Racing Quotes (page 41)
Corny trash, vulgar clichs, Philistinism in all its phases, imitations of imitations, bogus profundities, crude, moronic and dishonest pseudo-literature—these are obvious examples. Now, if we want to pin down poshlost in contemporary writing we must look for it in Freudian symbolism, moth-eaten mythologies, social comment, humanistic messages, political allegories, overconcern with class or race, and the journalistic generalities we all know.
Vladimir Nabokov
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro. Kept treading? treading? till it seemed. That Sense was breaking through? And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum? Kept beating? beating? till I thought. My Mind was going numb? And then I heard them lift a Box. And creak across my Soul. With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space? began to toll, As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race. Wrecked, solitary, here?...
Emily Dickinson
But most of all, I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they are going. Sometimes I even go to Fun parks and ride in the jet cars when they race on the edge of town at midnight and the police don't care as long as they're insured. As long as everyone has ten thousand insurance everyone's happy. Sometimes I sneak around and listen in subways. Or I listen at soda...
Ray Bradbury
Usually when you ask somebody in college why they are there, they'll tell you it's to get an education. The truth of it is, they are there to get the degree so that they can get ahead in the rat race. Too many college radicals are two-timing punks. The only reason you should be in college is to destroy it.
Abbie Hoffman
However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism muststart with a belief in some group's greater right to power, whether thatright is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. Howeverfar it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal powerand airtight roles within the family.
Gloria Steinem
People are all exactly alike. There's no such thing as a race and barely such a thing as an ethnic group. If we were dogs, we'd be the same breed. George Bush and an Australian Aborigine have fewer differences than a Lhasa apso and a toy fox terrier. A Japanese raised in Riyadh would be an Arab. A Zulu raised in New Rochelle would be an orthodontist. People are all the same, though their circumstances differ terribly.
P. J. O'Rourke