Ferris Quotes

C: What do you get when a giant sneezes?
Out of the way. - Marigold ~ Jean Ferris

The biggest, most crucial, most significant thing I want you to know is that my life's task is to follow Jesus. ~ Jaquelle Crowe Ferris

I don't write directly on to the computer because I don't think well facing forward with fingers on a keyboard. I think better looking down holding a pen. And the concentration quotient of pen and paper is higher than when I'm moving words around on screen. ~ Joshua Ferris

There was something special about a carnival at night. Bright lights pierced the darkness; the tinkling music of the merry-go-round provided the perfect background for the shrill calls of the carnival workers; the giggles of the people aiming fake rifles at fake ducks were full of contagious fun; the distant shrieks coming from the roller coaster and the top of the Ferris wheel filled the air; and a warm breeze carried the tantalizing aromas of cotton candy and hot buttered popcorn. ~ Marilyn Kaye

I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I'm going to take a stand. I'm going to defend it. ~ John Hughes

Some people would never forget certain people, a few people would remember everyone, and most of us would mostly be forgotten. ~ Joshua Ferris

The Moon Pie is a bedrock of the country store and rural tradition. It is more than a snack. It is a cultural artifact. ~ William R. Ferris

Baseball is the slow creation of something beautiful. It is the almost boringly paced accumulation of what seems slight or incidental into an opera of bracing suspense. The game will threaten never to end, until suddenly it forces you to marvel at how it came to be where it is and to wonder at how far it might go. It's the drowsy metamorphosis of the dull into the indescribable. ~ Joshua Ferris

We suffered failures of imagination just like everyone else, our daring was wanting, and our daily contentment too nearly adequate for us to give it up. ~ Joshua Ferris

No end of blessings from heaven and earth. As we climb up out of the Moab valley and reach the high tableland stretching northward, traces of snow flying across the road, the sun emerges clear of the overcast, burning free on the very edge of the horizon. For a few minutes the whole region from the canyon of the Colorado to the Book Cliffs - crag, mesa, turret, dome, canyon wall, plain, swale and dune - glows with a vivid amber light against the darkness on the east. At the same time I see a mountain peak rising clear of the clouds, old Tukuhnikivats fierce as the Matterhorn, snowy as Everest, invincible. "Ferris, stop this car. Let's go back." But he only steps harder on the gas. "No," he says, "you've got a train to catch." He sees me craning my neck to stare backward. "Don't worry," he adds, "it'll all still be here next spring." The ~ Edward Abbey

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels The dizzy dancing way you feel As every fairy tale comes real I've looked at love that way. ~ Joni Mitchell

Hope is a Ferris wheel-
It takes Low and High;
And when you reach the Top,
It's like you can touch The Sky!
And when it takes you Down-
Hope becomes A Thing
That, When you're getting Off,
You take With you to Bring. ~ Robin Herrera

All broken hearts are circumstantial. Every lovelorn jerk is the victim of bad timing, good intentions, and someone else's poor decision making. ~ Joshua Ferris

Ed said, "I can tell you, when we heard that baby was going to be all right, there wasn't a dry seat in the castle."
"I'm so happy to hear that," Marigold sold. "I think. ~ Jean Ferris

His recent dungeon experience had persuaded him that opportunites for good things should be grabbed and not postponed. You never knew when you wouldn't be around anymore. ~ Jean Ferris

Where you find obesity, you'll find poverty. It's a reflection of the South's struggle to raise its standard of living. ~ William R. Ferris

Whatever else he might be, Jimmy Ferris was special and complicated, beautiful and beastly, all rolled into one. ~ Kylie Scott

Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. ~ Ayn Rand

Mrs. Convoy leaned into the desk, flattening her knuckles on it like a linebacker bracing against the hard earth, and with eyeballs floating above her bifocals asked why I felt it necessary to sit in my own waiting room during peak hours. I told her, she said, "And how is the 'complete experience'?" I told her, she said, "And do you think the 'complete experience' might be enhanced by a dentist who tends to his patients in a timely manner?" I told her, she said, "We will not get a reputation for being a drill-and-bill shop just because you tend to patients in a timely manner. Jesus Mary and Joseph," she said. "Sometimes I think we all work for Toots the Clown. ~ Joshua Ferris

Life is like a Ferris wheel, going 'round and 'round in one direction. Some of us are lucky enough to remember each trip around." From: Yesterday - A Novel of Reincarnation ~ Samyann

The older I get, the less I know. By that I mean the less I am sure of. I view people with strong opinions on the big stuff with distrust. I don't think we should have certain certainties on faith and politics; I think we should be open-minded. ~ Pam Ferris

The funny thing about work itself, it was so bearable. The dreariest task was perfectly bearable. It presented challenges to overcome, the distraction provided by a sense of urgency, and the things made work utterly, even harmoniously bearable. ~ Joshua Ferris

Next day, as the Ferris wheel was being taken apart and the race horses were being loaded into vans and the entertainers were packing up their belongings and driving away in their trailers, Charlotte died. The Fair Grounds were soon deserted. The sheds and buildings were empty and forlorn. The infield was littered with bottles and trash. Nobody, of the hundreds of people that had visited the Fair, knew that a grey spider had played the most important part of all. No one was with her when she died. ~ E.B. White

I would eventually realize that I didn't want to be with Ferris any more than he wanted to be with me--we were way too much alike. Remember that in the movie, Ferris doesn't date a female Ferris. He dates Solane--the one on the ground looking up at him adoringly as he goes by on the float, wondering, How does he do it? I wasn't that girl. I wanted to be up on the float. ~ Kristin Newman

Chicago at the time owned a lake the size of a sea, several advertising firms, at least six tribes of marauding criminals, healthy herds of sailors grazing free, the first Ferris wheel in all the world, and more wind than it could care for. ~ Catherynne M Valente

I wished it had turned out differently. I wished I had been better all around. I wished above all that when I believed something, like that I was finally over her, that I knew myself even the slightest bit. ~ Joshua Ferris

We're going to have to play pretend, Sam says.
He has no idea how good I am at playing pretend. But I guess that's a different kind of pretend, a pretend that can't be obvious. Here we revel in the pretend, laugh at it, become children within it. We walk rings around the carousel horses, trying to find our perfect steeds. We dangle at the bottom of the Ferris wheel and pretend that it is taking us up, up, up. I allow myself to relax. I allow myself to enjoy it. I even get lost in it. ~ David Levithan

I don't get self-conscious. I'm not vain in that way. ~ Pam Ferris

Rats. Rats, mice, and rodents. ~ Jean Ferris

It wasn't as absurd a notion as it might sound. Some days, time passed way too slowly here, other days far too quickly, so that what happened in the morning could seem like eons ago while what took place six months earlier was as fresh in our minds as if an hour had yet to pass. It was only natural that on occasion we confused the two. ~ Joshua Ferris

if you really wanna save yourself, you gotta be willing to throw someone else a line, grab onto someone else and save them, help them, hold them. You gotta be willing to see another person's suffering and pain and look them in the eye and say, I know how you feel. I. Know. How. You. Feel. ~ Amy Ferris

She said, "As long as we're with each other
"
"We know we're in exactly the right place," he finished. ~ Jean Ferris

A fun thing to do to let off steam after layoffs began was to go into someone's office and send an email from their computer addressed to the entire agency. It might say something simple like "My name is Shaw-NEE! You are captured, Ha! I poopie I poopie I poopie." People came in in the morning and their reaction was so varied.
Jim Jackers read it and immediately sent out an email that we read, "Obviously someone come into my office last night and compossed an email in my name and sent it out to everyone. I apologise for any inconvenience or offence, although it wasn't my fault, and I would appreciate from whoever did this a public apology. I have read that email five times now and I still don't understand it. ~ Joshua Ferris

There is a mythic view of the South that's symbolized by the film "Gone With The Wind" that looks back fondly at slavery as a time when everything was happily in place - in place for whites. ~ William R. Ferris

We don't see things in themselves, but only aspects of things. ~ Timothy Ferris

If you hate the Yankees so much," Connie asked me, "why did you move to New York?" "To find out what kind of city could make a monster like a Yankees fan. ~ Joshua Ferris

Anne had many friends and male admirers by the time she was twelve. ~ Ferris Smithers

Why shouldn't it be that way for the rest of us? Why not just go with it? Just walk the dog and send the tweets and eat the scones and play with the hamsters and ride the bicycles and watch the sunsets and stream the movies and never worry about any of it? I didn't know it could be that easy. I didn't know that until just now. That sounds good to me. ~ Joshua Ferris

Riders on the Ferris Wheel got the clearest, most horrific view of what happened next. ~ Erik Larson

When Mr. Ferris found out about the Broadway play, Clarence didn't stop rocking during the whole lab. ~ Gary D. Schmidt

Do you think we were always destined to know each other?' I say.

In my head I'm cresting the Ferris wheel with Jack beside me, our heads tipped back to look at the stars. Perhaps it's the wine, but my stomach flips slowly as he laughs quietly against my ear.

'I don't know if I believe in all that destiny stuff, Lu, but I'll always be glad you're in my life.'

He looks down into my eyes and his mouth is so close I can feel his breath on my lips. I ache.

'Me too,' I whisper. 'Even though being with you is hard on my heart sometimes. ~ Josie Silver

These days every morning begins like a joke
you think you have heard before,
but there is no one telling it
whom you can stop.
One day it's about a cow who walks into a bar,
then about a man with a big nose on his honeymoon,
then about a kangaroo who walks into a bar.
Each one takes up an entire day.
The sun looks like a prank Nathanael West
is pulling on the world; on the drive to work
cars are swinging comically from lane to lane.
The houses and lawns belong in cartoons.
The hours collapse into one another's arms.
The stories arc over noon and descend
like slow ferris wheels into the haze of evening.
You wish you could stop listening and get serious.
Trouble is you cannot remember the punch line
which never arrives till very late at night,
just as you are reaching for the bedside lamp,
just before you begin laughing in the dark. ~ Billy Collins

I have never stopped considering not becoming a writer. ~ Joshua Ferris

If you're getting chased by a lion, you don't need to run faster than the lion, just the people running with you. - Tim Ferris ~ David Nihill

This is really what you want? To live with a poet?" "Yes," she said. "With the hot plate? And the lice? ~ Joshua Ferris

Kindness is a highly underrated quality. ~ Pam Ferris

I pictured Becs and myself together, squabbling, but always over little things, while I rotted away at the core from love of Ferris.
It was hopeless.
'Here.' I laid my hands on the table, palms up, and jerked my head at them, 'put yours on top.'
Ferris did not move.
'Please,' I said.
He laid his cold hands on mine and I curled my fingers, folding his within them.
'Now,' I said, 'I've neither accepted nor refused. Speak it out plainly, tell me and I'll do it.'
He cried, 'Don't put it onto me! Choose for yourself.'
'This is choosing. Tell Aunt I will do whatever you'll have me do, and that's my answer.' I kept hold of his fingers. We stayed there silent and motionless for some time, while the candles burnt down.
At last he said quietly, 'It is a lot to give up.'
'Well. My history is bad enough without bigamy,' I replied, at which he smiled but made no reply. The candles were half burnt. I took one and rose.
'Goodnight, Ferris.'
'Goodnight, Jacob. ~ Maria McCann

I'm like a unicorn; I'm a midlist writer who hasn't done anything else but write. But because I wasn't amazingly famous, I didn't become Stephanie Meyer, or even a huge literary name like a Jonathan Franzen or a Joshua Ferris. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

I think I heard it [ Ferris Bueller's Day Off ] earlier. This was being played on a station in San Francisco called Live 105, which was a new wave station. It was one of the first stations to change its format in the early '80s. There was this wave of really strange music coming from Europe like Kraftwork and Freur. ~ Margaret Cho

Maitre D' : I appreciate your understanding. Ferris: Don't think twice. It's understanding that makes it possible for people like us to tolerate a person like yourself. ~ John Hughes

I never did anything on game night, even though I recorded the games and could always watch them later, because those nights were sacrosanct, and if I gave up the one sacrosanct thing, where would I be and what would I have? ~ Joshua Ferris

Our youth is by God's grace, in God's hands, and for God's fame. ~ Jaquelle Crowe Ferris

To conform is to lose your soul ~ Joshua Ferris

You're not dying, you just can't think of anything good to do. ~ Ferris Bueller

Ferris, himself fed up with construction delays and Burnham's pestering, had told Gronau to turn the wheel or tear it off the tower. ~ Erik Larson

Do you know what I dream about? My dream would be to die looking at the lights on the Ferris wheel. When I get old, when my body has given up, that's what I want to see. And in that dream, you're standing next to me. ~ Jane Harvey-Berrick

The first lights of the evening were springing into pale existence. The Ferris wheel, pricked out now in lights, revolved leisurely through the dusk; a few empty cars of the roller coaster rattled overhead. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

Stone dead," Ferris ~ Dan Brown

My dad died when he was 60. I was only 17 and I think, psychologically, that had a huge impact on me, probably more than I realised. ~ Pam Ferris

Every man lives at swordspoint. ~ Ellen Kushner

Adults are always telling young people, 'These are the best years of your life.' Are they? I don't know. Sometimes when adults say this to children I look into their faces. They look like someone on the top seat of the Ferris wheel who has had too much cotton candy and barbecue. They'd like to get off and be sick but everyone keeps telling them what a good time they're having. ~ Erma Bombeck

It was another blind date; this time her uncle had set her up. The plan: Meet outside of her fancy Midtown Manhattan office building. How would she recognize him? "I'll be the guy with the hole
in his boot," he told her. And there he was,
covered in dust from his construction job, with a
big hole in his fraying boot. What was supposed to be one drink turned into two . . . then a ride on the Ferris wheel in Toys R Us . . . then dinner. He wrote her this note exactly two months after their first date, delivering it rolled up and tied with a string, along with two red roses. They were married in July 2006.
(return ~ Bill Shapiro

When people seem like they are mean, they're almost never mean. They're anxious." Alain De Botton ~ Tim FERRIS

If you're a Jesus follower, it means you're there to love your church, to serve it, to worship with it, and to be accountable to it.... Age doesn't divide. We are all the church. ~ Jaquelle Crowe Ferris

Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with. ~ Ayn Rand

Like I said, basements usually smell like surrealism. But kitchens and gardens almost always smell like impressionism.

Because our kitchen is part of a basement apartment, it smells like the early impressionism of Vincent Van Gogh - all big strokes of umber and ochre - a peppery greasy I-love-you smell. ~ Emil Ferris

We had visceral, rich memories of dull, interminable hours. Then a day would pass in perfect harmony with our projects, our family members, and our coworkers, and we couldn't believe we were getting paid for this. ~ Joshua Ferris

We'd seen firsthand how the man handled a crisis. If Marcia decided suddenly to brandish a stapler in a half-threatening manner, he'd fumble with his Motorola and forget his name. ~ Joshua Ferris

Yeah, you're right. I'm a real misunderstood sweetheart. ~ Kylie Scott

I think fractures in your childhood make you observe the world more as an outsider. Possibly it pushes you outside. ~ Pam Ferris

I know a man who once stole a Ferris-wheel ~ Dashiell Hammett

After I left college I thought, very naively, that either you became someone interesting - an artist - or you went into academia. If you ended up in an office you were dull and lacking. And I ended up in an office. ~ Joshua Ferris

I content myself with the fact that the general system of our trade is a system of selfishness, is not dictated by the high sentiments of human nature much less by the sentiments of love and heroism but is a system of distrust not of giving, but of taking advantage. ~ Joshua Ferris

It was madness to leave without your useless shit. You came in with it, you left with it
that was how it worked. What would you use to clutter a new office with if not your useless shit? We could remember Old Brizz with this box of useless shit, shifting the box from arm to arm as he talked with the building guy. Of course, Old Brizz never had an office again. His useless shit really was useless. He had cause to leave his useless shit behind. But his was a rare case. All things considered, it was better to take your useless shit with you. ~ Joshua Ferris

Con? My mother was a con artist married to a copper?" - Mori
"Emily Ferris wasn't just a con artist. She was a master thief." - Alice ~ Heather W. Petty

We tend to quarrel most bitterly with those who most nearly resemble ourselves. ~ Timothy Ferris

She had the conviction of the newly converted, which wouldn't last forever, but would for the moment brook no discouragement or allow for second-guessing. ~ Joshua Ferris

Things Could Be Worse And Things Could Be So Much Better - that became the game, my running commentary on the streets of Manhattan, and I played it as well as the other slobs just trying to get by. ~ Joshua Ferris

There are only a few things worse than having to face up to the fact that the predicaments one finds oneself in are usually the results of one's own foolish actions. ~ Jean Ferris

I followed him up the stairs. I was a fornicator, of unnatural appetite, in thrall to an Atheist. I repeated the words in my head and tried to feel the shock of them, but they remained strange and cruel, far removed from Ferris and me. It was simpler to say I was in love. ~ Maria McCann

We were like the monsters we pretended to be when we were five. Soggy, sandy and bedraggled, our faces aching from laughter and our voices raw. Free and happy. ~ Fleur Ferris

Lovers do things together! They rent videos, they ride Ferris wheels, they go out for pizza, they play Scrabble. They ... they talk!'
'Talk?' He lifted his head and frowned, his eyes puzzled. 'We talk all the time, Raine. I've never had such talkative sex.'
'That's just it!' She wiggled, flailed, but couldn't budge him. 'Two minutes alone with you, and I'm flat on my back. Every single time!'
A slow, knowing grin spread over his face. 'Is this your way of telling me you want to be on top? ~ Shannon McKenna

We stand at the onset of a great age of adventure - and always shall, so long as we keep doing science. ~ Timothy Ferris

We'll burn that bridge when we come to it! ~ Jean Ferris

Wandering around back stage at a willie Nelson concert is a bit like being the parrot on the shoulder of the guy who's running the Ferris wheel. It's not the best seat in the house, but you see enough lights, action, people, and confusion to make you wonder if anybody knows what the hell's going on. If you're sitting out front, of course, it all rolls along as smoothly as a German train schedule, but as Willie, like any great magician, would be the first to point out, the real show is never in the center ring. As Willie always says, Fortunately, we're not in control. ~ Kinky Friedman

But I did like looking at her. It was harder now, knowing all the ways she sucked, but she was still gorgeous. ~ Joshua Ferris

Every man lives at swordspoint, Ferris intoned. ~ Ellen Kushner

But it's tempting, isn't it, to give somebody like Olympia or Fenleigh a taste of their own medicine? To get even?'
I agree it's tempting. *Really* tempting. But it doesn't solve anything. It just perpetuates the problem by making us as bad as them. And we don't need any more of them, do we? ~ Jean Ferris

I think a rotisserie is like a really morbid ferris wheel for chickens. It's a strange piece of machinery ... We will take the chicken, kill it, impale it, and then rotate it. And I'll be damned if I'm not hungry! Because spinning chicken carcasses make my mouth water! I like dizzy chicken. With a side of potatoes of some sort. ~ Mitch Hedberg

Love is beautiful. Love is inspiring. But love is also lethal. ~ Carol Ferris

Of course I alienate myself from society. It's the only way I know of not being constantly reminded of all the ways I'm alienated from society. ~ Joshua Ferris

Aren't you capable of finding anything beautiful in the world?" I'd tell her, she'd say, "I do not want to know about those websites. Please keep those disgusting websites to yourself. ~ Joshua Ferris

William Ferris has long reigned as the unimpeachable source of the entire southern experience. His work on southern folklore and the composition of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture have made him both legendary and necessary. His book, The Storied South , is a love song to the South Bill helped illuminate. It's a crowning achievement of his own storied career. ~ Pat Conroy

Hey ya'll, you'll never believe what I just heard! Apparently some girl totally flipped out on the Ferris wheel."
I paled.
"Oh God, it was you wasn't it?" he looked at me and busted out laughing. "It figures. ~ Micalea Smeltzer

As wonderful as dogs can be, they are famous for missing the point. ~ Jean Ferris

There was so much unpleasantness in the workaday world. The last thing you ever wanted to do at night was go home and do the dishes. And just the idea that part of the weekend had to be dedicated to getting the oil changed and doing the laundry was enough to make those of us still full from lunch want to lie down in the hallway and force anyone dumb enough to remain committed to walk around us. It might not be so bad. They could drop food down to us, or if that was not possible, crumbs from their PowerBars and bags of microwave popcorn surely would end up within an arm's length sooner or later. The cleaning crews, needing to vacuum, would inevitably turn us on our sides, preventing bedsores, and we would make little toys out of runs in the carpet, which, in moments of extreme regression, we might suck on for comfort. ~ Joshua Ferris

When you're on a Ferris wheel all anyone ever talks about is being on the Ferris wheel and the view from the Ferris wheel and whether the Ferris wheel is scary and how many more times it will go around. Dating is like that. Nobody who's doing it ever talks about anything else. I have no interest in dating. ~ John Green

Without work, so much of one's identity just evaporates. ~ Joshua Ferris

Nazi, Nazi, Nazi. A Nazi is a person who chooses to NOT SEE anything that would keep them from being cruel...even if what they will NOT SEE is how their cruelty will destroy them! ~ Emil Ferris

Sometimes life is like this Ferris wheel. Even when everything seems wrong, the sky is black, it's starting to rain, and some lady throws up on you, the wheel will keep right on turning to spite you. (the Old Man) ~ Michele Young-Stone