Others

Day by day the old order of things changes, and new modes of thought pass over our world, and it may be that, before many years, talking will have taken the place of literature, and the personal screech silenced the music of impersonal utterance. Something of the dignity of the literary calling will probably be lost, and it is perhaps a dangerous thing for a country to be too eloquent.

That he is indeed one of the very greatest masters of painting is my opinion. And I may add that in this opinion Mr. Whistler himself entirely concurs.

The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention.

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

Wisdom is higher than a fool can reach.

Imagination! who can sing thy force?

[ Response when asked which film directors he mostadmired :] I like the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.

[ Of a Hollywood movie studio :] This is the biggest electric train [set] any boy ever had!

In the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. No one would think of makingan after-dinner speech without the help ofpoetry. It used to be the classics, now it’s lyric verse.

Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.

The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It isabout simple awareness—awareness of what isso real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: “This is water, this is water.”

The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.

Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden.

Le sens commun est fort rare .

Toutes les histoires anciennes, comme le disait un de nos beaux esprits, ne sont que des fables convenues .

Very learned women are to be found, in thesame manner as female warriors; but they areseldom or never inventors.

Il meglio, è l’inimico del bene .

[ Of Lucretius :] Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas .

Arma virumque cano .

[ Of Ronald Reagan :] A triumph of the embalmer’s art.

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent too. Words are used to disguise, notto illuminate, action: You liberate a city by destroying it. Words are used to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

He will lie even when it is inconvenient, the sign of the true artist.

De la musique avant toute chose .

Prends l’éloquence et tords-lui le cou .