Quotes from your favorite books

[Man in Black]

Post some of your favorite quotes or passages from your favorite books here. If you want, give an explanation on why you like it or your interpretation of it.

"Mankind will someday realize that we are actually in contact with the dead and with the other world, whatever it is; right now we could predict, if we only exerted enough mental will, what is going to happen within the next hundred years and be able to take steps to avoid all kinds of catastrophes. When a man dies he undergoes a mutation in his brain that we know nothing about now but which will be very clear someday if scientists get on the ball. The bastards right now are only interested in seeing if they can blow up the world."

Jack Kerouac-On The Road

I liked this quote a lot. I outlined it along with many others when I first read "On The Road". I really enjoyed this book, a few people had recommended it too me and I read it twice, it was a great story and very well written. Everyone has read this book and if they haven't they might do well to read it. Jack Kerouac writes his novels very poetically, and I love how the characters are based off of real personalities (William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg). The reason why I like this quote in particular is because it is very metaphysical and existential. I also think that he is right when he says we could predict and avoid the problems that await us in the future if we would only act on our consciences. When he talks about death and premonitions it makes me think of both Edgar Cayce mystical and psychic readings and Poe's writings on metaphysics and hypnosis. Little is known about death, and if there is an afterlife certainly even less is known about it. But that being said, is it a good thing to know the truth about death and the possibility of an afterlife? What should the limits of science be? Should it have limitless domain over both life and death? One thing I can say for certain is, it would be better for the progress of humanity as a whole if the scientific community decided to dedicate it's research to noble and groundbreaking, life enhancing causes, instead of trying to find new ways to ruin the planet.

Yeah I'm a little stoned.

[The_First_Roach]

''It makes no difference what men think of war, said the Judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way. Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favour of the weak. Decisions of life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar all question of right.''

in red is my favorite part of this quote

Cormac Mcarthy Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
Stephen King The Gunslinger

[Man in Black]

That's really good, sounds so much like Nietzsche. I'm gonna have to read Cormac McArthy, I saw No Country For Old Men, but I wish I had read the book first.

[The_First_Roach]

I saw the movie too not knowing he wrote the book. I highly suggest blood meridian it's very good and written extremely well. And to the question of knowing the possibility of an afterlife, i personally think that could be awful. No one would live life to the extent that we do. If people found out there was no after life, then everyone would become panicky and probably become afraid of everyone around them. If there is the ole christian heaven then people would commit no sins.. and with no sins life would be quite boring.

[№1]

The story you are about to read
will scare the hell out of you.

[Mr.Tree]

Originally Posted by №1

The story you are about to read
will scare the hell out of you.

oooh what book is that from?


here's mine:
"No one want to see the truth of war. They want to see heroes, tall and strong, striking and handsome."

[Prophet Saddam]

I just gave away a book last night that I so want to take a quote out of. It's Ernest Becker's The Birth and Death of Meaning. Great book!

[Pharm Girl]

"There's no such thing as a Peaceful Atom"

Canada's Deadly Secret by Dr. Jim Harding.

[Terry]

"LA burns and so many cities smolder, waiting for the hose that will flood gasoline over the coals. And we listen to to politicians who fuel our hate and our narrow views and tell us it's simply a matter of getting back to basics, while they sit on their beachfront house and listen to the surf, so they won't have to hear the screams of the drowning."

Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

Used to be my sig, plan to bring it back someday as it's damn near the most poignant thing I've read.

[AlteredStateGrl]

"Those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care. Wisdom does."

"When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun."

"The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise"

"Lots of people talk to animals," said Pooh.
"Not that many listen though."
"That's the problem."

"You'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are."

"Everything has its own place and function. That applies to people, although many don't seem to realize it, stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong."

I could go on and on.

From my most favorite book in the world ever. The Tao of Pooh. I practically sleep with this book.

[WildWill]

Figure out what he's describing:

"…a big sack of guts and fluids so highly compressed that it will squirt for a few yards when pierced. Each one is built around an armature of 206 bones connected to each other by notoriously fault-prone joints that are given to obnoxious creaking, grinding, and popping noises when they are in other than pristine condition. This structure is draped with throbbing steak, inflated with clenching air sacks, and pierced by a Gordian sewer filled with burbling acid and compressed gas and asquirt with vile enzymes and solvents produced by the many dark, gamy nuggets of genetically programmed meat strung along its length. Slugs of dissolving food are forced down this sloppy labyrinth by serialized convulsions, decaying into gas, liquid and solid matter which must all be regularly vented to the outside world lest the owner go toxic and drop dead. Spherical, gel-packed cameras swivel in mucus-greased ball joints. Infinite phalanxes of cilia beat back invading particles, encapsulate them in goo for later disposal. In each body a centrally located muscle flails away at an eternal, circulating torrent of pressurized gravy." Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon, Pg. 315-316

[№1]

Originally Posted by Mr.Tree

oooh what book is that from?

The forward to Helter Skelter.

[Prophet Saddam]

I'm getting some good ideas for books to read from this thread.

Thanks all.

[Flying Dutch]

I am William Wallace and I see awhole army of my countrymen who came here as a free men and free men you are!
If you fight you may die if you run you'll live at least for a while, but dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade this day, from this day to that, for one chance just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that you can take our lives but you will neve take our FREEEDOOM!!!!

"Every man dies but not every man really lives"

I like this movie very much..., one of my favourites..

[Flying Dutch]

"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity and so we ask ourselves, will our actions echo across centuries, will strangers hear our names long after we are gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought how fiercely we loved"
"Troy"

[WildWill]

Come on - BOOK quotes, not movie quotes please!

[AnimalLover420]

"I feel very sorry for the professionals whenever they find another confusing skull, something that belonged to the wrong sort of people, or whenever they find statues or artifacts that confuse them- for they'll talk about the odd, but they won't talk about the impossible, which is where I feel sorry for them, for as soon as something becomes impossible it slipslides out of belief entirely, whether it's true or not. I mean, here's a skull that shows the Ainu, the Japanese aboriginal race, were in America nine thousand years ago. Here's another that shows there were Polynesians in California nearly two thousand years later. And all the scientists mutter and puzzle over who's descended from whom, missing the point entirely."

"Even King David knew that there is one easy prescription to get warm blood flowing through an old frame: take one virgin, call me in the morning."

"Fuck you and fuck your mother and fuck the fucking horse you fucking rode in on. You will not even die in battle. No warrior will taste your blood. No one alive will take your life. You will die a soft, poor death. You will die with a kiss on your lips and a lie in your heart."

-Neil Gaiman, American Gods

This book says so much about culture and religion, I probably could have found at least twenty more quotes that were interesting at least to me. I was having trouble finding some of the ones I really wanted to find though.

[JcP]

"I saw myself as an intellectual in the making, and I was convinced that all the answers to the dilemmas of human existence could be found through intellect, that is to say, by thinking. I didn't realize yet that thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence."

[Smaerd]

I am a man who does not exist for others.-- Ayn Rand

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have beentaught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.-- Ayn Rand

...the person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him-- Ayn Rand

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.-- Ayn Rand

The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality -- the man who lives to serve others -- is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit. The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man, and he degrades the conception of love. But that is the essence of altruism.-- Ayn Rand

sorry sooo many