Geraint automatically sympathised with anyone who was not shouting. He admired Basil's self-restraint. He loved the sheen on his waistcoat and the sparkle of his studs. There was a mystery in correct dress. There was a mystery in money. He was sick of homespun and home-made. He had secreted a glass of champagne behind the black lacquer puppet-boxes, and thought it was delicious and complex, cold bubbles bursting on his tongue, the mist on the glass, the transparent gold liquid. Some people had this every day. Some people did not sleep under a leaky roof in an old mansion with a cold wind blowing through it, for the sake of mounds of clay and visions of glazed vessels. Money was freedom. Money was aesthetic. Money was Arab stallions, not rough cobs. Money was not being shouted at. (Even though Humphry was shouting at Basil.) Money was freedom. Money was life. Something like that, Geraint thought.
A.S. Byatt, The Children's book (2010), 59
A digital form of the sadly lost fashion for copying out memorable passages from texts. I kept losing my actual book.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Monday, 20 December 2010
In the city that made suicide an art
In the city [Vienna] that made suicide an art, [Otto] Weininger's was a masterpiece, and it made a posthumous bestseller of his doctoral thesis, a bizarre tract entitled Sex and Character
A. Ross, The rest is noise (2008), 41
A. Ross, The rest is noise (2008), 41
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Nature is what makes one human or not
Nature is what makes one human or not. Christ has a completely human nature. Therefore Christ is completely human. One indication of the misunderstanding is reference to person, hypostasis, as something we have: 'Did Christ have a human hypostasis? We do. Then, if he did not, how can we claim he is fully human?' But hypostasis is not something someone has. The hypostasis is the someone who has whatever is had. If the divine hypostasis, the Word, has all the qualities that constitute someone as human - a human nature - then the Word, a divine hypostasis, is a human being, and fully so.
D.Helminiak, The same Jesus: a contemporary christology (1986), 292
Quoted in G. O'Collins, Christology (2009), 256
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Pour avoir des enfants, il faut être mariée
– Mais, Gertrude, pour avoir des enfants, il faut être mariée.
– Ne me dites pas cela, pasteur. Je sais que cela n’est pas vrai.
– Je t’ai dit ce qu’il était décent de te dire, protestai-je. Mais en effet les lois de la nature permettent ce qu’interdisent les lois des hommes et de Dieu.
A. Gide, la symphonie pastorale (1925), 88
– Ne me dites pas cela, pasteur. Je sais que cela n’est pas vrai.
– Je t’ai dit ce qu’il était décent de te dire, protestai-je. Mais en effet les lois de la nature permettent ce qu’interdisent les lois des hommes et de Dieu.
A. Gide, la symphonie pastorale (1925), 88
Friday, 26 November 2010
Il a rempli son temps de ses turbulances
On Robert of Artois:
Il a rempli son temps de ses turbulances. Quand il mourut, on eût dit que le siècle tombait dans le silence
M. Druon, Quand un roi perd la France (1977), collected edition, 1436
Il a rempli son temps de ses turbulances. Quand il mourut, on eût dit que le siècle tombait dans le silence
M. Druon, Quand un roi perd la France (1977), collected edition, 1436
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Au début du XIVe siècle, la France est la plus puissant
Au début du XIVe siècle, la France est la plus puissant, le plus peuplé, le plus actif, le plus riche des royaumes chrétiens, celui dont les interventions sont redoutées, les arbitrages repectés, la protection recherchée. Et l’on peut penser que s’ouvre pour l’Europe un siècle français.
M. Druon, Quand un roi perd la France (1977), collected edition, 1232
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Si la Bourgogne n’avait produit que ses vins
Ah! si la Bourgogne n’avait produit que ses vins, au lieu d’avoir aussi les ducs!
M. Druon, Le Lis et le Lion (1960), collected edition, 1232
M. Druon, Le Lis et le Lion (1960), collected edition, 1232
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