[']I rather wish sometimes, Connie,' said Lady Julia meditatively, 'that you were a little less of the grande dame. It's wonderful to watch you in action, I admit - one seems to hear the bugles blowing for the Crusades and the tramp of the mailed feet of a hundred steel-clad ancestors - but there's no getting away from it that you do put people's backs up a bit.'
P.G Wodehouse, Heavy Weather (1933), 240-241
A digital form of the sadly lost fashion for copying out memorable passages from texts. I kept losing my actual book.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Monday, 28 May 2012
A public-house for each individual inhabitant
The ideal towards which the City Fathers of all English county towns strive is to provide a public-house for each individual inhabitant; and those of Market Blandings had not been supine in this matter. From where Beach stood, he could see no fewer than six such establishments.
P.G. Wodehouse, Heavy Weather (1933), 153
P.G. Wodehouse, Heavy Weather (1933), 153
Friday, 25 May 2012
The deceased was a Russian by birth, and therefore excitable
He did not attempt to disguise his own opinion, which was that the deceased had taken his own life. ... Various motives had been suggested, and the jury must bear in mind that the deceased was a Russian by birth, and therefore excitable, and liable to be overcome by feelings of melancholy and despair. He himself had read a great deal of Russian literature and could assure the jury that suicide was of frequent occurrence among the members of that unhappy nation. We who enjoyed the blessing of being British might find that difficult to understand, but the jury could take it from him that it was so.
D.L. Sayers, Have his carcase (1932), 277
D.L. Sayers, Have his carcase (1932), 277
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Satan is real
Preacher, tell them that Satan is real too. You can hear him
in songs that give praise to idols and sinful things of this world. You can see
him in the destruction of homes torn apart. I know that Satan is real. For once
I had a happy home; I was loved and respected by my family; I was looked upon
as a leader in my community. And then Satan came into my life, I grew selfish
and un-neighbourly. My friends turned against me. And finally my home was
broken apart. My children took their path into a world of sin.
Yes, preacher, it’s sweet to know that God is real. And to
know that in him all things are possible. And we know that heaven is a real place,
where joy shall never end. But sinner friends, if you’re here today, Satan is
real too, and hell is a real place. A place of everlasting punishment.
The Louvin Brothers, 'Satan is Real', Satan is Real (1959), 1.11 - 2.24
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Votaries initiated in the orgies of Dionysus ran about in goat-skins, mangling hounds in Bacchic frenzy
Accordingly during the whole period of his [Valens'] reign the altar fire was lit, libations and sacrifices were offered to idols, public feasts were celebrated in the forum, and votaries initiated in the orgies of Dionysus ran about in goat-skins, mangling hounds in Bacchic frenzy, and generally behaving in such a way as to show the iniquity of their master. When the right faithful Theodosius found all these evils he pulled them up by the roots, and consigned them to oblivion.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
If Keith Richards is running your intervention, you're in trouble
Keith sincerely feared Gram [Parsons] was doing an unhealthy amount of heroin. It hardly needs saying that if Keith Richards is running your intervention, you're in trouble
D.N. Meyer, Twenty thousand roads: the ballad of Gram Parsons (2007), 351
D.N. Meyer, Twenty thousand roads: the ballad of Gram Parsons (2007), 351
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
As objective as a panel of butchers telling us we should eat more meat
Everyone wants to live what they would see as the good life. Philosophers have had plenty to say about what this comprises, but their answers have tended to reveal an unsurprising bias. As people who value thought and contemplation, they have tended to come up with the idea that the good life is one of thought and contemplation. For some reason this answer has been granted a great deal of respect, even though it looks as objective as a panel of butchers telling us we should eat more meat.
J. Baggini, Welcome to Everytown (2007), 96-97
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