"Both God and man hold each other in equally beautiful contempt."

Michael Bishop Literature See all quotes by Michael Bishop →

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“He forgave these Tropemen, then felt contempt for himself for the presumption of extending forgiveness, then forgave again, then cursed his own vanity, forgave once more, condemned his presumption, and at last forgave even himself.”

“Extinction confers on the has-been the same mythological status that imagination confers on the never-was.”

“What motivates you, then? Please don’t tell me altruism. I am not quite so gullible as that.”

“I have thought a little about a telepathic community, and I have decided that it would most likely create either a thoroughly paranoiac or a thoroughly homogeneous unit of individuals. Complete suspicion and hostility in the one instance, total harmony and concord in the other. I do not like either alternative.”

“Necessary is often the mother of light fingers instead of invention.”

“Time, as it always does, passed.”

Resonant Thoughts

"There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford."

— John Bradford

Social Activism1510–1555

#beauty

"I chose to bomb a federal building because such an action served more purposes than other options. Foremost, the bombing was a retaliatory strike; a counter attack, for the cumulative raids and subseq…"

— Timothy McVeigh

1968–2001

#art

"It may be supposed that I led a miserable life but I did not I was very far indeed from being miserable at this time when my wife came home at night, we had always something to talk about, we were ple…"

— Francis Place

Politics1771–1854

#life

"The simple fact is that no people can enslave another for centuries without coming out with a notion of superiority, and when the color and other physical traits of those peoples were quite different …"

— Walter Rodney

Politics1942–1980

#Human Nature