Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Quotes: Civilization.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Civilization
Civilization 841 Mankind's inventions are blotting out the beauty of nature and human life. "In one way or another, here and there, and all around us, the inventions of mankind are fast blotting the picturesque, the poetic, and the beautiful out of human life." Hawthorne: “Fire-Worship”

Civilization 1129 Indian arrowheads differ from modern artifacts because of their individuality. "Their [Indian arrowheads’] great charm consists in this rudeness, and in the individuality of each article, so different from the productions of civilized machinery, which shapes everything on one pattern." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Civilization 171 Civilization only complicates man's barbarism and misery. "In growing civilized has man really done anything more than complicate his barbarism and refine his misery?" Paul Bourget. 1883. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Civilization xix Freud uncovered the hidden worlds of the individual; Frazer uncovered the hidden worlds of society. "Indeed, what Freud did for the individual, Frazer did for civilization as a whole...as Freud deepened men’s insight into the behavior of individuals by uncovering the ruder world of the subconscious, from which so much of it [behavior] springs, so Frazer enlarged man’s understanding of the behavior of societies by laying bare the primitive concepts and modes of thought which underlie and inform so many of their institutions and which persist, as a subliminal element of their culture, in their traditional folk customs." Gaster, Editor’s Foreword. Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Civilization xx Primitive behavior occurs in modern man. "...overall picture of how, at the primitive level, man in general thinks and acts, and of how that primitive mentality persists sporadically even in the more advanced stages of his development." Gaster, Editor’s Foreword. Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Civilization xxv From savagery to civilization. "...enabling us to follow the long march, the slow and toilsome ascent of humanity from savagery to civilization." J.G. Frazer, Introduction. Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Civilization xxvi Many of our beliefs are based on superstition rather than on science. "...shows that much which we are wont to regard as solid rests on the sands of superstition rather than on the rock of nature." J.G. Frazer, Introduction. Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Civilization 496 Men humanize their divinities as they grow more civilized. "As men emerge from savagery the tendency to humanize their divinities gains strength…." Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Civilization 738 The path of knowledge goes from magic to religion to science. "…the movement of the higher thought, so far as we can trace it, has on the whole been from magic through religion to science." Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Civilization 420 "Where the paved road ends…." DeLillo, Underworld.

Civilizations 1025 Men think that their own way of doing things will persist forever. "…and imagine, doubtless, that their own system of affairs will endure forever." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Monday, April 28, 2008

Quotes: Churchill. Citizenship. City.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Churchill
Churchill 19 "Mr. Attlee is a very modest man; but then he has much to be modest about." Winston Churchill. Portable Curmudgeon.

Churchill 142 "Lady Astor: If you were my husband, Winston, I’d put poison in your tea. Winston Churchill: If I were your husband, Nancy, I’d drink it." Portable Curmudgeon.

Churchill 559 Churchill' nature could sense tragic possibilities while Roosevelt's nature was light-hearted. "[Churchill’s] nature possessed a dimension of depth—and a corresponding sense of tragic possibilities—which Roosevelt’s light-hearted genius instinctively passed by." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

Citizenship
Citizenship 418 Stability and freedom are guaranteed by conformity. "Walter Bagehot: ...the surest guarantee of stability and freedom in a state is ‘stupidity,’ or the general habit of identical response." G.M. Young. “The Greatest Victorians.” 1928.

City
City 411 The people of Washington talked incessantly and excitedly. " …but chiefly Washington was associated with people, scores of them, sitting about the flat, talking, talking, talking, not always wisely but always excitedly." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

City 218 "A great city is a great solitude." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

City 379 The great crowds in the city generate energy. "…the energy that hurrying people make, lunch crowds and buses and bike messengers, all that consciousness powering down the flumes [narrow gorge] of Manhattan…." DeLillo, Underworld.

City 394 Words don't carry in the subway. "In the subway, words have a charged quality they don’t carry elsewhere." DeLillo, Underworld.

City 398 Looking into apartments from the elevated train's windows. "They rode home on the Third Avenue El, rattlebanging up Manhattan and through the Bronx, looking out the train windows into tenement apartments on both sides, hundreds of film-flicking lives shooting past their eyes forty feet above the street…." DeLillo, Underworld.

City 578 Trash wind-skidding in the city streets. " …went down to the Cadillac as the spent trash of a day and a night in a great coastal city went wind-skidding through the streets." DeLillo, Underworld.

City 654 Cars and drivers like insects throughout the night. "…cars with mystery drivers coming out of the gloom, alive like insects all hours of the night." DeLillo, Underworld.

City 56 The repeated essences of the city: evacuations, demolitions, removals, vacant lots, new installations. "Buckminster Fuller, the designer-philosopher, once described New York as a 'continual…process of evacuations, demolitions, removals, temporarily vacant lots, new installations and repeat.' ” Toffler, Future Shock.

City and Country x A countryside exists outside the New York City streets. "I suppose the essays served in the Times as reminders that there is a countryside beyond the city streets." Introduction. Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

City and country 439 "…for sunshine appeared to be a totally different thing in a town and in the country… [in Portsmouth] its power was only a glare, a stifling, sickly glare, serving but to bring forward stains and dirt that might otherwise have slept…was neither health nor gaiety in sunshine in a town…sat in a blaze of oppressive heat, in a cloud of moving dust…." Austen, Mansfield Park.

City and country 93 America on the move in the cities vs. the settled residences in rural villages. "In seventy major United States cities, for example, including New York, average residence in one place is less than four years; contrast this with the lifelong residence in one place characteristic of the rural villager." Toffler, Future Shock.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Quotes: Christ, Christianity. Christmas.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Christ, Christianity
Christ 362 "Christ’s death has impressed the world more than his resurrection." Valery. 1942. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Christ 65 "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be—a Christian." Mark Twain. Portable Curmudgeon.

Christ 65 "The last Christian died on the cross." Nietzsche. Portable Curmudgeon.

Christianity 869 "How can any Christian remain idle, when there is so much evil to be remedied within a morning’s walk of his own home?" Hawthorne: “A Good Man’s Miracle”

Christianity 16 "No kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ." Montesquieu. 1721. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Christianity 102 The religion that proclaims 'peace on earth' has not put an end to war. "That amiable religion which ‘proclaims peace on earth,’ hath not as yet made war to cease." James Boswell. “On War.” 1777. Gross, ed. Essays.

Christianity 578 White Christians have not done much to help their brothers, the Negroes. "The [white Christian] religion seems to have sent few peaceful messages to them [whites] insofar as their brothers in Christ, the Negroes, are concerned." Elizabeth Hardwick. “The Apotheosis of Martin Luther King.” 1968. Gross, ed. Essays.

Christianity 631 Gargoyles on the Cathedral at Chartres seem to advertise the devil in the Catholic religion. "…gargoyles [on the Cathedral at Chartres] jutting out of the stone and seeming to say that God and the devil can never be divorced." James Baldwin. “Stranger in the Village.” 1953. Gross, ed. Essays.

Christmas
Christmas 84 "He [Grandfather] read the chapters from Saint Matthew about the birth of Christ, and as we listened, it all seemed like something that happened lately and near at hand." Cather, My Ántonia

Christmas 351 Christmas is a secular festival dedicated to the innocence of children and the goodness of mankind. " ...Christmas, not a mass or a sermon but a secular festival to the innocence of children and the goodness of mankind." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Christmas 351 The simple message of Christ's birth. "Christmas: What we celebrate is the birth of a child into a time of dissension and oppression and a world of cruelty and suspicion, one who grew up to teach peace and justice and love of fellow man...as simple as that." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Christmas 352 At Christmas we celebrate the hope and dream of peace on earth. "Christmas: But what we are really celebrating is the obscure birth of one who lived, and died, for a simple creed [peace, justice, and love of fellow man], so simple that we still find it difficult to accept complete; we celebrate the hope, the dream." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Christmas tree 347 The pines were old millions of years ago when millions of years had no meaning. "For the pines and their whole family were old when the first man saw them, millions of years old…even at a time when millions of years had no meaning." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Christmas tree 347 The Christmas tree celebrates green at a time of gray winds, white frost and white snow. "…we are reaching for reassurance, for the beauty of the living green but also for that green itself, the green of life that outlasts the gray winds, the white frosts, and the glittering snow of winter." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Quotes: Childhood, Children.

The idea in the bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Childhood, Children
Childhood 43 "...and I buttoned up my jacket and raced my shadow home." Cather, My Ántonia

Childhood 445 The experience as a child of leaving a darkened movie house to go into the bright light of day. "…that thing you used to feel as a child when you walked out of a movie house in the middle of the day and the streets were all agitation and nasty glare, every surface intense and jarring…." DeLillo, Underworld.

Children 1216 An adult's ideal childhood. "What was most wonderful of all, the children never quarreled among themselves; neither had they any crying fits; nor, since time first began, had a single one of these little mortals ever gone apart into a corner and sulked." “The Paradise of Children” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Children 303 "Civilization is cruel in sending [children] to bed at the most stimulating time of dusk.... Summer dusk, especially, is the frolic moment for children...." Alice Meynell. “Under the Early Stars.” 1897. Gross, ed. Essays.

Children 303 The energy of children vs. the weariness of adults. "This [bedtime] is not the only time when the energy of children is in conflict with the weariness of men." Alice Meynell. “Under the Early Stars.” 1897. Gross, ed. Essays.

Children 4 The "terrible twos." "[Attractions]…in children of two or three years old; an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Children 430 "Did you ever realize that children are people?" Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Children 430 The desire to have her son grow beyond the provincialism of a small town. Carol: "He [her young son] has just as many thoughts as we have, and I want him to develop them, not take Gopher Prairie’s version of them." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.


Children, adults 64 Children show us the state of adult decay. "Children…show us the state of our [adults’] decay." Brian Aldiss. Portable Curmudgeon.

Children’s lit 1163 Writers make a mistake in writing down to children. "…the author has not always thought it necessary to write downward, in order to meet the comprehension of children." Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Quotes: Charm. Chaucer. Chess. Chicago.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Charm
Charm 214 All charming people depend on the appreciation of others. "All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others." Cyril Connolly. 1938. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms. [This statement is an example of an ambiguous statement, the result of a simple preposition, "of." Does it mean that charm is dependent on the charmers' appreciating the people around them? Or does it mean that the charmers are dependent on those around them giving the charmers their appreciation? RayS.]

Chaucer
Chaucer 32 Chaucer's tales exactly fit the characters of their tales' tellers. "Dryden on Chaucer: The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are so suited to their different educations, humors, and callings that each of them would be improper in any other mouth." John Dryden. “Chaucer.” 1700. Gross, ed. Essays.

Chess
Chess 142 Chess has no replica in real life. Hearn: "The thing about chess that used to intrigue me, and ended by being just boring, is that there’s nothing remotely like it in life." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Chess 143 Like a game of chess, he was maneuvered by his boss. "Hearn wanted to avoid a discussion [about chess with the General]…he was weary of being maneuvered by the General." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Chicago
Chicago 62 A negative view of Chicago. "Chicago: this vicious, stinking zoo, this mean-grinning, mace-smelling boneyard of a city: an elegant rockpile of a monument to everything cruel and stupid and corrupt in the human spirit." Hunter S. Thompson. Portable Curmudgeon.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Quotes: Character (17)

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character
Character 112 She deserves praise, but does not hear it. "Miss Crawford: I fancy Miss Price has been more used to deserve praise than to hear it." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character 317 I don't think ill of his temper, but I do of his principles. Sir Thomas to Fanny: “Have you any reason, child, to think ill of Mr. Crawford’s temper?” “No, Sir.” She longed to add, “but of his principles I have.” Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character 389 She was always busy without making much progress. "…her [Fanny’s mother’s] time was given chiefly to her house and her servants…days were spent in a kind of slow bustle; always busy without getting on; always behind hand and lamenting it, without altering her ways…." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character 427 She chose not to see sufferings and therefore they did not affect her. "The sufferings which Lady Bertram did not see, had little power over her fancy." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character 444 He desired to achieve self-command. "…his manner showed the wish of self-command…." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character 445 He relieved his state of mind by putting himself into motion. "…the state of his own mind made him find relief only in motion." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character 445 He was determined to suppress his violent emotion. "He looked very ill: evidently suffering under violent emotions, which he was determined to suppress." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character He had a theoretical knowledge of his religion, but he never put it into practice. "…had been instructed theoretically in their religion, but never required to bring it into daily practice." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Character analysis 305 Mrs. Jennings studied his behavior, but she watched his eyes. "…she watched his eyes, while Mrs. Jennings thought only of his behavior." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 114 I know him because I see him all the time in town, but I have never spoken to him. [On being asked if she knows Mr. Willoughby]: “Oh! dear, yes; I know him extremely well,” replied Mrs. Palmer—“not that I ever spoke to him indeed; but I have seen him forever in town.” Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character Gracie Allen 115 He's a charming man; too bad that he is so dull. Mrs. Palmer on Col. Brandon: “He is such a charming man, that it is quite a pity he should be so grave and dull.” Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 215 She was angry and wished to drop his acquaintance, only they had never been acquainted. "[Mrs. Palmer] was equally angry…was determined to drop his [Willoughby’s] acquaintance immediately, and she was very thankful that she had never been acquainted with him at all." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 215 She hated him so much that she would never mention him again, but she would tell everyone she knew what a good-for-nothing he was. "She [Mrs. Palmer] hated him so much that she was resolved never to mention his name again, and she should tell everybody she saw, how good-for-nothing he was." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character type 947 People who remember negative weather and are quoted in the newspapers. "…that universally accredited character, so constantly referred to in all seasons of intense cold or heat—he that remembers the hot Sunday and the cold Friday—the witness of a past age, whose negative reminiscences find their way into every newspaper…." Hawthorne: “A Select Party”

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Quotes: Character (16)

The idea in the bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character 22 His life consisted of weaving and hoarding money, for neither of which he had a clear purpose. "His life had reduced itself to the functions of weaving and hoarding, without any contemplation of an end toward which the functions tended." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 32 His strength could not help him when the dangers he confronted could not be knocked down. "That big muscular frame of his held plenty of animal courage, but helped him to no decision when the dangers to be braved were such as could neither be knocked down nor throttled." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 65 His spirit was negative and he was proud of it. "Mr. Dowlas was the negative spirit in the company, and was proud of his position." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 81 He's not hurt. He only hurts other people. “ 'Hurt?' said Godfrey, bitterly... 'He’ll never be hurt--he’s made to hurt other people.' ” George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 101 She seeks out the sad things in life and thinks about them. "Mrs. Winthrop...was a very mild, patient woman, whose nature it was to seek out all the sadder and more serious elements of life, and pasture her mind on them." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 150 If she's dead, I'll marry Nancy and be a good person from then on; somehow the child will be taken care of. "Godfrey: If she is [dead], I may marry Nancy; and then I shall be a good fellow in future, and have no secrets, and the child—shall be taken care of somehow." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 173 She has been tested in life, but she has lost none of her best qualities. "The firm yet placid mouth, the clear, veracious glance of the brown eyes, speak now of a nature that has been tested and has kept its highest qualities." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Character 370 Her heart had withstood the daily blows, but it fell apart at the first feeling of nostalgia. "Her heart of compressed ash, which had resisted the most telling blows of daily reality without strain, fell apart with the first waves of nostalgia." Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Character 375 As a child, he was terrified of everything in life. "The terror-filled nights of his childhood were reduced to that corner where he would remain motionless until it was time to go to bed, perspiring with fear on a stool under the watchful and glacial eyes of the tattle-tale saints…had a terror of everything around him and he was prepared to be frightened at anything he met in life…which led only to disillusionment and madness—everything, in short, everything, that God had created in his infinite goodness and that the devil had perverted." Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Character 110 All he wants out of life is to eat, drink and grow fat. "Oh! no doubt he is very sincere in preferring an income ready made, to the trouble of working for one; and has the best intentions of doing nothing all the rest of his days but eat, drink and grow fat." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Quotes: Character (15)

The idea in the bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character (15)
Character 226 Without education, he probably does not have very deep feelings. "Roth [referring to Gallagher who has received the news of his wife’s death in childbirth]: He’s an ignorant fellow, no education, he probably doesn’t have so many feelings." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 258 He didn't like people and they sensed it quickly. "He [Hearn] liked very few people and most men sensed it uneasily after talking to him for a few minutes." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 265 He charts out the activities for his day. "He [Hearn] makes himself a schedule which charts everything down to the fifteen minutes he can allow himself to read the comic pages on Sunday morning, and the movie he can see on Saturday night." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 271 An incident in which he viciously tackles a helpless football player reveals much about his character. "One play he never quite forgets: a ball carrier on the opposing team breaks through a hole in the line, is checked momentarily, and is standing there stock upright, helpless, when Hearn tackles him…has charged with all his strength and the player is taken off the field with a wrenched knee…I’m sorry…only he knows he isn’t…there had been an instant of complete startling gratification when he knew the ball carrier was helpless, waiting to be hit." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 303 He made up for his lack of brilliance by hard work. "…what he could not supply in brilliance he was determined to produce in hard work." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 349 For some reason, he could never maintain friendships. "One of the main reasons for this wretchedness in the platoon was that his friendships never seemed to last: men with whom he would have long amiable conversations would wound him or disregard him the next day, and he never understood it." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 349 "He was unhappy because he felt continually betrayed." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 360 He felt like a servant who was superior to his master. "Martinez had the suppressed malice, the contempt, and the anxiety of a servant who knows he is superior to his master." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.


Character 447 He never liked anyone who, if he were lost, would cause him to feel hurt. "…he allowed himself to like no one so well that it would hurt if he was lost." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 455 He was running from the fear that he could be humbled. "He [Hearn] had been running away from fear, from vulnerability, from the admission that he was a man also and could be humbled. Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Quotes: Character (14)

The bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character 274 Since he could never succeed, he was resigned to failure. "In a world in which success was the only virtue, he had resigned himself to failure." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 322 "He could engross himself in an inconsequential task for hours without growing restless or bored, as oblivious to fatigue as the stump of a tree, and almost as taciturn." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 328 "…sensitive to everyone’s weakness but his own and found everyone absurd but himself." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 9 He always believed in his ultimate success and did not really care how he achieved it. "In his life he had taken certain things for granted, never challenging his belief in ultimate success, and bothering little about means and roads." Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Character 96 The peak of wisdom was to recognize yourself as tiny. "Apparently, the other had now climbed a peak of wisdom from which he could perceive himself as a very wee thing." Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Character 156 "He felt a quiet manhood, non-assertive but of sturdy and strong blood." Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

Character 15 "He was the kind of kid who would put away money for marriage before he even had a girl." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 26 "Somebody like Red was always ruining your work by making everybody laugh." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 114 He was driven to do what he feared and detested. "…but there was part of his mind that drove him to do things he feared and detested." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Character 162 He had contempt for anyone who could not hide his feelings. "[Red] felt contempt that Goldstein could not hide his feelings….." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Quotes: Character (13)

The idea in the bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character
Character 416 Someone else's clear position helps offset doubts. "…she’d have a clear position he could set against his doubts…." DeLillo, Underworld.

Character 592 Conducting oneself unsentimentally in the world. "I have to admire them…because they understand the logic of how to conduct yourself unsentimentally in the world." DeLillo, Underworld.

Character 724 Whether he chose his way of life or not, he accepted it. "Maybe it was his choice to live this way and maybe it wasn’t but either way he made it seem all right." DeLillo, Underworld.

Character 19 An all-American boy whom everybody liked. "Appleby was a fair-haired boy from Iowa who believed in God, Motherhood, and the American Way of Life, without thinking about any of them, and everybody who knew him liked him." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 177 Collected lists of fatal diseases in alphabetical order. "Hungry Joe collected lists of fatal diseases and arranged them in alphabetical order so that he could put his finger without delay on any one he wanted to worry about." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 193 He calculated intensely in order to serve himself. "Colonel Cathcart was indefatigable that way, an industrious, intense, dedicated military tactician who calculated day and night in the service of himself." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 193 He made a terrible impression on important people who barely knew he was alive. "…brooded inconsolably over the terrible ineradicable impressions he knew he kept making on people of prominence who were scarcely aware that he was even alive." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 193 He lived in imaginary triumphs and imaginary catastrophes. "Colonel Cathcart lived by his wits in an unstable, arithmetical world…of overwhelming imaginary triumphs and catastrophic imaginary defeats." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 193 "He oscillated hourly between anguish and exhilaration, multiplying fantastically the grandeur of his victories and exaggerating tragically the seriousness of his defeats." Heller, Catch-22.

Character 193 If he saw important people frowning or smiling, he could not rest until he had satisfactorily interpreted the facial expression. "If word reached him that General Dreedle or General Peckem had been seen smiling, frowning, or doing neither, he could not make himself rest until he had found an acceptable interpretation…." Heller, Catch-22.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Quotes: Character (12)

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character (12)
Character 70 Pasteur was argumentative. "He [Pasteur] loved to fight with words, he had a cocky eagerness to get into an argument with everyone about anything." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Character 72 Pasteur did not always give people credit who had contributed discoveries to Pasteur's findings. "…as he [Pasteur] went up in his excited climb toward glory and toward always increasing crowds of new discoveries, he regarded less and less what had been done before him and what went on around him…rediscovered the curious fact that microbes make meat go bad…failed to give the first discoverer, Schwann, proper credit for it." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Character 134 Koch did not realize what he was accomplishing. "In all of his writings I have never found any evidence that Koch considered himself a great originator; never, like Pasteur, did he seem to realize that he was the leader in the most beautiful and one of the most thrilling battles of men against cruel nature...." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Character 151 Pasteur learned from his mistakes. "But one of Pasteur’s most charming traits was his characteristic of a scientific Phoenix, who rose triumphantly from the ashes of his own mistakes." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Character 281 The theory that scoundrels are intelligent. "The first, Mahomed Bux, Ronald Ross hired because he had the appearance of a scoundrel, and (said Ross) scoundrels are much more likely to be intelligent." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Character 288 He might have been too modest to want his picture in the newspapers, but he also wanted every ounce of credit that was due to him. "He [Grassi] was a contradictory combination of a man too modest to want his picture in the papers but bawling at the same time for the last jot and tittle of credit for everything that he did." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Character 275 Once you have confidence in yourself, you don't need outside assistance. Once you’re a made man, you don’t need the constant living influence of sources outside yourself. DeLillo, Underworld.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Quotes: Character (11)

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character (11)
Character 331 She was concerned about meddling with other people's destinies. "She considered with wholesome fear the perils of meddling with other people’s destinies." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Character 404 Carol: "I don’t belong to Gopher Prairieisn’t meant as a condemnation of Gopher Prairie, and it may be a condemnation of me…I don’t care! I don’t belong here, and I’m going…not asking permission any more; I’m simply going." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Character 405 Carol: "And even if I am cowardly and run away—all right, call it cowardly, call me anything you want to…been ruled too long by fear of being called things…going away to be quiet and think…I have a right to my own life." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Character 406 She discovered that she could really get away. "…her discovery that she really could get away from Main Street was as sweet as the discovery of love. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Character 11 "There is character in spectacles." Lewis, Babbitt.

Character 112 "She was full of the joy of righteousness and bad temper." Lewis, Babbitt.

Character 157 I'm no good at small talk. Paul sighed, “I’m no good at this handshaking and ‘Well, look who’s here’ bunk.” Lewis, Babbitt.

Character 185 I need to receive credit for what I do for others. " …would have sacrificed everything for him—if he could have been sure of proper credit." Lewis, Babbitt.

Character 298 "...I don’t propose to be bullied and rushed into joining anything, and it isn’t a question of whether it’s a good league or a bad league or what the hell kind of a league it is; it’s just a question of my refusing to be told I got to--...." Lewis, Babbitt.

Character 70 Pasteur had a way of making sure that people gave him credit for what he did. "He [Pasteur] had a way of putting 'am-I-not-clever-to-have-found-this-and-aren’t-all-of-you-fools-not-to-believe-it-at-once' between the lines of all of his writings and speeches. DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Quotes: Character (10)

The idea in the bold-face print is an interpretation of the quote that follows. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character (10)
Character 218 Down at the depot. "There was the depot, of course; I often went down to see the night train come in, and afterward sat awhile with the disconsolate telegrapher who was always hoping to be transferred to Omaha or Denver, ‘where there was some life.’" Cather, My Ántonia

Character 218 Malcontents at the railway station. "For a change, one could talk to the station agent; but he was another malcontent; spent all his spare time writing letters to officials requesting a transfer." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 221 The secret of contentment. "The clouds of dust that blew up the street, the gusts of hot wind that withered his vegetable garden, never disturbed his calm...droll expression seemed to say that he had found the secret of contentment." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 281 "Lena was never so pretty as in the morning; she wakened fresh with the world everyday...." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 352 She retained in her mind images of universal human emotions. "Ántonia had always been one to leave images in the mind that did not fade...she lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true...a look or gesture that somehow revealed the meaning in common things...all the strong things of her heart came out in her body that had been so tireless in serving generous emotions!" Cather, My Ántonia

Character 354 He had a keen power of enjoyment. "He seemed conscious of possessing a keener power of enjoyment than other people...." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 356 He was a humorous philosopher who took on the burdens of life and kept on going. "He looked like a humorous philosopher who had hitched up one shoulder under the burdens of life, and gone on his way having a good time when he could." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 159 If he dared to face life.... "Yet probably if the Prince were young and dared to face life…." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Character 166 You can't accept things as they are; you always want to argue. "Trouble with women like you is, you always want to argue; can’t take things the way they are." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Character 171 "What’s the reason you’re so superior…can’t…take folks as they are?" Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Quotes: Character (9)

The idea in the bold-face print is an interpretation of the quote that follows. The number is the page on which the quote was found.

Character 112 She was good natured and determined to be happy. "It was impossible for any one to be more thoroughly good-natured, or more determined to be happy than Mrs. Palmer." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 112 He is always out of humor. Mrs. Palmer: “Mr. Palmer is so droll!" said she in a whisper to Elinor; “he is always out of humor.” Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 267 He was always calm, never provoked and never offended anyone who was wealthy. "…but his nature was calm, not open to provocation, and he never wished to offend anybody, especially anybody of good fortune. "Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 271 She would tell anything she was asked and anything she was not asked, too. Mrs. Jennings: “Get it all out of her, my dear…will tell you anything if you ask” "…lucky, however, for Mrs. Jennings’s curiosity and Elinor’s too, that she would tell anything without being asked…." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 378 She was born to recognize her false opinions and to contradict by her behavior her favorite maxims. "Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate: she was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favorite maxims." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Character 148 When she came on the scene, she stirred up everyone. "Mrs. Harling...routed lassitude and indifference wherever she came." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 150 She thought of the people around her as if they were characters in a play. Her interest in these people was more than a business interest; she carried them all in her mind as if they were characters in a book or a play." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 155 She would interrupt her work to play with the children. "[Ántonia’s] greatest fault, Mrs. Harling found, was that she so often stopped her work and fell to playing with the children." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 180 They made fun of conceited people, helped the unfortunate and relished life. "They [Ántonia and Mrs. Harling] ridiculed conceited people and were quick to help unfortunate ones...a kind of hearty joviality, a relish of life, not over-delicate, but very invigorating...never tried to define it, but I was distinctly conscious of it." Cather, My Ántonia

Character 198 The pretty girls stayed indoors during both winter and summer--in the winter because of the cold and in the summer because of the heat. "Some of the high school girls were jolly and pretty, but they stayed indoors in winter because of the cold, and in summer because of the heat." Cather, My Ántonia