My favourite quotes

And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’

- Macbeth, William Shakespeare (1611)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

- The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America (1776)

People who travel are always fugitives.

- Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne DuMaurier (1941)

Réaliser dans l’âge d’homme les rêves de la jeunesse, c’est ainsi qu’un poète a défini le bonheur.

- Stendhal et le Beylisme, Léon Blum (1914)

Le critique qui n’a rien produit est un lâche. C’est comme un abbé qui courtise la femme d’un laïque : celui-ci ne peut lui rendre la pareille.

- Préface du Capitaine Fracasse, Théophile Gautier (1863)

I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.

- Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (1847)

Jsou ohně marny, jsou, vždy zhasnou, uplovou.

- Hrál kdosi na hoboj, Karel Hlaváček (Mstivá Kantiléna, 1898)

Na tom opilství je nejkrásnější, ne ta rozjařenost, ne ta cesta do kopce, ne ty zdvižené ruce a ty nápady které přicházejí, ale na opilství je nejcennější ten druhý den, ta kocovina, ty výčitky svědomí, ta chandra, to když je člověk daun, jak jste mne zastihla při mytí nádobí, kdy jsem sám sobě byl maminka a znovu, tak jako po všech kocovinách jsem si říkal… Co z tebe bude? A to je síla kocoviny, že člověk chce začít nový život…

- Svatby v domě, Bohumil Hrabal (1984)

Niekoniecznie pisać teksty zwane wierszami lub też szumnie, o wiele zbyt szumnie zwane poezją, ale koniecznie pisać teksty zwane listami [...] Dlatego pisz listy, Przyjacielu, pisz listy, Przyjaciółko [...] W ten sposób Twoje istnienie, Twoja obecność nabiera dla mnie cech wieczystych [...] I odwrotnie: moje istnienie, moja obecność nabiera dla Ciebie cech wieczystych, wtedy, kiedy ja pisze dla Ciebie list.

- Wszystko jest poezja, Edward Stachura (1975)

‘Que voulez-vous devenir ?’ me demanda-t-il.
‘Diplomate.’
‘Avez-vous une fortune ?’
‘Non.’
‘Pouvez-vous, avec quelque apparence de légitimité, ajouter à votre patronyme un nom célèbre ou illustre ?’
‘Non.’
‘Eh bien !… renoncez à la diplomatie.’
‘Mais alors, que dois-je devenir ?’
‘Un curieux.’
‘Ce n’est pas un métier.’
‘Ce n’est pas encore un métier. Voyagez, écrivez, traduisez…, apprenez à vivre partout. Les Français sont restés trop longtemps enfermés derrière leurs frontières. Vous trouverez toujours quelques journaux pour payer vos escapades.’”

- Jules et Jim, François Truffaut et Jean Gruault d’après H.-P. Roché (1962)

Nous avons des mots à initiale vocalique sans aspiration, mais qui ont reçu h par souvenir de leur forme latine ; ainsi homme (anciennement ome), à cause de homo. Mais nous en avons d’autres, venus du germanique, dont l’h a été réellement prononcé : hache, hareng, honte, etc. Tant que l’aspiration subsista, ces mots se plièrent aux lois relatives aux consonnes initiales ; on disait : deu haches, le hareng, tandis que, selon la loi des mots començant par une voyelle, on dirait deu-z-hommes, l’omme. À cette époque, la règle : “devant h aspiré la liaison et l’élision ne se font pas” était correcte. Mais actuellement cette formule est vide de sens ; l’h aspiré n’existe plus, à moins qu’on n’appelle de ce nom cette chose qui n’est pas un son, mais devant laquelle on ne fait ni liaison ni élision. C’est donc un cercle vicieux, et l’h n’est qu’un être fictif issu de l’écriture.

- Cours de Linguistique Générale, d’après Ferdinand de Saussure (1916)

À Paris, on dit déjà : sept femmes en faisant sonner le t ; Darmesteter prévoit le jour où l’on prononcera même les deux lettres finales de vingt, véritable monstruosité orthographique.

- Cours de Linguistique Générale, d’après Ferdinand de Saussure (1916)

Przecież nie wszyscy muszą zwyciężać, kto by wtedy przegrywał, do cholery?!

- Baza Sokołowska, Marek Hłasko (1954)

The Anarchist viewpoint is less easily defined. In any case the loose term ‘Anarchists’ is used to cover a multitude of people of very varying opinions. (…) They accepted the POUM slogan: “The war and the revolution are inseparable,” though they were less dogmatic about it. Roughly speaking, the CNT-FAI stood for: (1) Direct control over industry by the workers engaged in each industry, e.g. transport, the textile factories, etc.; (2) Government by local committees and resistance to all forms of centralised authoritarianism; (3) Uncompromising hostility to the bourgeoisie and the Church. The last point, though the least precise, was the most important. The Anarchists were the opposite of the majority of so-called revolutionaries in so much that though their principles were rather vague their hatred of privilege and injustice was perfectly genuine. Philosophically, Communism and Anarchism are poles apart. Practically–i.e. in the form of society aimed at–the difference is mainly one of emphasis, but it is quite irreconcilable. The Communist’s emphasis is always on centralism and efficiency, the Anarchist’s on liberty and equality. (…) During the first two months of the war it was the Anarchists more than anyone else who had saved the situation, and much later than this the Anarchist militia, in spite of their indiscipline, were notoriously the best fighters among the purely Spanish forces.

- Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell (1938)

… l’Être brut… l’Être vertical… non l’Être “aplati” offert aux rêves d’une conscience souveraine, c’est l’Esprit sauvage, l’esprit qui fait sa propre loi non parce qu’il a tout soumis à sa volonté, mais parce que soumis à l’Être, il se réveille toujours au contact de l’événement pour contester la légitimité du savoir établi.

- L’Idée d’être brut et d’esprit sauvage, Claude Lefort (Sur un Colonne absente, Écrits autour de Merleau-Ponty, 1978)

D’aucuns nous intimeront qu’il est souverainement inintelligent de demander compte de leur pensée en tant que pensée à des auteurs qui ne sont après tout que des artistes et ne voient dans l’idée qu’ils énoncent que l’occasion d’exécuter un morceau littéraire.

- La France byzantine, ou, Le triomphe de la littérature pure : Mallarmé, Gide, Proust, Valéry, Alain Giraudoux, Suarès, les Surréalistes : essai d’une psychologie originelle du littérateur, Julien Benda (1945)

Eventually he got to Poland and for a brief while went out with a man at four o’clock in the morning and bought and sold pigs. Though he hated it, there is no experience, agreeable or otherwise, that isn’t valuable to a writer of fiction.

- J. D. Salinger (biography to accompany The Catcher in the Rye), William Maxwell (1951)

As Nicholas cut through the crowd, Strathmore said reflectively, “There goes living proof of the value of cross-breeding.”

- Thunder and Roses, Mary Jo Putney (1993)

“Sir, we ought to teach the people that they are doing wrong in worshipping the images and pictures in the temple.”
Ramakrishna: “That’s the way with you Calcutta people: you want to teach and preach. You want to give millions when you are beggars yourselves… Do you think God does not know that he is being worshipped in the images and pictures? If a worshipper should make a mistake, do you not think God will know his intent?”

- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Concerning the Gods, there are those who deny the very existence of the Godhead; others say that it exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns nor has forethought for anything. A third party attribute to it existence and forethought, but only for great and heavenly matters, not for anything that is on earth. A fourth party admits things on earth as well as in heaven, but only in general, and not with respect to each individual. A fifth, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that cry: –
“I move not without Thy knowledge!”

- Epictetus

You have not been a crusader or engaged in any effort to change the customs or laws of the South. That responsibility, newspapers quote you as saying, you “leave to the other guys.” That attack upon you clearly indicates that organized bigotry makes no distinction between those who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do. This is a fight which none of us can escape. We invite you to join us in a crusade against racism…

- Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive secretary, to Nat King Cole, after the assault on Cole during a white-only concert in 1956

Having set ourselves free from the misconception of Self, next we must awaken our innermost wisdom, pure and divine, called the Mind of Buddha, or Bodhi, or Prajna by Zen Masters. It is the divine light, the inner heaven, the key to all moral treasures, the source of all influence and power, the seat of kindness, justice, sympathy, impartial love, humanity, and mercy, the measure of all things. When this innermost wisdom is fully awakened, we are able to realize that each and every one of us is identical in spirit, in essence, in nature with the universal life or Buddha, that each ever lives face to face with Buddha, that each is beset by the abundant grace of the Blessed One, that He arouses his moral nature, that He opens his spiritual eyes, that He unfolds his new capacity, that He appoints his mission, and that life is not an ocean of birth, disease, old age and death, nor the vale of tears, but the holy temple of Buddha, the Pure Land, where he can enjoy the bliss of Nirvana.

- The Religion of the Samurai, Kaiten Nukariya (1913)

Life is fact and no explanation is necessary or pertinent. To explain is to apologize, and why should we apologize for living?

- An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1934)

A monk who was still a novice came to him and asked to be instructed in Zen.
Joshu said, “Have you not had your breakfast yet?”
Replied the monk, “Yes, sir, I have had it already.”
“If so, wash your dishes.” This remark by the old master opened the novice’s eye to the truth of Zen.

- An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1934)

At the end of his summer’s sojourn Kyosan paid a visit to Yisan, who said, “I have not seen you this whole summer coming up this way; what have you been doing down there?”
Replied Kyosan, “Down there I have been tilling a piece of ground and finished sowing millet seeds.”
Yisan said, “Then you have not wasted your summer.”
It was now Kyosan’s turn to ask Yisan as to his doings during the past summer, and he asked, “How did you pass your summer?”
“One meal a day and a good sleep at night.”
This brought out Kyosan’s comment, “Then you have not wasted your summer.

- An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1934)

A monk asked the master: “It is some time since I came to you to be instructed in the holy path of the Buddha, but you have never given me even an inkling of it. I pray you to be more sympathetic.” To this the following answer was given: “What do you mean, my son? Every morning you salute me, and do I not return it? When you bring me a cup of tea, do I not accept it and enjoy drinking it? Besides this, what more instructions do you desire from me?”

- An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1934)

W słowach tylko chęć widzim, w działaniu potęgę;
Trudniej dzień dobrze przeżyć niż napisać księgę.

- Zdania i uwagi: Z dzieł Jakuba Bema, Anioła Ślązaka (Angelus Silesius) i Sę-Martena, Adam Mickiewicz (1836)

The customer pays, as he sees it, for good service; the employee is paid, as he sees it, for the boulot – meaning, as a rule, an imitation of good service. The result is that, though hotels are miracles of punctuality, they are worse than the worst private houses in the things that matter.