Downing Quotes (page 188)
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Yes, I feel the moment has come for me to look back, if I can, and take my bearings, if I am to go on. If only I knew what I had been saying. Bah, no need to worry, it can only have been one thing, the same as ever. I have my faults, but changing my tune is not one of them. I have only to go on, as if there was something to be done, something begun, somewhere to go. It all boils down to a question of words, I must not forget this, I have not forgotten it. But I must have said this before,...
Samuel Beckett
Sometimes one feels rage and despair that one should know so little the people one loves. one is heartbroken at the impossibility of understanding them, of getting right down into their hearts . sometimes, accidentally or under the influence of some emotion, one gets a glimpse of some emotion , one gets a glimpse of those inner selves , and one despairs how ignorant one is of that inner self and how far away one is from it.
W. Somerset Maugham
I was shocked to read that Lord Ferrers, a Home Office minister, when booked for speeding and presented with a 40 fixed penalty with three penalty points, them wrote to the Suffolk police to thank them for catching him. There is a sickness in England. If his lordship appreciates punishment so much, it was unkind just to fine him. He should have been caned, with his trousers down, by the side of the road.
Auberon Waugh
The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer—and yet also, like most things, so very simple—was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay. As I clung to the chaparral that day, attempting to patch up my bleeding finger, terrified by every sound that the bull was coming back, I considered my...
Cheryl Strayed
[band] name? said Tony [Iommi]. The three of us looked at each other. I said. Forty-eight hours later I blurted out: said Geezer. Tony and Bill snickered into their plates of egg and chips. We were sitting in a greasy spoon caff in Aston. So far, everyone was getting along famously. I said, waving an eggy fork at him. The snickering died down. said Tony [Iommi]. spluttered Bill, blobs of mushed-up egg and HP sauce flying out of his mouth. I said.
Ozzy Osbourne
What actually happens when you die is that your brain stops working and your body rots, like Rabbit did when he died and we buried him in the earth at the bottom of the garden. And all his molecules were broken down into other molecules and they went into the earth and were eaten by worms and went into the plants and if we go and dig in the same place in 10 years there will be nothing exept his skeleton left. And in 1,000 years even his skeleton will be gone. But that is all right because he...
Mark Haddon
[from an entry by her daughter Camille] American culture doesn't allow much room for slow reflection. I watch the working people who are supposed to be my role models getting pushed to go, go, go and take as little vacation time as possible. And then, often, vacations are full of endless activity too, so you might come back from your "break" feeling exhausted ... Whether you prefer to sit on a rock in a peaceful place, or take a wooden spoon to a simmering pot, it does the body good to quiet...
Barbara Kingsolver