“The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade other people how good they are.”
G.K. Chesterton in the introduction to The Defendant
“It’s not what you are; it’s what you don’t become that hurts."
Oscar Levant, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe & Mail August 30, 2001
“I can honestly say my respect for you has never been higher.”
Dogbert (to Dilbert, scornfully) in Dilbert in Ottawa Sun July 19, 1996
“The general rule which we have now pretty well established among them is that in all experiences which can make them happier or better only the physical facts are ‘Real’ while the spiritual elements are ‘subjective’; in all experiences which can discourage or corrupt them the spiritual elements are the main reality and to ignore them is to be an escapist.”
C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters.
“He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.”
Goethe, quoted on the flyleaf of Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy.
“One sword keeps another in the sheath.”
George Herbert on Brainy Quote (www.brainyquote.com/quotes/george_herbert_152910)
“‘Optimism is cowardice.’”
Oswald Spengler, quoted by Modris Eksteins in Globe & Mail June 3, 2000
“The dark night of the soul was not discovered by Freud; it was at the heart of the experience of faith.”
Charles J. Sykes, A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character