"Words had become to him a means of obscuring facts — not of revealing them. He was an adept in the art of the useful phrase — that is to say the phrase that falls soothingly on the ear and is quite empty of meaning."

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“The rottenness comes from within.”

“It would be difficult Bland thought, to forget Hercule Poirot, and this not entirely for complimentary reasons.”

“Ah, my friend, one may live in a big house and yet have no comfort.”

“We had three servants, which was a minimum then.”

“‘I have often noticed that being a devoted wife saps the intellect,’ murmured Tommy.”

“Is it coding — or code breaking? Is it like Deborah’s job? Do be careful, Tommy, people go queer doing that and can’t sleep and walk about all night groaning and repeating 978345286 or something like that and finally have nervous breakdowns and go into homes.”

Resonant Thoughts

"A Philosopher's school is a Surgery: pain, not pleasure, you should have felt therein. For on entering none of you is whole. One has a shoulder out of joint, another an abscess: a third suffers from a…"

— Epictetus

Philosophy50–138

#art

"You can decide what you want to eat for dinner, you can decide to go away for the weekend, and you can decide what clothes you’re going to wear in the morning, but when it comes to artistic things, th…"

— Meat Loaf

Art1947–2022

#art

"Abstract Expressionism – especially Pollock, not the more academic painters like De Kooning – made the threshold between illusion and the stuff of painting lower, the distance between them closer. Pol…"

— Kenneth Noland

Art1924–2010

#art

"He could have a thousand faults, but I do not blame anyone in particular and I despise brutality with which the Nazis acted against Israelites; but the fault is not only of Hitler, but a group of high…"

— Augusto Pinochet

Politics1925–2006

#art