Frederic Brownlee > Frederic's Quotes

“It's not possible to search for God using the methods of a detective... There is no way. You can only wait till God's axe severs your roots: then you will understand that you are here only through a miracle, and you will remain fixed forever in wonderment and equilibrium.”
― Karel Čapek, Cross Roads

“We´re two, two for everything, for love, life, for a fight and pain, for hours of happiness. Two for wins and losses, for life and for death - TWO!”
― Karel Čapek

“Only years of practice will teach you the mysteries and bold certainty of a real gardener, who treads at random, yet tramples on nothing.”
― Karel Čapek

“Just imagine the silence in the world, if people talked only what they knew”
― Karel Čapek

“I find that a real gardener is not a man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who cultivates the soil. He is a creature who digs himself into the earth and leaves the sight of what is on it to us gaping good-for-nothings. He lives buried in the ground. He builds his monument in a heap of compost. If he came into the Garden of Eden, he would sniff excitedly and say: "Good Lord, what humus!”
― Karel Čapek, Gardener's Year

“Everyone has the best of feelings towards mankind in general, but not towards the individual man. We'll kill men, but we want to save mankind. And that isn't right, your Reverence. The world will be an evil place as long as people don't believe in other people.”
― Karel Čapek, The Absolute at Large

“Well people are just one species too, aren't they. And it's never stopped them fighting with each other; all the same species and think of all the excuses for war they've used! It hasn't had to be about space to live in, it's been about power, prestige, influence, fame, resources and I don't know what else!”
― Karel Čapek

“Besides, people never regard anything that serves and benefits them as mysterious; only the things which damage or threaten them are mysterious.”
― Karel Čapek, War with the Newts

“Nobody can hate man more than man.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“People with ideas should not be allowed to have an influence on affairs of the world.”
― Karel Čapek

“It's astonishing what a number of churches and idiots there are in the world.”
― Karel Čapek, R.U.R.

“„Představte si to ticho, kdyby lidé říkali jen to, co vědí.”
― Karel Čapek

“It is a foible of our human nature that when we have an extremely unpleasant experience, it gives us a peculiar satisfaction if it is “the biggest” of its disagreeable kind that has happened since the world began. During a heat wave, for instance, we are very pleased if the papers announce that it is “the highest temperature reached since the year 1881,” and we feel a little resentment towards the year 1881 for having gone us one better. Or if our ears are frozen till all the skin peels off, it fills us with a certain happiness to learn that “it was the hardest frost recorded since 1786.” It is just the same with wars. The war in progress is either the most righteous or the bloodiest, or the most successful, or the longest, since such and such a time; any superlative whatever always affords us the proud satisfaction of having been through something extraordinary and record-breaking.”
― Karel Čapek, The Absolute at Large

“Cars slowed to a crawl as drivers rubber-necked to watch her ride by. She was a glamorous hazard to traffic safety.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“To describe Mayumi’s demeanor towards Kiwako as frosty would be like describing an ice age as minor climate change.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“She had that look again—taut jaw, pursed lips and angry eyes—the look her face assumed when her borderline personality had crossed the border.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“All of these things, however, were but like methadone to a heroin addict. They only masked the withdrawal pains without satisfying the addiction. So even as they tried truly to break up many times, they always found their way back to each other.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“I’m sorry not to have been more communicative. Yes, it was work in Russia.” Just not ‘legal’ work, he thought with chagrin.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“He was genuinely concerned. He wanted her happy and healthy. The idea of divorcing her when she was ill made him feel even more guilty and she knew it. And he knew she knew.”
― L. M. Weeks

“It’s far more reliable than solar or wind power, which depend on mother nature, who is notoriously fickle; sometimes the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“And when I first did judo with them, they were much stronger and always dragged me off the mats and threw me down on the surrounding concrete floor or on the wooden veranda outside. I got so scared that I would actually shake before each practice. But I just kept going back until I became so mean no one wanted to practice with me.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“That must be Bogrov,” Alexei said as he put on a black ski mask. Laughing, he tossed one to Torn. “Don’t worry, it’s clean. Let me do the talking. This is how we take depositions in the Wild Wild East!”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“They usually didn’t know I was half-Japanese. But you know how it is. No matter where you go, you don’t quite fit in. But it is fun to be able to slip in and out of two such completely different cultures seamlessly like a shapeshifter.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“Kumakura’s use of the word sensei, reserved for professionals, including doctors and lawyers, but which Japanese doctors tried to reserve to themselves, was tacit acknowledgment that Kumakura knew the hierarchy had changed.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“We’re at the crematorium having lunch,”—which struck Torn as a darkly funny thing to say—“but I’m glad you called.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“Too late. Torn’s rear tire hit the perennial wet spot from a leak in the tunnel ceiling. Rookie mistake. When the back wheel hydroplaned on the wet surface, he felt the sickening feelings of sliding and weightlessness as he started to separate from the bike.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“Torn was betwixt and between, but eventually realized the arrangement suited him quite well. He had the security of his long-term relationship with Yukie and the romance with Mayumi. Unfortunately, it took two women for him to get what he wanted from one.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“The young officer, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, stopped for a moment and then said, a bit shakily, “You’re under arrest.”
― L. M. Weeks, Bottled Lightning

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”
― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

“Great minds are always feared by lesser minds.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol