Happy Playgrounds George Gastin Quotes

you're a mess now, but you'll be laughing about it in fifty years. ~ Jim Dodge

Don't start talkin about books or quotin poems at them. these is good folks but they ain't real crazy about readin books. just do what i do and you'll be all right. ~ William Gay

Do you want me to shoot thee, ingles? ... quieres? it is nothing. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

it's hard enough separating the good stuff from the bullshit without adding to the whole mess by wanting to know what you ain't gonna know. ~ Jim Dodge

Ordinary people can never fall over the walls, because they never dare climb high enough to see what is beyond the walls. ~ B. Traven

The enemy you flee is not exterior to yourself ~ John Barth

it sucks to get old...but there's always beer ~ James Rollins

On the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable. ~ Fernando Pessoa

we remain children as long as we feel the urge to keep crossing this border and to learn. ~ Peter Nadas

Thinking, when you first try it, is very difficult. ~ Charles Willeford

The zombies, after all, were pretty slow to appreciate someone other than themselves, and they had been schooled not to denigrate the different.
Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men ~ Padgett Powell

The thing about books is, there are quite a number you don't have to read. ~ Donald Barthelme

In a new world behave in a new way as a new man. unhorse the conquistador. ~ Padgett Powell

He never mentioned whether something was fair, however. Fairness itself seemed to hold very little interest for him, which I found fascinating, as people, especially young people, are very interested in what's fair. Fairness is a concept taught to nice children: it is the governing principle of kindergartens and summer camps and playgrounds and soccer fields ... Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities. ~ Hanya Yanagihara

so whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and god. blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ~ Paul From Tarsus

fate is the ultimate preexisting condition. ~ Mark Leyner

most reviews are written by morons about morons. sensibility is at a premium in american culture these days. ~ Jim Dodge

The new world may be in fact a very, very, very, very old world. ~ Padgett Powell

Time cannot do to ordinary things what we timelessly do to one another. ~ William H Gass

When you're really cute that's all you have to be, you make a career out of it. someone asks you what you do, you say, 'nothing. i'm cute. ~ Elmore Leonard

god, they say, is love. and some one's got to pass the word. ~ Richard Farina

I'd hate to read all these books ... that much reading could put your eyes out. ~ Larry McMurtry

It is discouraging to leave the past behind only to see it coming toward you like the thunderstorm which drenched you yesterday. ~ William H Gass

Probably horse doo had a name in french also, but that didn't mean god intended for you to eat it. ~ Richard Russo

mead for my men! ~ Donald Barthelme

Alternate the theories you entertain about all things. ~ Padgett Powell

we mistake induction for generation. ~ Richard Farina

Sometimes i lose faith in human nature for a time; i am assailed by doubt. ~ William Faulkner

My folks wouldn't read a book if you put a gun to their dicks. but they read people all day long and always get it right. ~ Pat Conroy

my foolishness had me believe that i was the story, and this bleak cold night merely its setting, but in fact my real story played itself out almost independently of me or, more precisely, occurred parallel to my own little adventures. ~ Peter Nadas

Today is a good day to give no one a hard time about anything, or today is a good day to give everyone a hard time about everything. ~ Padgett Powell

they are mystified by certain instances. ~ William Carlos Williams

If one wishes to see a cat badly enough, one will doubtless see one. ~ David Markson

Babies don't know anything but nipples and lullabies. they splash out looks of wonder on anybody whether they merit it or not. ~ Daniel Woodrell

Maybe the reality-based fractions of red and blue America are reaching a sort of consensus: Just as Republicans are beginning to get why George Bush makes so many Americans want to rip their hair out, a lot of Democrats have finally, viscerally come to understand Clinton-loathing. Mutual, symmetrical disillusionment; it's a start. ~ Kurt Andersen

The first thing you must realise is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. You know the Party slogan: "Freedom is Slavery." Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone - free - the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is doomed to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal. ~ George Orwell

There will be no room, here, for the smug myopia which views American civilization as the final solution to all world problems; which recommends our institutions for universal adoption and turns away with contempt from the serious study of the institutions of peoples whose civilizations may seem to us to be materially less advanced. ~ George F. Kennan

Both David and Marcus, I came to realize, though they seemed happy enough, and looked forward to being doctors, had a certain sadness, a sense of loss and renunciation, about other interests they had given up.... Both became medical students, in part, to defer their call-up. But with this, I think, they deferred their other aspirations, a deferment that seemed permanent and irreversible by the time they returned to London. ~ Oliver Sacks

Keep everything in perspective if you wish to be happy. For example ... Losing an arm is more an inconvenience than a catastrophe. Things could be a lot worse so why not be grateful they aren't and thereby happy rather than sad? ~ Eric Allin Cornell

I read it twice, then I said, "Well, why don't you?"
"Why don't I what?"
"Why don't you wish her many happy returns? It doesn't seem much to ask."
"But she says on her birthday."
"Well, when is her birthday?"
"Can't you understand?" said Bobbie. "I've forgotten."
"Forgotten!" I said.
"Yes," said Bobbie. "Forgotten."
"How do you mean, forgotten?" I said. "Forgotten whether it's the twentieth or the twenty-first, or what? How near do you get to it?"
"I know it came somewhere between the first of January and the thirty-first of December. That's how near I get to it. ~ P.G. Wodehouse

Women want honesty but sometimes get upset if you are honest, so you need to know when to be honest. ~ George Hamilton

Be calm! I entreat you to hear me, before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered enough that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself; my height is superior to thine; my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other, and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous."

"Begone! I will not hear you. There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies. Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight, in which one must fall."

"How can I move thee? Will no entreaties cause thee to turn a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy goodness and compassion? Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Keynesian economics has always been needed. ~ George Akerlof

Bringing happy memories into an awful place didn't make the memories any dimmer. The memories made the surroundings brighter. ~ Kat Zhang

If we want to live perfectly happy lives...we must drive out selfish character tendencies such as pride, ego, vanity, jealousy, lusts, envy and worry. When we learn to live selflessly, putting others before ourselves, committing to what is noble, right and good; treating others with love and compassion...that's when true happiness is experienced. A genuine focus on selflessness cures all and creates an environment for true growth. It's the secret to every great relationship. We gain...when we give up self. Sacrificing one's selfish characteristics through diligent thought, meditation, prayer and action gives life to true love and abounding joy.~Jason Versey ~ Jason Versey

Humor bears the closest relation to emotion, either bubbling up as from a deep and happy wellspring, or in an opposite fashion rising like a re-birth of feeling from dead levels after turmoil. ~ Constance Rourke

Errors look so very ugly in persons of small means -one feels they are taking quite a liberty in going astray; whereas people of fortune may naturally indulge in a few delinquencies. ~ George Eliot

We need so little to be happy. Happiness does not come from things. Happiness comes from living a full and exciting life. ~ Ken Ilgunas

It's easy to impress me. I don't need a fancy party to be happy. Just good friends, good food, and good laughs. I'm happy. I'm satisfied. I'm content. ~ Maria Sharapova