"Would you--be good enough--" Alice panted out, after running a little further, "to stop a minute--just to get--one's breath again...?" "I'm good enough," the King said, "only I'm not strong enough. You see, a minute goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch!"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What one really wants is youth, and what one really loses is years. Life becomes at last a mere piece of acting. One goes on by ha...bit, playing more or less clumsily that one is still alive. It is ludicrous and at times humiliating, but there is a certain style in it which youth has not. We become all, more or less, gentlemen; we are ancien régime; we learn to smile while gout racks us.... We get out of bed in the morning all broken up, without nerves, color or temper, and by noon we are joking with young women about the play. One lives in constant company with diseased hearts, livers, kidneys and lungs; one shakes hands with certain death at closer embrace every day; one sees paralysis in every feature and feels it in every muscle; all one's functions relax their action day by day; and, what is worse, one's grasp on the interests of life relaxes with the physical relaxation; and, through it all, we improve; our manners acquire refinement; our sympathies grow wider; our youthful self-consciousness disappears; very ordinary men and women are found to have charm; our appreciations have weight; we should almost get to respect ourselves if we knew of anything human to respect.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The purity of today will invest us like a breeze, Only be hard, spare, ironical: something one can... Tip one's hat to and still get some use out of.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of t...ravel and change.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
when Mrs Kindhead comes to collect for the Community Chest grab her and tell her There are unfavorable omens in the sky! ...>And when the mayor comes to get my vote tell him When are you going to stop people killing whales!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The whole business of your life overwhelms you when you live alone. One's stupefied by it. To get rid of it you try to daub some o...f it off on to people who come to see you, and they hate that. To be alone trains one for death.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The colicky baby who becomes calm, the quiet infant who throws temper tantrums at two, the wild child at four who becomes serious ...and studious at six all seem to surprise their parents. It is difficult to let go of one's image of a child, say goodbye to the child a parent knows, and get accustomed to this slightly new child inhabiting the known child's body.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
the trouble lies in pointing At any stars. For one's own finger aims... Always elsewhere: the man beside one seems Never to get the point. "No! The bright star Just above my fingertip."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is nothing of permanent value (putting aside a few human affections) nothing that satisfies quiet reflection--except the sen...se of having worked according to one's capacity and light to make things clear and get rid of cant and shams of all sorts.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
McCoy: That shark's been following us ever since the surgeon died, waiting for the burial. Couldn't I have a musket to shoot it, s...ir? Fletcher Christian: Take the deck, McCoy. I'll get the keys to the arms chest. McCoy: Get two muskets, sir. I'd like to shoot that shark on board.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »