1
2
3
5
8
12
20
33
52
83
133
213
340
543
867
1384
2208
3346
3522
3842
3843
3844
3845
3846
5443
5619
6757
7581
8098
8422
8625
8752
8832
8882
8913
8932
8945
8953
8957
8960
8962
8963
8964
8965
▲
▼
| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| eb00ee1 | Time. In another time. Either before or after. They were not stars, but fires. They were the souls of birds. They were entries into the vast fire. They were the eyes of the dead. And in the darkness they were imprisoned by them. | Peter Ackroyd | ||
| 4da5a30 | lonely and isolated people who feel their solitude more intensely within the busy life of the streets. They are what George Gissing called the anchorites of daily life, who return unhappy to their solitary rooms. | Peter Ackroyd | ||
| 3f3a113 | And now we come to the Heart of our Designe: the art of Shaddowes you must know well, Walter, and you must be instructed how to Cast them with due Care. It is only the Darknesse that can give trew Forme to our Work and trew Perspective to our Fabrick, for there is no Light without Darknesse and no Substance without Shaddowe (and I turn this Thought over in my Mind: what Life is there which is not a Portmanteau of Shaddowes and Chimeras?). I.. | darkness light night occult shadow substance | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 6e3331a | There were some places, and streets, where he did not venture since he had learnt that others had claims there greater than his own - not the gangs of meths drinkers who lived in no place and no time, nor the growing number of the young who moved on restlessly across the face of the city, but vagrants like himself who, despite the name which the world has given them, had ceased to wander and now associated themselves with one territory or '.. | greenwich homeless homeless-people homelessness limehouse london spitalfields vagrant wapping whitechapel | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 328a009 | There was no grandeur here, no sublimity, only weariness and gloom. | Peter Ackroyd | ||
| 33a061e | Then as we passed down this Passage we were knocked against certain Women of the Town, who gave us Eye-language, since there were many Corners and Closets in Bedlam where they would stop and wait for Custom: indeed it was known as a sure Market for Lechers and Loiterers, for tho' they came in Single they went out by Pairs. This is a Showing-room for Whores, I said. And what better place for Lust, Sir Chris. replied, than among those whose W.. | bedlam lust prostitution | Peter Ackroyd | |
| f8aff63 | The house of the Plantagenets, from Henry II to Richard III himself, was brimming with blood. In their lust for power the members of the family turned upon one another. King John murdered, or caused to be murdered, his nephew Arthur; Richard II despatched his uncle, Thomas of Gloucester; Richard II was in turn killed on the orders of his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke; Henry VI was killed in the Tower on the orders of his cousin, Edward IV; Edwa.. | Peter Ackroyd | ||
| 3bb271a | Yet the stomach for war breeds an appetite for money. | Peter Ackroyd | ||
| 8eb2799 | but there were four things I taught Walter to consider: 1) That it was Cain who built the first City, 2) That there is a true Science in the World called Scientia Umbrarum which, as to the publick teaching of it, has been suppressed but which the proper Artificer must comprehend, 3) That Architecture aims at Eternity and must contain the Eternal Powers: not only our Altars and Sacrifices, but the Forms of our Temples, must be mysticall, 4) .. | devil occult satan | Peter Ackroyd | |
| ba3b5eb | Elaine turned to her father in her distress. 'Father will you give me permission to ride after Sir Lancelot? I must reach him. Otherwise I will go out of my mind with grief.' 'Go, good daughter. Rescue him, if you can.' So she made herself ready for the journey, weeping all the time. Gawain himself rode back to the court of the king in London" -The Fair Maid of Astolat" | lancelot sir-gawain sir-lancelot the-death-of-king-arthur the-fair-maid-of-astolat | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 2440760 | As the Houses tumbled upon the Streets with a great roaring Noise, they cryed out We are undone! We are great Sinners! and the like: and yet as soon as the Danger was passed, they came back with their: Hey ho the Devil is Dead! Eat, drink, and go merry to Bed! Thus the Sick confesse to their Contagion only when they are like to Die of it, even tho' they carry their Death with them every where. | sickness | Peter Ackroyd | |
| c4d2ecc | for who can speak of the Mazes of the Serpent to those who are not lost in them? | occultism serpent | Peter Ackroyd | |
| a5172c8 | You say that it is time to shake off the Mist, but Mankind walks in a Mist; that Reason which you cry up as the Glory of this Age is a Proteus and Cameleon that changes its Shape almost in every Man: there is no Folly that may not have a thousand Reasons produc'd to advance it into the Class of Wisdom. Reason itself is a Mist. | reason science | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 1527746 | The latter part of our Journey from the entrance of Wiltshire into Salisbury was very rough and abounded with Jolts, the Holes we were obliged to go through being very many and some of them Deep; and so it was with much Relief that we left the Coach at Salisbury and hired two Horses for the road across the Avon to the Plain and Stone-henge. When we came to the edge of this sacred Place, we tethered our Horses to the Posts provided and then,.. | occult-architecture stonehenge | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 060d5cf | A survivor, in another sense, was left alive. The king's nephew, Stephen, count of Blois, was suffering from a severe bout of diarrhoea and declined to join the revelry aboard the White Ship. Since he would be crowned as king of England fifteen years later, it can plausibly be maintained that an attack of diarrhoea determined the fate of the nation. Statesmen may plot and plan. Learned men may calculate and conclude. Diplomats may debate an.. | Peter Ackroyd | ||
| 7f880aa | The value is always in the eye of the beholder. What is worthless to one person may be very important to someone else. | important value worthless | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 2109bbb | Now his work-mates pitied him, although they tried not to show it, and it was generally arranged that he was given jobs which allowed him to work alone. The smell of ink, and the steady rhythm of the press, then induced in him a kind of peace - it was the peace he felt when he arrived early, at a time when he might be the only one to see the morning light as it filtered through the works or to hear the sound of his footsteps echoing through.. | sex | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 64d53d1 | And across these mean Dwellings of Black Step Lane, where as a Boy I dwell'd for a while, the Shaddowe of my last Church will fall: what the Mobb has torn down I will build again in Splendour. And thus will I compleet the Figure: Spittle-Fields, Wapping and Lime-house have made the Triangle; Bloomsbury and St Mary Woolnoth have next created the major Pentacle-starre; and, with Greenwich, all these will form the Sextuple abode of Baal-Berith.. | occult-architecture occult-philosophy occultism | Peter Ackroyd | |
| 39bbd29 | New Rule: Stop calling bagpipes a musical instrument. They're actually a Scottish Breathalyzer test. You blow into one end, and if the sound that comes out the other end doesn't make you want to kill yourself--you're not drunk enough. | humor music | Bill Maher | |
| 3984222 | What was ridiculous about Christianity, from the perspective of a cultivated pagan, was not only its language--the crude style of the Gospels' Greek resting on the barbarous otherness of Hebrew and Aramaic--but also its exaltation of divine humiliation and pain conjoined with an arrogant triumphalism. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| 238a42c | Something happened in the Renaissance, something that surged up against the constraints that centuries had constructed around curiosity, desire, individuality, sustained attention to the material world, the claims of the body. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| 1f5349d | Acediosus, sometimes translated as "apathetic," refers to an illness, specific to monastic communities, which had already been brilliantly diagnosed in the late fourth century by the Desert Father John Cassian. The monk in the grip of acedia would find it difficult or impossible to read. Looking away from his book, he might try to distract himself with gossip but would more likely glance in disgust at his surroundings and at his fellow monk.. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| bc65898 | Everyone understood that Latin learning was inseparable from whipping. One educational theorist of the time speculated that the buttocks were created in order to facilitate the learning of Latin. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| 8d472bb | For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner," one of these curses runs, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his .. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| 29e5ae6 | On occasion monasteries tried to secure their possession by freighting their precious manuscripts with curses. "For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner," one of these curses runs, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dis.. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| 4f671d0 | books give delight to the very marrow of one's bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy. Copying, | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| ab1f7cc | The highest goal of human life is the enhancement of pleasure and the reduction of pain. Life should be organized to serve the pursuit of happiness. There is no ethical purpose higher than facilitating this pursuit for oneself and one's fellow creatures. All the other claims--the service of the state, the glorification of the gods or the ruler, the arduous pursuit of virtue through self-sacrifice--are secondary, misguided, or fraudulent. Th.. | Stephen Greenblatt | ||
| f99a191 | And, corny as it may sound, I do cherish the bond between me and the audience, the minority that follows my stuff and always makes me glad it's us against the world. | cute humor real-time-with-bill-maher | Bill Maher | |
| 50f8d15 | Pain is not what you see and not what you feel. Pain is what you can only hear, alone in the dark. | Lisa Gardner | ||
| de85c8a | humanity is a messy business, where knowing what is right doesn't necessarily preclude you from doing what is wrong. | Lisa Gardner | ||
| 958e484 | It's so much easier to fall in love, and so much more complicated to fall out of it. | Lisa Gardner | ||
| 5b6bc4f | Winners never quit, quitters never win | Lisa Gardner | ||
| 6f9ff58 | His job already had him lying and manipulating me. My past had me lying and manipulating him. Both of us thought we were right. | Lisa Gardner | ||
| a1a38ae | start fresh." "And Maryanne?" "She's devastated about what James put us through. I think she'd like a fresh start, too, and more time with Nathan. On the other hand . . . you know, she really loves James. Even after everything, I don't think she can bring herself to leave him." James was in a coma. Between the blood loss and damage to his internal organs, his system had shut down. Doctors didn't think he'd ever regain consciousness. Mostly,.. | Lisa Gardner | ||
| 9234cd8 | And part of brilliance isn't just solving a problem; it's seeing a problem no one else realizes is a problem yet. | Lisa Gardner | ||
| a10d419 | New Rule: Bring back a little pubic hair. Not a lot, I'm not talking about reviving that 1973 look that said "I'm liberated" and "I'm smuggling a hedgehog."I just want a friendly, fuzzy calling card that's a middle ground between toddler smooth and "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" It's supposed to have hair on it. It's a pussy, not Dr. Evil's cat. Call me old school, but there's a name for a guy who needs it hair-free: He's called a pedophile.. | Bill Maher | ||
| 2d5aa5a | Drinkin' two-fisted are ya?" "It's all right, love--I'm a writer." | David Mack | ||
| 38b72b9 | Don't tell me," Burnham cut in. "It's ." Spock said nothing in response, but he could not help but appear mildly put out." | David Mack | ||
| 5079d49 | Sarek frowned. "Insubordination?" "Eccentricity," Spock replied. "Captain Kirk allows a great deal of leeway as long as his crewmembers do their jobs well. Mr. Chevron simply takes advantage of it." "That good at his job, is he?" asked Sarek. "Indeed. Extremely good." -- | Jean Lorrah | ||
| 0a9dd53 | The dog appeals to cheap and facile emotions; the cat to the deepest founts of imagination and cosmic perception in the human mind. | S.T. Joshi | ||
| 867e89b | Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other. Custom had dinned into his ears | H.P. Lovecraft | ||
| 4eb35ff | It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A | H.P. Lovecraft | ||
| 7262258 | life, matter, and vitality, as the earth knows such things, are not necessarily constant; and that time and space do not exist as our waking selves comprehend them. Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon. | H.P. Lovecraft | ||
| fe2cf48 | It is absurd to say that mathematicians have not discovered the fourth dimension. | H.P. Lovecraft |