Quotes from literature (or other sources)

[+ WilliamM]

Nancy Reagan

 

Even is a member of the Reagan Administration did nothing wrong he/she should resign [because I said so].

[sydneyboy]

Nancy Reagan

 

Even is a member of the Reagan Administration did nothing wrong he/she should resign [because I said so].

She would have consulted one of her astrologists first.

[Caliboy95]

“Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some, are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.”

- Petyr Baelish, Game of Thrones Season 3

[sydneyboy]

Good Pope John.

When Pope John XXIII was asked, “How many people work in the Vatican?” his response was, “About half.”

That is very good. I always admire people who can come up with witty one liners off the top of their head. My all time political hero, former Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam was a master of the art. Gough was a known agnostic and was asked by interviewer if he died and found himself in heaven face to face with God what would he say to Him? Gough’s response? “Nice to meet an equal.”

[+ E.T.Bass]

Hearing Alan Hollinghurst speak this evening during the Lambda Literary Awards was a treat. 

He quoted Carson McCullers: 

I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen.

 

[+ E.T.Bass]

Another famous quote at tonight's Lammy's:

The most important things in all our intimate lives cannot be discussed with strangers, except in books.  

Edmund White

 

[+ Charlie]

18 hours ago, E.T.Bass said:

Another famous quote at tonight's Lammy's:

The most important things in all our intimate lives cannot be discussed with strangers, except in books.  

Edmund White

 

Or on a site like this one.

[+ E.T.Bass]

3 hours ago, Charlie said:

Or on a site like this one.

So true!

[JayCeeKy]

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."   -- Robert Frost

[Luv2play]

On 5/1/2021 at 8:00 PM, sydneyboy said:

Gough Whitlam was once on visit to Hong Kong. Early one morning his staff couldn’t find him and assumed he had gone for a walk. Gough finally appeared and a staff member said leader did you go for a walk around the harbour. To which Gough replied “comrade, I didn’t walk around it , I walked across it.” Pure unadulterated Gough.

Didn’t Australia lose a prime minister swimming in the ocean? Obviously not Gough.

[sydneyboy]

1 hour ago, Luv2play said:

Didn’t Australia lose a prime minister swimming in the ocean? Obviously not Gough.

That was Harold Holt. When President Johnson visited Australia Holt famously said that Australia would “go all the way with LBJ.”In respect to the Vietnam War. Stand up comics with dirty minds had a field day with that quote. He drowned trying to impress a new girlfriend with his athletic prowess on Portsea Beach. With all respect to dead a useless Prime Minister.

[+ WilliamM]

21 minutes ago, sydneyboy said:

That was Harold Holt. When President Johnson visited Australia Holt famously said that Australia would “go all the way with LBJ.”In respect to the Vietnam War. Stand up comics with dirty minds had a field day with that quote. He drowned trying to impress a new girlfriend with his athletic prowess on Portsea Beach. With all respect to dead a useless Prime Minister.

The Australian Troups and the South Korean Troups were excellent in Vietnam. No wonder President Johnson wanted them

[sydneyboy]

On 6/5/2021 at 11:52 AM, WilliamM said:

The Australian Troups and the South Korean Troups were excellent in Vietnam. No wonder President Johnson wanted them

I believe they were. Australia sent its regular army supplemented by 20 year old “national servicemen “ in other words conscripts. The war was eagerly supported by the Australian people and the appalling slogan “we’re fighting them up there instead of down here” accepted. Attitudes to war changed, not through careful reasoning, but because of the arrival home of an ever increasing number of body bags containing the 20 year old conscripts. One of the most disgraceful episodes in the second half of the 20th century.

[+ WilliamM]

8 hours ago, sydneyboy said:

I believe they were. Australia sent its regular army supplemented by 20 year old “national servicemen “ in other words conscripts. The war was eagerly supported by the Australian people and the appalling slogan “we’re fighting them up there instead of down here” accepted. Attitudes to war changed, not through careful reasoning, but because of the arrival home of an ever increasing number of body bags containing the 20 year old conscripts. One of the most disgraceful episodes in the second half of the 20th century.

I know they were because I spent a year in South Vietnam in the late 1960s - not willingly.

[+ MysticMenace]

[sydneyboy]

How does a bird get on in life if it doesn’t have a beak?

It succeeds.

Edited March 4, 2022 by sydneyboy

[+ purplekow]

I just read an article which discussed only the translation of first line of Camus'. The Stranger.  

“Aujourd’hui, Maman est morte”.    Originally translated as Mother died today, the article traces the various incarnations of that one short sentence's translation.  The articles author supported the new translation which used Maman died today.  

He states that the use of Maman which has an endearing quality, establishes for the reader a different relationship between the character and his mother.  Mother, a mostly unemotional noun gives a colder and more distanced picture of the relationship between the character and his parent.   In reading further about this, others object to the translation moving Today from the head of the sentence.  The character is a very in the present moment only type of person and by moving Today to the end of the sentence, his sense of immediacy is subjugated to his relationship with his mother whether she be Maman or Mother.  

I wonder if Camus spent as much time considering word order or  the texture of the word "Maman" as opposed to "mere".  

There are dozens of articles related to just his one sentence, which took less than I second to read.  I must admit, the sentence as translated as "Mother died today" when I read it, ; and reread it several times.  It did stay with me throughout the book and to this day.

It was a cold slap in the face to open a book with such an emotional sentence. 

 You knew from the opening line that it was not going to be a feel good type of read.  

[mike carey]

2 hours ago, purplekow said:

“Aujourd’hui, Maman est morte”.    Originally translated as Mother died today, the article traces the various incarnations of that one short sentence's translation.  The articles author supported the new translation which used Maman died today.

I've always thought that referring to one's parents as 'mother' or 'father' in English reflects the sort of reserve that is common in the English upper classes (real or self-imagined), and perhaps elsewhere, or a lack of affection. 'Mother' does not mean the same thing in English as 'my mother'. I don't think French has a usage of 'mère' equivalent to this impersonal use of 'mother' in English. A translation that didn't adopt the tone that 'mother' does might have used 'mum' (or mom). I'm not convinced that borrowing the French word 'maman' is the right approach though. 'Maman' doesn't bring its French emotional weight with it when used in an English sentence.

[+ purplekow]

The article did make a case that the closest term in English was probably Mom, though it seems to me Mom is a more casual and endearing than Maman.  The article also makes the point the there is no confusion in bringing that word from the French to the English sentence.  If he referred to his mother as Maman in life, that would make the case stronger that he should refer to her in the same manner in death.  

I have friends who do not have English as a primary language refer to their mother as Mami as opposed to Mommy or Momma or Ma or Mom.  The term Mami sounds a bit European to these American ears and for me it reflects back culturally, suggesting a more recent immigration to the US.  

[+ Charlie]

My spouse and his brothers-- mother's family in this country since the 18th century-- always referred to their mother as "Mum." They also referred to their father as "Daddy," which struck me as strange for middle-aged straight men.

[samhexum]