"But each man who worships you sees only what he wishes to see rather than any mystery you may actually embody."

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

"The education to be imparted through this religious Institution will have to be in accordance to my wishes and aspirations. I am undertaking this responsibility entirely for the pleasure of, who says …"

— Hakeem Noor-ud-Din

1834–1914

#knowledge

"By way of that wretched sentence "Auschwitz cannot be explained" is the wretched author explaining that we should be silent concerning Auschwitz, that Auschwitz doesn’t exist, or, rather, that it didn…"

— Imre Kertész

Literature1926–2004

#humor

"Modigliani's theory was a powerful searchlight on what was happening... It is the best explanation of what has actually been happening in the great swing of American life since the 1950's."

— Paul Samuelson

Economics1915–2009

#power