“Will I have to use a dictionary to read your book?" asked Mrs. Dodypol. "It depends," says I, "how much you used the dictionary before you read it.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“The best reason for disbelieving in God is that he never gave us enough time in life to pursue enough knowledge to find sufficient truth.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“The man who has faith in logic is always cuckolded by reality.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“Ordinary persons, he said, smiling, found no differences between men. The artist found them all.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“The complexity of language, he thought to himself, lies not in its subject matter but in our knotted understanding.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“Faculty Meetings are held whenever the need to show off is combined
with the imperative of accomplishing nothing.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“That night God and Satan fought long hours for his soul. And God conquered. It was only left to be determined which of the two was God.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“I have no aspiration here to reclaim mystery and paradox from whatever territory they might inhabit, for there is, indeed, often a killing in a kiss, a mercy in the slap that heats your face . . . There is, nevertheless, a particular poverty in those alloplasts who, addressing tragedy, seek to subdistinguish motives beyond those we have best, because nearest, at hand, and so it is with love and hate--emotions upon whose necks, whether wrung or wreathed, may be found the oldest fingerprints of man. A simple truth intrudes: the basic instincts of every man to every man are known. But who knows when or where or how? For the answers to such questions, summon Augurello, your personal jurisconsult and theological wiseacre, to teach you about primal reality and then to dispel those complexities and cabals you crouch behind in this sad, psychiatric century you call your own. It is the anti-labyrinths of the world that scare. Here is a story for you. Your chair.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“for too easily we come to love love first and not...that from which it comes.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“Suddenly, political sucksters and realistic insectivores, shoving to the front, puffed up their stomachs and blew lies out of their fingers! A parade was formed! It was now an assembly on the arch, an enthusiastic troop of dunces, pasquil-makers, populist scribblers and lick-penny poets, anti-intellectual hacks, modernistic rubbishmongers, anonymuncules of prose and anacreontic water-bibbers all screaming nonce-words and squealing filthy ditties. They shouted scurrilities! They pronounced words backwards! They tumbled along waggling codpieces, shaking hogs' bladders, and bugling from the fundament! Some sang, shrill, purposely mispronouncing words, snarping at the language to mock it while thumping each other with huge rubber phalluses and roaring out farts! They snapped pens in half and turned somersaults with quills in their ears to make each other laugh, lest they speak and then finally came to the lip of a monstrously large hole, a crater-like opening miles wide, which, pushing and shoving, they circled in an obscene dance while dressed in hoods with long earpieces and shaking firebrands, clackers, and discordant bells! A bonfire was then lit under a huge pole, and on that pole a huge banner, to hysterical applause, was suddenly unfurled and upon it, upsidedown, were written the words: "In The End Was Wordlessness."”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
“Words! They seemed his only experience, his only sophistications. And yet what were they? Merciless little creatures, crowding about and eager for command, each with its own physical character, an ancestry, an expectation of life and a hope of posterity.”
― Alexander Theroux, quote from Darconville’s Cat
Alexander Theroux
Born place: Medford, Massachusetts, The United States
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“Son, there is no reason except a stupid one for anybody to project on that screen anything that will worry him or dull that vital edge. After all, we are the absolute bosses of that whole theatre and show in our minds. We even write the script. So always write positive, dynamic scripts and show only the best movies for you on that screen whether you are pimp or priest.”
― Iceberg Slim, quote from Pimp: The Story of My Life
“And he was such a polite, mannerly old boy; simple and kind as a child. I used to wonder how anybody so innocent and defenceless had managed to get along at all, to keep alive for nearly seventy years in as hard a world as this. Anybody could take advantage of him. He held no grudge against any of the people who had misused him.”
― Willa Cather, quote from The Professor's House
“The profound originality of a divine-human pact in which both parties complain endlessly about each other has too rarely been acknowledged as such.”
― Jack Miles, quote from God: A Biography
“No matter where I go, sadness follows. No matter how much time passes it won't go away. You get only one heart when you're born, and you can't turn it in or get it repaired. The only thing that fills it is more sadness. I'm surprised there's any room left in there at all.”
― Miyuki Miyabe, quote from Brave Story
“Hey. What is it that famous person said? 'It'll all work out in the end, and if it doesn't, that means it's not the end yet'?”
― Lauren Myracle, quote from Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks
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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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