“But once an original book has been written-and no more than one or two appear in a century-men of letters imitate it, in other words, they copy it so that hundreds of thousands of books are published on exactly the same theme, with slightly different titles and modified phraseology. This should be able to be achieved by apes, who are essentially imitators, provided, of course, that they are able to make use of language.”
― Pierre Boulle, quote from Planet of the Apes
“I racked my brains to discover some sense in the events I had witnessed. I needed this intellectual exercise to escape from the despair that haunted me, to prove to myself that I was a man, I mean a man from Earth, a reasoning creature who made it a habit to discover a logical explanation for the apparently miraculous whims of nature, and not a beast hunted down by highly developed apes.”
― Pierre Boulle, quote from Planet of the Apes
“This time I felt it was impossible that they could entertain further doubt as to my true condition. Alas, I did not yet know the blindness of orangutans!”
― Pierre Boulle, quote from Planet of the Apes
“Des hommes raisonnables? Des hommes détenteurs de la sagesse? Des hommes inspirés par l'espirit? ... Non, ce n'est pas possible.”
― Pierre Boulle, quote from Planet of the Apes
“That perfected machines may one day succeed us is, I remember, an extremely commonplace notion on Earth. It prevails not only among poets and romantics but in all classes of society. Perhaps it is because it is so widespread, born spontaneously in popular imagination, that it irritates scientific minds. Perhaps it is also for this very reason that it contains a germ of truth. Only a germ: Machines will always be machines; the most perfected robot, always a robot. But what of living creatures possessing a certain degree of intelligence, like apes? And apes, precisely, are endowed with a keen sense of imitation.…”
― Pierre Boulle, quote from Planet of the Apes
“But how could one hold this against her when faced with the perfection of her body? Suddenly”
― Pierre Boulle, quote from Planet of the Apes
Pierre Boulle
Born place: in Avignon, France
Born date February 21, 1912
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“But a light now waxed within him at the knowledge that such wonders as he had been shown could exist.”
― Sylvia Engdahl, quote from Enchantress from the Stars
“Once a man begins to recognize himself in another, he can no longer look on that person as a stranger.”
― Paul Auster, quote from The Music of Chance
“Just before six, Bee pulled three wineglasses out of the cabinet and uncorked the bottle of white that Greg had selected for us.
"Light the candles, dear, will you please?"
I reached for the matches and thought about the dinners at Bee's house during my childhood. Bee never served a meal without candles. "A proper supper requires candlelight," she'd told my sister and me years ago. I though it was elegant and exciting, and when I asked my mom if we could start the same tradition at home, she said no. "Candles are for birthday parties," she said, "and those only come once a year.”
― Sarah Jio, quote from The Violets of March
“From inside Dancy's warm, safe womb Bonaventure heard two voices singing, and his little heart beat out a raining tattoo as if to keep in time with the song. He had no suspicion that anything had changed, because for him they had not; he'd always known these two voices, one soft, one deep and had always found them soothing.”
― quote from The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow
“Just because the boat rocks doesn't mean it's time to jump overboard.”
― Suzanne Woods Fisher, quote from The Keeper
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Salt Sugar Fat: How...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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