring destruction to us. Recent events have shown us that incitements to sabotage and strikes are in the view of at least two of the great foreign powers of Europe within their definition of neutral practices. What would be done to us in the name of war if these things are done to us in the name of neutrality?

Charles Mackay photo

“But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.”

Charles Mackay (1814–1889) British writer

"Eternal Justice", Stanza 4
Legends of the Isles and Other Poems (1851)
Context: They may veil their eyes, but they cannot hide
The sun’s meridian glow;
The heel of a priest may tread thee down,
And a tyrant work thee woe:
But never a truth has been destroyed;
They may curse it, and call it crime;
Pervert and betray, or slander and slay
Its teachers for a time.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

Terry Pratchett photo

“It's just that it's dawned on me that 'zero tolerance' only seems to mean putting extra police in poor, run-down areas, and not in the Stock Exchange.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Usenet
Context: Oh dear, I'm feeling political today. It's just that it's dawned on me that 'zero tolerance' only seems to mean putting extra police in poor, run-down areas, and not in the Stock Exchange.

Kalki Krishnamurthy photo

“Those who don’t actually witness such a happening can say, “No train will run off the rails, it is unnatural for it to do so”.”

Kalki Krishnamurthy (1899–1954) writer

Sivakozhundu of Tiruvazhundur (1939)
Context: It is natural for a train to run on its tracks. We get into a train because we believe that it will do that. But once in a while the train runs off the rails, and there’s an accident. Those who don’t actually witness such a happening can say, “No train will run off the rails, it is unnatural for it to do so”.

Morihei Ueshiba photo

“In the Art of Peace we never attack. An attack is proof that one is out of control. Never run away from any kind of challenge, but do not try to suppress or control an opponent unnaturally.”

Morihei Ueshiba (1883–1969) founder of aikido

The Art of Peace (1992)
Context: In the Art of Peace we never attack. An attack is proof that one is out of control. Never run away from any kind of challenge, but do not try to suppress or control an opponent unnaturally. Let attackers come any way they like and then blend with them. Never chase after opponents. Redirect each attack and get firmly behind it.

Peter Jackson photo

“I'm a Derek and Dereks don't run”

Peter Jackson (1961) New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter

Bad Taste (1987)

Ronald Reagan photo

“Americans … are not going to tolerate intimidation, terror and outright acts of war against this nation and its people. And we are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

A speech to the American Bar Association after the TWA Flight 847 hijacking. James Bovard, Terrorism and Tyranny, p. 23 http://books.google.de/books?id=VQoH4fy4m88C&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=We+are+especially+not+going+to+tolerate+these+attacks+from+outlaw+states+run+by+the+strangest+collection+of+misfits,+Looney+Tunes+and+squalid+criminals+since+the+advent+of+the+Third+Reich&source=bl&ots=tv3daFha5S&sig=M4GXSs9s1uDXNnykGGcr14jaE6g&hl=de&ei=pbe-TMf6OoTLswb18M3FDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=We%20are%20especially%20not%20going%20to%20tolerate%20these%20attacks%20from%20outlaw%20states%20run%20by%20the%20strangest%20collection%20of%20misfits%2C%20Looney%20Tunes%20and%20squalid%20criminals%20since%20the%20advent%20of%20the%20Third%20Reich&f=false
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Context: Americans … are not going to tolerate intimidation, terror and outright acts of war against this nation and its people. And we are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich … There can be no place on earth where it is safe for these monsters to rest, or train or practice their cruel and deadly. We must act together – or unilateraly, if necessary – to ensue that these terrorists have no sanctuary, anywhere.

Richard M. DeVos photo
Jacque Fresco photo
Al Capone photo
Al Capone photo
Billie Joe Armstrong photo

“I think it is dangerous to run away from history. I am much more interested in looking at something difficult and really fraught with a lot of problems and then challenging it from a close perspective, as opposed to just not dealing with it when creating the characters or the story.”

Naomi Iizuka (1965) American dramatist

On inverting the clichéd romantic plot between a White male and Asian female in “Iizuka's '36 Views'” https://asiasociety.org/iizukas-36-views in Asia Society

Salman Khan photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I could always hit a home run, but if I try to do that all the time, maybe I not hit over.300. I am more valuable to my team hitting.330,.340, than I am swinging for home runs.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking before Game 7 of the 1971 World Series, as quoted in "Numero Uno: Roberto!" http://www.mediafire.com/view/1vobx891junlic4/.JPG (1973) by Bill Christine, p. 141
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>

Frank Zappa photo
John Chrysostom photo
Theodore Roosevelt photo
Xi Jinping photo

“It is for the people of Asia to run the affairs of Asia, solve the problems of Asia and uphold the security of Asia. The people of Asia have the capability and wisdom to achieve peace and stability in the region through enhanced cooperation.”

Xi Jinping (1953) General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and paramount leader of China

New Asian Security Concept For New Progress in Security Cooperation https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1159951.shtml,Shanghai Expo Center, 21 May 2014
2010s

Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Nikola Tesla photo
Cornelius Castoriadis photo
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia photo
Steven Gerrard photo

“An excellent player, in my opinion, he is a modern player because he is a player who runs, marks, knows how to pass, cross, score goals and he is a leader on the field for Liverpool. So he is a player that I would like to have in my team.”

Steven Gerrard (1980) English footballer

Kaka on Steven Gerrard http://uk.reuters.com/article/2007/05/15/uk-soccer-champions-kaka-idUKL1540342020070515, (May 2006)

Tennessee Williams photo
A.A. Milne photo
Jacinda Ardern photo
Richard D. Wolff photo
John Lydon photo
Bobby Sands photo

“In the gutters lies the black man, dead,
And where oil flows blackest, the streets run red,
And there was He who was born and came to be,
Who lived and died without liberty”

Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

"Modern Times"
Poetry, Miscellaneous poems

Karl Marx photo

“We are obviously heading for revolution—something I have never once doubted since 1850. The first act will include a by no means gratifying rehash of the stupidities of '48-'49. However, that's how world history runs its course, and one has to take it as one finds it.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Source: Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann (28 December 1862), quoted in The Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Volume 41. Letters 1860–64 (2010), p. 437

Omar Khayyám photo

“Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.”

Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer

Source: The Rubaiyat (1120)

Eckhart Tolle photo
Tupac Shakur photo
Michelle Wu photo
Napoleon I of France photo

“What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run. Do you imagine that I triumph in Italy in order to aggrandise the pack of lawyers who form the Directory, and men like Carnot and Barras? What an idea!”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

As quoted in Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito (1788 - 1815) as translated by Frances Cashel Hoey and John Lillie (1881), Vol. II, p. 94

“They really need discipline, to be objective, to know what they really want in life. If you train with the mind of winning you always win, if you train with a weak mind, no I am just doing it for the sake of running then something is wrong somewhere.”

Samukeliso Moyo (1974) athletics competitor

Source: 43-year-old Samukeliso Moyo has no intentions of quitting running https://www.sundaynews.co.zw/43-year-old-samukeliso-moyo-has-no-intentions-of-quitting-running/

Rudolf Nureyev photo

“Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of inspiration.”

Rudolf Nureyev (1938–1993) Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer

Source: "Rudolf Nureyev’s Technical Influence" https://nureyev.org/rudolf-nureyev-artistic-influence-index/technique/

John Lennon photo

“I think our society is run by insane people for insane objectives... I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends, you know... I’d be very pleased to know what they think they’re doing. I think they’re all insane. But I am liable to be put away as insane for expressing that, you know. That’s what is insane about it.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Source: Lennon “Our society is run by insane people”, Interview, June 6, 1968, Educate Inspire Change https://educateinspirechange.org/john-lennon-society-run-insane-people/John June 10, 2014

Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Neale Donald Walsch photo
Kurt Vonnegut photo
This quote waiting for review.
Jean Craighead George photo

“I don't know if you heard, but I kind of run this place.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Will Durant photo
Suzanne Collins photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Aaron Allston photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“I'm interested in having fun with ideas, throwing them up in the air like confetti and then running under them.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

The Paris Review interview (2010)
Context: I don’t understand writers who have to work at it. I like to play. I’m interested in having fun with ideas, throwing them up in the air like confetti and then running under them.

Groucho Marx photo
Janet Evanovich photo
Cormac McCarthy photo

“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Source: Blood Meridian (1985), Chapter II
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: A man&rsquo; s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.

Mercedes Lackey photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Richelle Mead photo
Jeannette Walls photo
H.L. Mencken photo
Elizabeth Bishop photo
Barbara Kingsolver photo

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”

Animal Dreams.
Animal Dreams (1990)
Variant: The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.
Source: The Bean Trees

“You know, there are easier ways to meet a guy than to run him over.”

Justina Chen (1968) American writer

Source: North of Beautiful

“Calvin's Dad: It's going to be a grim day when the world is run by a generation that doesn't know anything but what it's seen on TV.
p100”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Something Under the Bed Is Drooling
Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Cecelia Ahern photo
Richard Siken photo
Anne Lamott photo

“I've given guys blow jobs just because I've run out of things to talk about.'
Oh, Rae. Who hasn't”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Crooked Little Heart

Haruki Murakami photo