Quotes from The Sot-Weed Factor

John Barth ·  756 pages

Rating: (6.2K votes)


“My dear fellow,' Burlingame said, 'we sit here on a blind rock careening through space; we are all of us rushing headlong to the grave. Think you the worms will care, when anon they make a meal of you, whether you spent your moment sighing wigless in your chamber, or sacked the golden towns of Montezuma? Lookee, the day's nigh spent; 'tis gone careening into time forever. Not a tale's length past we lined our bowels with dinner, and already they growl for more. We are dying men, Ebenezer: i'faith, there's time for naught but bold resolves!”
― John Barth, quote from The Sot-Weed Factor


“All men are loyal, but their objects of allegiance are at best approximate.”
― John Barth, quote from The Sot-Weed Factor


“Is man a savage at heart, skinned o'er with fragile Manners? Or is savagery but a faint taint in the natural man's gentility, which erupts now and again like pimples on an angel's arse?”
― John Barth, quote from The Sot-Weed Factor


“The difference here 'twixt simple and witty folk, if the truth be known, is that your plain man cares much for what stand ye take and not a fart for why ye take it, while your smart wight leaves ye whate'er stand ye will, sobeit ye defend it cleverly.”
― John Barth, quote from The Sot-Weed Factor


“... a man's most useful friend and fearsome foe is the poet.”
― John Barth, quote from The Sot-Weed Factor



“Ah, God, it were an easy Matter to choose a Calling had
one all Time to live in! I should be fifty Years a
Barrister, fifty a Physician, fifty a Clergyman, fifty a
Soldier! Aye, and fifty a Thief, and fifty a Judge! All
Roads are fine Roads, beloved Sister, none more than
another, so that with one Life to spend I am a Man
bare-bumm'd at Taylors with Cash for but one pair of
Breeches, or a Scholar at Brookstalls with Money for a
single Book: to choose ten were no Trouble; to choose one,
impossible! All Trades, all Crafts, all Professions are
wondrous, but none is finer than the rest together. I
cannot choose, sweet Anna: twixt Stools my Breech falleth
to the Ground!”
― John Barth, quote from The Sot-Weed Factor


About the author

John Barth
Born place: in Cambridge, Maryland, The United States
Born date May 27, 1930
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“You’ll say to yourself, I’m just an old man who is scared of life, but even more scared of dying. So I’m keeping drunk and hanging on to life at any price, and what of it?”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects.”
― René Descartes, quote from Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy


“Divide and rule, subdivide and rule even more powerfully, fragment and rule absolutely.” “That’s”
― Frank Herbert, quote from The Dosadi Experiment


“I felt as if I had more to learn than I had time on earth.”
― Anita Amirrezvani, quote from The Blood of Flowers


“Mi vida, no hallarás en el pozo en que caes lo que yo guardo para ti en la altura".”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from The Captain's Verses


Interesting books

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
(44.5K)
The Thousand Autumns...
by David Mitchell
The 48 Laws of Power
(46.9K)
The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
(39.7K)
The Botany of Desire...
by Michael Pollan
Amerika
(18.4K)
Amerika
by Franz Kafka
Homecoming
(18.8K)
Homecoming
by Cynthia Voigt
Sisters Red
(18K)
Sisters Red
by Jackson Pearce

About BookQuoters

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.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.