The burden of ugliness becomes lighter if it is shared with descendants

The only thing that makes me somewhat skeptical regarding human procreation is the unintelligent selection of parents. Some of the most unattractive individuals in the world feel they must multiply at all costs. They are apparently under the illusion that the burden of ugliness becomes lighter if it is shared with descendants.

M. Kundera, The farewell party (1976), 89

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself?

What can you do, thoght Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

G. Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four (1949), 301

The Party is not concerned with perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself

The older kind of Socialist, who had been trained to fight against something called 'class privilege' assumed that what is not hereditary cannot be permanent. He did not see that the continuity of an oligarchy need not be physical, nor did he pause to reflect that hereditary aristocracies have always been shortlived, whereas adoptive organizations such as the Catholic Church have sometimes lasted for hundreds or thousands of years. The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living. A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors. The Party is not concerned with perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself.

G. Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four (1949), 239-40

He realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant

He realized how easy it was to present an appearance of orthodoxy while having no grasp whatever of what orthodoxy meant. In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding, they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm because it left no residue behind.

G. Orwell, Nineteen eighty-four (1949), 179-80

She could have recited the Twenty-Third Psalm and made it indecent

The lyrics of Marie [Lloyd]’s songs were never crude, but they were sufficiently suggestive to encourage the mind to wander. She could, said on impresario, have recited the Twenty-Third Psalm and made it indecent

J. Major, My Old Man: a personal history of music hall (2012), 121

It was low born but irresistable

In its formative years, the vulgarity and sentimentality of music hall attracted a largely working-class audience, but its appeal was far wider. It took root in England only a few years after there had been a real fear of revolution, and helped turn sour resentment into a patriotic roar of joy. It was low-born but irresistible. Its songs have become the folk songs of a nation.

J. Major, My Old Man: a personal history of music hall (2012), 3

Suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited

Modern History was the most popular school in Oxford, regarded as a soft option, suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited.

A. Sisman, Hugh Trevor - Roper: the biography (2010), 35

The casualties at Antietam numbered for times the total suffered by American soldiers at the Normandy beaches

The casualties at Antietam numbered four times the total suffered by American soldiers at the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. More than twice as many Americans lost their lives in one day at Sharpsburg as fell in combat in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Spanish-American war combined.

J. M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), 544

The United states has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them

The United states has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them. Never was this more true than the Civil War. the country was less ready for what proved to be its biggest war than for ant other war in history. In early 1861 most of the tiny 16,000-man army was scattered n seventy-nine outposts west of the Mississippi.

J. M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), 312-13

The only way to make everybody listen was to start a fire in the middle of the room and then identify the location of all the emergency exits

You never got everyone's attention, not if you were the Pope saying mass in St. Peter's Square or Renee Fleming in recital at Carnegie Hall or Czeslaw Milosz reading his poetry in Polish for the very last time. The only way to make everybody listen was to start a fire in the middle of the room and then identify the location of all the emergency exits. Even then, if you took the time to notice, there would always be someone running frantically in the opposite direction. Doyle knew this. Jesse Jackson knew this. But Teddy and Tip, at the ages of twenty and twenty-one respectively, each believed he was the only person there who had drifted off to other things.

A. Patchett, Run, (2007), 37

The beer had been far too inadequate to make them drunk; it made them only moody and reflective

One of the infrequent rations of beer was given out the same night, and the men finished their three cans quickly, and sat around without saying very much,. The beer had been far too inadequate to make them drunk; it made them only moody and reflective, it opened the gate to all their memories, and left them sad, hungering for things they could not name.

N. Mailer, The naked and the dead (1948), 258

Kennington! What a place for a poet to die!

'I wish you had left him in Soho,' he said, with a wave of his long, thin hands. 'There was a touch of romance in that sordid attic. I could even bear it if it were Wapping or Shoreditch, but the respectability of Kennington! What a place for a poet to die!'

W. Somerset Maugham, Of human bondage (1915), 475

Church of England services ... harmless enough compared to murder.

What your grandfather would feel if he knew we had the police in the house - it's enough to make him turn in his grave. A strict Plymouth Brother he was all his life. The fuss there was when he found out I'd been attending Church of England services in the evening! And I'm sure that was harmless enough compared to murder.

A. Christie, A pocket full of rye (1953), 87

Enthusiasm was ill-bred. Enthusiasm was ungentlemanly.

It was Winks who summed up the general impression and put it into a form they all felt was conclusively damning
...

'He's very enthusiastic,' said Winks.

Enthusiasm was ill-bred. Enthusiasm was ungentlemanly. They thought of the Salvation Army wit its braying trumpets and its drums. Enthusiasm meant change. They had goose-flesh when they thought of all the pleasant old habits which stood in imminent danger. They hardly dared to look forward to the future at all.

W. Somerset Maugham, Of human bondage (1925), 65

It had a reputation for few gods and great violence. But good schools

Despite attending a nominally Christian school, I had not yet been inside a church - and I wasn't about to dare the deed now. I knew very little about the religion. It had a reputation for few gods and great violence. But good schools.

Y. Martel, Life of Pi (2002), 51

The modern world ... the last two thousand years — just oughtn’t to have happened.

[I]t tickles me, in 1938, to find someone objecting to having a radio in the house. Porteous was strolling up and down in his usual dreamy way, with his hands in his coat pockets and his pipe between his teeth, and almost instantly he’d begun talking about some law against musical instruments that was passed in Athens in the time of Pericles. It’s always that way with old Porteous. All his talk is about things that happened centuries ago. Whatever you start off with it always comes back to statues and poetry and the Greeks and Romans. If you mention the Queen Mary he’d start telling you about Phoenician triremes. He never reads a modern book, refuses to know their names, never looks at any newspaper except The Times, and takes a pride in telling you that he’s never been to the pictures. Except for a few poets like Keats and Wordsworth he thinks the modern world — and from his point of view the modern world is the last two thousand years — just oughtn’t to have happened.

G. Orwell, Coming up for Air (1939), 155

But this one, it seems, is a different kind of Communist and not-quite, because he’s what they call a Trotskyist

Immediately in front of me the local Communist Party branch were sitting. All three of them very young. One of them’s got money and is something in the Hesperides Estate Company, in fact I believe he’s old Crum’s nephew. Another’s a clerk at one of the banks. He cashes cheques for me occasionally. A nice boy, with a 

round, very young, eager face, blue eyes like a baby, and hair so fair that you’d think he peroxided it. He only looks about seventeen, though I suppose he’s twenty. He was wearing a cheap blue suit and a bright blue tie that went with his hair. Next to these three another Communist was sitting. But this one, it seems, is a different kind of Communist and not-quite, because he’s what they call a Trotskyist. The others have got a down on him. He’s even younger,a very thin, very dark, nervous-looking boy. Clever face. Jew, of course. These four were taking the lecture quite differently from the others. You knew they’d be on their feet the moment question-time started. You could see them kind of twitching already. And the little Trotskyist working himself from side to side on his bum in his anxiety to get in ahead of the others.

G. Orwell, Coming up for Air (1939), 147

All their vitality has been drained away by lack of money

It was through Hilda that I first got a notion of what these decayed middle-class families are really like. The essential fact about them is that all their vitality has been drained away by lack of money. In families like that, which live on tiny pensions and annuities — that’s to say on incomes which never get bigger and generally get smaller — there’s more sense of poverty, more crust-wiping, and looking twice at sixpence, than you’d find in any farm-labourer’s family, let alone a family like mine. Hilda’s often told me that almost the first thing she can remember is a ghastly feeling that there was never enough money for anything. Of course, in that kind of family, the lack of money is always at its worst when the kids are at the school-age. Consequently they grow up, especially the girls, with a fixed idea not only that one always IS hard-up but that it’s one’s duty to be miserable about it.

G. Orwell, Coming up for air (1939), 136-7

Science-fiction fantasy (dragons are common, the gizmos are less plausible and may include wands)

"Science fiction" is the box in which her work is usually placed, but it's an awkward box: it bulges with the discards from elsewhere. Into it have been crammed all those stories that don't for comfortably into the family room of the socially realistic novel or the more formal parlour of historical fiction, or other compartmentalized (sic) genres: westerns, gothics, horrors, gothic romances, and the novels of war, crime and spies. Its subdivisions include science fiction proper (gizmo-riddled and theory-based space travel, time travel, or cybertravel to other worlds, with aliens frequent); science-fiction fantasy (dragons are common, the gizmos are less plausible and may include wands); and speculative fiction (human society and its possible future form, which are either much better than what we have now or much worse). However the membranes separating these subdivisions are permeable, and osmotic flow from the one to another is the norm.

M. Atwood, In other worlds: SF and the human imagination (2011), 115

Don't ride a bicycle. They'll think you're a communist and run you off the road

Tuscaloosa and Alabama provided another kind of flavour - that of a democracy, but one with quite a few constraining social customs and attitudes. ("Don't ride a bicycle," I was told. "They'll think you're a communist and run you off the road.")

M. Atwood, In other worlds: SF and the human imagination (2011), 87

There aren't many tunes you can hum in the shower.

As a story, the scientific mythos is not very comforting. Probably that's why it hasn't become wildly popular: we humans prefer stories that have a central role in them for us, that preserve some of our dignity, and that implies there might be help at hand if we really need some. The scientific version of our existence on this planet may well be physically true, but we don't like it much. It isn't cuddly. There aren't many tunes you can hum in the shower.

M. Atwood, In other worlds: SF and the human imagination (2011), 55

We may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him.

One of the dreariest effects of this war has been to teach me that the Left-wing press is every bit as spurious and dishonest as that of the Right. ... As late as October 1937 the New Statesman was treating us to tales of Fascist barricades made of the bodies of living children (a most unhandy thing to make barricades with), and Mr Arthur Bryant was declaring that 'the sawing-off of a Conservative tradesman's legs' was 'a commonplace' in Loyalist Spain. The people who write that kind of stuff never fight; possibly they believe that to write it is a substitute for fighting. It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours. Sometimes it is a comfort to me to think that the aeroplane is altering the conditions of war. Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him.

G. Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938), 215

English travellers ... do not really believe in the existence of anything outside the smart hotels

And it was queer how everyone expressed it in almost the same words: 'The atmosphere of this place - it's horrible. Like being in a lunatic asylum.' But perhaps I ought not to say everyone. Some of the English visitors who flitted briefly through Spain, from hotel to hotel, seem not to have noticed that there was anything wrong with the general atmosphere. The Duchess of Atholl writes, I notice (Sunday Express, 17 October 1937): 

I was in Valencia, Madrid, and Barcelona ... perfect order prevailed in all three towns without any display of force. All the hotels in which I stayed were not only 'normal' and 'decent', but extremely comfortable, in spite of the shortage of butter and coffee. 

It is a peculiarity of English travellers that they do not really believe in the existence of anything outside the smart hotels. I hope they found some butter for the Duchess of Atholl. 

G. Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938), 159

I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all

No one I met at this time - doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients - failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all.

G. Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938), 153-4

They seemed not even to know the one thing that everybody knows in Spain

Certainly the Andalusians were very ignorant. Few if any of them could read, and they seemed not even to know the one thing that everybody knows in Spain - which political party they belonged to. They thought they were Anarchists, but were not quite certain; perhaps they were Communists.

G. Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (1938), 84-85

Language is what you pick up naturally - everyone speaks, no problem - but science has to be learned methodically

My eager schoolteacher abandoned science to nature, assuming we would absorb the essentials through inquisitive play. Language, he used to say, was what made us different from the apes, and that was what he wanted to teach. But from my Mister Salgado I learned the reverse: language is what you pick up naturally - everyone speaks, no problem - but science has to be learned methodically, by study, if one is ever to emerge out of the swamp of our psychotic superstitions. It is what transforms our lives.

R. Gunesekera, Reef (1994), Kindle edn. loc 657

Churchill had stood out like Justinian in the twilight of Rome

[Churchill] had been a man not only whose intimate links with history ran back to the last cavalry charge at Omdurman, in the year of the death of Gladstone - but whose lifespan connected the present with that of millions who had been contemporary with Palmerston and Peel and the Duke of Wellington, and even with hundreds of thousands still alive in his youth, who had lived in the time of Napoleon, Beethoven and George III. In Britain's last great crisis as an imperial world power, Churchill had stood out like Justinian in the twilight of Rome, as a man who derived his majesty from a sense of imperial and military splendour of the past

Christopher Booker, in R. Young, Electric Eden: unearthing Britain's visionary music (2010), 490

With one crushing stomp of its platform soles

As Electric Warrior and Ziggy Stardust, Bolan and Bowie were far more effective Pied Pipers than Donovan, transporting their young listeners from immersion in a speculative, mythological past, and repositioning pop music in a future of plastic, glitter and tin ... With one crushing stomp of its platform soles, glam wiped out the market value of British rock's Arcadian dreams.

R. Young, Electric Eden: unearthing Britain's visionary music (2010), 474

The global village would become a society suspicious of outsiders and intolerant of out-of-step behaviour

The global village, in its original context in McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy, was not an example of gleeful futurology. It was a warning. The global village would become, as real villagers often are, a society suspicious of outsiders and intolerant of out-of-step behaviour. McLuhan foresaw with horror the approaching end of print culture, with its privileging of the individual conscious voice. 

R. Young, Electric Eden: unearthing Britain's visionary music (2010), 377

Argalia had never before faced a Medici duke in his pomp

Argalia had never before faced a Medici duke in his pomp. However, when Giuliano de' Medici rode into his encampment that night, with a hood over his head for secrecy, Argalia understood at once that the new ruler of Florence was a weakling, and so was that young nephew of his, riding by his side. Pope Leo was known to be a man of power, a Medici of the old school, inheritor of the authority of Lorenzo the Magnificent. How concerned he must be to have entrusted Florence to the care of these second-raters.

S. Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence (2008), 332-3

Hamida Bado was not attracted to the concept of doubt

Hamida Bado, a fierce, commanding woman, was not attracted to the concept of doubt. It was her opinion that she knew what was what, had been brought up to know it, and it was her duty to convey that information to everyone as clearly as possible.

S. Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence (2008), 131

A remarkable rate that would make even Bernie Madoff blush

There is fairly unambiguous evidence, instead, that insiders make above average returns. One disturbing example is that members of Congress, who often gain access to inside information about a company while they are lobbied and who have some ability to influence the fate of companies through legislation, return a profit on their investments that beats market averages by 5 to 10 percent per year, a remarkable rate that would make even Bernie Madoff blush. 

N. Silver, The Signal and the Noise (2012), 342

On the other hand there was culture

On the other hand there was culture. New Orleans does many things well, but there are two things it proudly refuses to do. New Orleans does not move quickly, and New Orleans does not place much faith in authority. If it did those things, New Orleans would not really be New Orleans  It would also have been much better prepared to deal with Katrina, since those are the exact two things you need to do when a hurricane threatens to strike.

N. Silver, The Signal and the Noise (2012), 109

The importance of the industrial revolution is hard to overstate

The importance of the industrial revolution is hard to overstate. Throughout essentially all of human history, economic growth had proceeded at a rate of 0.1% a year, enough to allow for a very gradual increase in population, but not any growth of per capita living standards. And then, suddenly there was progress where there had been none.

N. Silver, The Signal and the Noise (2012), 6

Reduce England to a cold and unimportant little island where we should all have to work very hard and live mainly on herrings and potatoes

Under the capitalist system, in order that England may live in comparative comfort, a hundred million Indians must live on the verge of starvation--an evil state of affairs, but you acquiesce in it every time you step into a taxi or eat a plate of strawberries and cream. The alternative is to throw the Empire overboard and reduce England to a cold and unimportant little island where we should all have to work very hard and live mainly on herrings and potatoes. That is the very last thing that any left-winger wants. Yet the left-winger continues to feel that he has no moral responsibility for imperialism. He is perfectly ready to accept the products of Empire and to save his soul by sneering at the people who hold the Empire together

G. Orwell, The road to Wigan pier (1937), 148

NB. The thrust of this isn't true, like so much of Part II of the book, but it's a great line.

In almost any revolt the leaders would tend to be people who could pronounce their aitches

In Lissagaray's History of the Commune there is an interesting passage describing the shootings that took place after the Commune had been suppressed. The authorities were shooting the ringleaders, and as they did not know who the ringleaders were, they were picking them out on the principle that those of better class would be the ringleaders. An officer walked down a line of prisoners, picking out likely-looking types. One man was shot because he was wearing a watch, another because he 'had an intelligent face'. I should not like to be shot for having an intelligent face, but I do agree that in almost any revolt the leaders would tend to be people who could pronounce their aitches.

G. Orwell, The road to Wigan pier (1937), 45

Anglo-catholicism, reaction and whimsy

I discussed over the weekend whether this was a quotation book for conversation. I think it is, though the bon mots would have be exceptionally bon. However, it is certainly a place for excellently written bloggage, of which the following is an exemplar. It's from my favourite blog at the moment, which I would urge you all to read. Anyway, I can't decide which of these two bits is best, so I'll have both:

'We advertise our letters as containing Anglo-catholicism, reaction and whimsy; but like all Church of England publications we actually cover mostly the gays, internal church politics, and nostalgia for an impossibly golden age. For most Anglicans this utopia is the 1950s: for us, true to form, the 1670s. Or possibly the 1630s. Certainly not the 1650s, though.

... 

We encourage you to speak again more of kings than of queens; to become once again the Tory party at prayer. The seventeenth-century Tory party at prayer, of course. Not today's soi-disant version.'

S.Fisher, Posing as a Jacobite, retrieved 22 May 2013 from http://plumsteadletters.blogspot.co.uk/

<http://plumsteadletters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/posing-as-jacobite.html>

One who has read his Thomas Hardy and learned from that pessimistic author's works

It is not too much to say that at this point in his progress Lord Emsworth was feeling calm, confident and carefree; but a wise friend, one who has read his Thomas Hardy and learned from that pessimistic author's  works how often and how easily human enterprises are ruined by some unforeseen Act of God, would have warned him against any premature complacency. One never knew, he would have pointed out, around what corner fate might not be waiting with the stocking full of sand, 'Watch your step, Emsworth,' he would have said.

P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings (1969), 171

Gustave Flaubert ... would have described her as being mad as a wet hen.

She [Constance] was thinking of Alaric, Duke of Dunstable, and a stylist like Gustave Flaubert, with his flair for the mot juste, would have described her as being mad as a wet hen.

P.G. Wodehouse, A Pelican at Blandings (1969), 116

The resentment of a woman who sees an abstract idea triumphing over common sense.

She looked at him helplessly. After all, it was no use. There was this money-business standing in the way—these meaningless scruples which she had never understood but which she had accepted merely because they were his. She felt all the impotence, the resentment of a woman who sees an abstract idea triumphing over common sense. How maddening it was, that he should let himself be pushed into the gutter by a thing like that!

G. Orwell, Keep the aspidistra flying (1936), 217

The working class, if you like, then. But they smell just the same.

'Of course I know you’re a Socialist. So am I. I mean we’re all Socialists nowadays. But I don’t see why you have to give all your money away and make friends with the lower classes. You can be a Socialist and have a good time, that’s what I say.’
‘Hermione, dear, please don’t call them the lower classes!’
‘Why not? They are the lower classes, aren’t they?’
‘It’s such a hateful expression. Call them the working class, can’t you?’
‘The working class, if you like, then. But they smell just the same.’
‘You oughtn’t to say that kind of thing,’ he protested weakly.
‘Do you know, Philip, sometimes I think you like the lower classes.’
‘Of course I like them.’
‘How disgusting. How absolutely disgusting.’

G. Orwell, Keep the aspidistra flying (1936), 108-9

Every intelligent boy of sixteen is a Socialist. At that age one does not see the hook sticking out of the rather stodgy bait.

Every intelligent boy of sixteen is a Socialist. At that age one does not see the hook sticking out of the rather stodgy bait.

G. Orwell, Keep the aspidistra flying (1936), 46

I ain't a nigger any more. I done been abolished

'Do you know what I ain't?' he said.
'What?' I said.
'I ain't a nigger any more. I done been abolished.'

W. Faulkner, The Unvanquished (1938), 137

A good rough test is the weight of his tombstone

No need to repeat the blasphemous comments which everyone who had known Gran’pa Comstock made on that last sentence. But it is worth pointing out that the chunk of granite on which it was inscribed weighed close on five tons and was quite certainly put there with the intention, though not the conscious intention, of making sure that Gran’pa Comstock shouldn’t get up from underneath it. If you want to know what a dead man’s relatives really think of him, a good rough test is the weight of his tombstone

G. Orwell, Keep the aspidistra flying (1936), 40

I won’t have them taught out of those big history books you keep bringing home from the library

[']And as for history, keep on with the Hundred Page History of Britain. I won’t have them taught out of those big history books you keep bringing home from the library. I opened one of those books the other day, and the first thing I saw was a piece where it said the English had been beaten in some battle or other. There’s a nice thing to go teaching children! The parents won’t stand for that kind of thing, I can tell you!’

G. Orwell, A Clergyman's daughter (1935), 237-8

He ought never to have been born into the modern world

The secret of his almost unfailing ill humour really lay in the fact that he was an anachronism. He ought never to have been born into the modern world; its whole atmosphere disgusted and infuriated him. A couple of centuries earlier, a happy pluralist writing poems or collecting fossils while curates at 40 pounds a year administered his parishes, he would have been perfectly at home. Even now, if he had been a richer man, he might have consoled himself by shutting the twentieth century out of his consciousness. But to live in past ages is very expensive; you can’t do it on less than two thousand a year. The Rector, tethered by his poverty to the age of Lenin and the Daily Mail, was kept in a state of chronic exasperation

G. Orwell, A Clergyman's daughter (1935), 17

Either he'll remain single - or he'll find himself an utterly stupid wife

Such a brilliant fellow [Joseph Olbrich]. Either he'll remain single - or he'll find himself an utterly stupid wife. That's how thinks go. you only have to take a look at other celebrated artists.

Alma Mahler-Werfel, Diaries 1898-1902. Ed. & tr. A. Beaumont (1998), 247 (Sun 11 February 1900)

The martini which he proceeded to pour proved an agreeable surprise

The martini which he proceeded to pour proved an agreeable surprise. It did not bite like a serpent and sting like an adder, but it was not without a certain quiet authority, and he had taken it into his system and was feeling much invigorated, when the door opened and his sister Hermione appeared.

P.G. Wodehouse, Galahad at Blandings (1965), 204

Yes, but it's a good picture

On seeing Tammy Wynette's mother reading the National Enquirer, Burt Reynolds said:

My mother does the same thing. I caught her reading a story about me last week and I said, 'Mama you know those stories aren't true.' And she said, 'Yes, but it's a good picture, son.'

Tammy Wynette with J. Dew, Stand by your man (1979), 272-3

[Money] sure can take the edge off misery!

Sometimes it's hard for me to realise that I lived like that just fourteen short years ago. I would have been overjoyed then just to own an old secondhand car. Now I have a Corvette and a Thunderbird, a pickup truck and a van, a bus and an airplane. And am I any happier? You bet I am! It kills me to hear people who are well off talk about the "good old days" when they didn't have a dime. I wonder how many of them would go back to that. It's true that money cannot buy you happiness. but it can buy conveniences, and it sure can take the edge off misery!

Tammy Wynette with J. Dew, Stand by your man (1979), 57

He was a highbrow – her deadliest word

He was a highbrow–her deadliest word–a highbrow, to be classed with Lenin, A. J. Cook and the dirty little poets in the Montparnasse cafés
G. Orwell, Burmese Days (1934), 

There is a prevalent idea that the men at the ‘outposts of Empire’ are at least able and hardworking

There is a prevalent idea that the men at the ‘outposts of Empire’ are at least able and hardworking. It is a delusion. Outside the scientific services–the Forest Department, the Public Works Department and the like–there is no particular need for a British official in India to do his job competently. Few of them work as hard or as intelligently as the postmaster of a provincial town in England. The real work of administration is done mainly by native subordinates; and the real backbone of the despotism is not the officials but the Army. Given the Army, the officials and the business men can rub along safely enough even if they are fools. And most of them are fools. A dull, decent people, cherishing and fortifying their dullness behind a quarter of a million bayonets

G. Orwell, Burmese Days (1934), 

the farther its devotees were from the bleeding frontier, the more devoutly they believed it

This was the particular and very strong belief shared by many people in the civilized East that the Indian wars were principally the fault of white men. The governing idea was that the Comanches and other troublesome tribes would live in peace if only they were treated properly, and the farther its devotees were from the bleeding frontier, the more devoutly they believed it.

S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon (2011), Kindle ed. loc 4381

There is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people

Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is work? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures, A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course  - but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout - in short, a parasite, but a fairly harmless parasite

G. Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), 154

I saw John the Baptist, on Barry John's right hand

I bought, in the sort of closing down sale at HMV, Max Boyce's classic live albums. I've been meaning to do so for ages, but I'd not heard them before. And they're brilliant. Anyway, my favourite is below, which bizarrely, I cannot find written out anywhere on the Internet (I've not looked that hard). Perhaps fitting for the eve of tomorrow's Anglo-Welsh Six Nations decider.

The Devil's marking me

I had a dream the other night; the strangest dream of all
I dreamt I was in Heaven, away from life's hard call
It was as I imagined: where peace reigned all supreme
The signs to Heaven were in all in Welsh, the signs were painted green
(refrain)

I entered through the heavenly gate; I heard the heavenly band
And there was John the Baptist, on Barry John's right hand
He plays for the Heaven Welsh Fifteen. They're very fit and keen
We'd play the Heaven English, if they could only raise a team
(refrain)

There was rugby every morning on a field of golden corn
And the referee was Gabriel and he blew on a sliver horn
They tell me we play Hell next week, in the annual charity
I wouldn't mind, but I've been told, the Devil's marking me
(refrain)

But now my dream has faded and I wake up to the morn
I find beneath my pillow a sheaf of golden corn
So I know that when I go there, beyond death's victory
I'll take my rugby jersey on that gospel train with me
(refrain)

You actually have to like jazz to follow it

Jazz is hard to follow; I mean you actually have to like jazz to follow it; and my motto is, never follow anything. I don't know what the motto of the young generation is, but I would think they have to follow their parents. I mean, what would some parents say to his kid if the kid came home with a glass eye, a Charlie Mingus record and a pocketful of feathers? He'd say: 'Who are you following?" And the poor kid would have to stand there with water in their shoes, a bow tie on his ear, and soot pouring out of his belly button and say: "Jazz, Father, I've started following jazz."

Bob Dylan, originally in Playboy (1966), in C. Ricks, Dylan's Visions of Sin (2003), 143

When reading Dickens aloud in bed, do not, on any account, attempt to do all the voices.

There is a limit to how much pleasure you can share. Try to avoid reading aloud so many passages from your book that you ruin it for your partner when he or she has a turn at reading it; avoid reading out a witty phrase or a telling observation if it means you will have to take fifteen minutes to set the scene with an explanation of the plot and description of the characters involved. When reading Dickens (say Pickwick Papers) aloud in bed, do not, on any account, attempt to do all the voices.

O. Pritchett, 'Pillow talk' Slightly Foxed 37 (2013), 29

The Kennedys proved to be more akin to the Medici.

But all the Kennedy children were raised with the same principles: winning isn't everything, it's the only thing; anything it permissible to succeed; have no idols except for the family - the Kennedy family, that is. Why the family should want political power was not discussed; it was accepted that power was its own reward. Indicative of the prevailing attitude was Jack observation in 1960 that Eleanor Roosevelt (widow of Franklin) disliked him because 'She hated my father and can't stand it that his children turned out so much better than hers.' It never occurred to him that Eleanor Roosevelt might dislike him on principled political grounds. No doubt, worship of the family is a virtuous secondary good. But democratic rule is based on a devotion to ideas not siblings. Though they portrayed themselves as the heirs of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt, the Kennedys proved to be more akin to the Medici.

D. Kunz, 'Camelot continued: What if John Kennedy had lived?', N. Ferguson (ed.), Virtual History (1997), 371

History is not merely what happened

History is not merely what happened: it is what happened in the context of what might have happened,

Hugh Trevor-Roper, quoted in J. Adamson, 'England without Cromwell: What if Charles I had avoided the Civil War?', N. Ferguson (ed.), Virtual History (1997), 95

It's not difficult to get a double O number if you're prepared to kill people

Bond frowned. 'It's not difficult to get a double O number if you're prepared to kill people,' he said. 'That's all the meaning it has. It's nothing to be particularly proud of. I've got the corpses of a Japanese cipher expert in New York and a Norwegian double agent in Stockholm to thank for being a Double O. Probably quite decent people. They just got caught up in the gale of the world like that Yugoslav Tito bumped off. It's a confusing business but if it's one's profession, one does what one's told. How do you like the grated egg on your caviar?'

I. Fleming, Casino Royale (1953), 68

I had not then acquired the technique that I flatter myself now enables me to deal competently with the works of modern artist

I had not then acquired the technique that I flatter myself now enables me to deal competently with the works of modern artist. If this were the place I could write a very neat little guide to enable the amateur of pictures to deal to the satisfaction of their painters with the most diverse manifestations of the creative instinct. There is the intense ‘By God!’ that acknowledges the power of the ruthless realist, the ‘It’s so awfully sincere’ that covers your embarrassment when you are shown the coloured photograph of an alderman’s widow, the low whistle that exhibits your admiration for the post-impressionist, the ‘Terribly amusing’ that expresses what you feel about the cubist, the ‘Oh!’ of one who is overcome, the ‘Ah!’ of him whose breath is taken away.

W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930), 131-132

I could never quite understand what this meant, but I knew the consequences were disastrous

My imagination played with terrible possibilities. Bigamy, murder, and forgery. Very few villains in books failed to hold the threat of exposure of one of those crimes over some hapless female. Perhaps Mrs Driffield had backed a bill; I could never quite understand what this meant, but I knew the consequences were disastrous.

W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930), 71

Roy has always sincerely believed what everyone else believed at the moment

Roy has always sincerely believed what everyone else believed at the moment. When he wrote novels about the aristocracy he sincerely believed that its members were dissipated and immoral, and yet had a certain nobility and an innate aptitude for governing the British Empire; when later he wrote of the middle classes he sincerely believed that they were the backbone of the country. His villains have always been villainous, his heroes heroic, and his maidens chaste

W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930), 16

As a coda, this portrait of Roy, which goes on for some time, is apparently easily identified as Hugh Walpole, who on reading it reported 'Half-dressed sitting on my bed, picked up idly Maugham's Cakes and Ale. Read on with increasing horror. Unmistakable portrait of myself. Never slept' (Ibid, xii)

The peacemakers of Vienna had attempted to reconstruct a European community in total disregard of the direction in which the Continent was moving

In fact, the peacemakers of Vienna had attempted to reconstruct a European community in total disregard of  the direction in which the Continent was moving. As a result, their new system excluded not only those, such as the liberals and revolutionaries, whom they saw as enemies: it was so thoroughly out of sympathy with the zeitgeist of the times that it alienated most educated people in Europe.

A. Zamoyski, Rites of Peace (2007), 559

Metternich was in his own opinion the light of the world, and he blinded himself with the rays

Metternich was in his own opinion the light of the world, and he blinded himself with the rays reflected in the mirror he held up continuously before his eyes. There was in him a chronic hypertrophy of the ego which developed relentlessly

Albert Sorel, quoted in A. Zamoyski, Rites of Peace (2007), 37

Forced to choose between one irascible, unpredictable tyrant and another

Laura, on the other hand, had taken to religion in a serious way during Mr. Erskine's tenure: she was still frightened of God, bur forced to choose between one irascible, unpredictable tyrant and another, she'd chosen the one that was bigger, and also farther away.

M. Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000), 202

God must have heard this sort of thing before

Then the school chaplain offered a prayer, lecturing God on the many unprecedented challenges that face today's young people. God must have heard this sort of thing before, he's probably as bored with it as the rest of us.

M. Atwood, The Blind Assassin (2000), 47

If you leave something on the floor when you go out, you know that it will still be there when you get back

As my mother said soon afterwards, ‘the really bloody thing about being poor is that if you leave something on the floor when you go out, you know that it will still be there when you get back’

D. Athill, Instead of a letter (1963), Kindle ed. loc. 450

Exports oil, girls, and future Nobel Prize laureates

Russia [has become] a country that exports oil, girls, and future Nobel Prize laureates

Andrei Klepach, quoted in T.Gustafsen, 'Putin's petroleum problem' Foreign Affairs 91.6 (2012), 91