The Maine Quotes

What about me?' said Grantaire. 'I'm here.'
'You?'
'Yes, me.'
'You? Rally Republicans! You? In defence of principles, fire up hearts that have grown cold!'
'Why not?'
'Are you capable of being good for something?'
'I have the vague ambition to be,' said Grantaire.
'You don't believe in anything.'
'I believe in you.'
'Grantaire, will you do me a favour?'
'Anything. Polish your boots.'
'Well, don't meddle in our affairs. Go and sleep off the effects of your absinthe.'
'You're heartless, Enjolras.'
'As if you'd be the man to send to the Maine gate! As if you were capable of it!'
'I'm capable of going down Rue des Grès, crossing Place St-Michel, heading off along Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, taking Rue de Vaugirard, passing the Carmelite convent, turning into Rue d'Assas, proceeding to Rue du Cherche-Midi, leaving the Military Court behind me, wending my way along Rue des Vieilles-Tuileries, striding across the boulevard, following Chaussée du Maine, walking through the toll-gate and going into Richefeu's. I'm capable of that. My shoes are capable of that.'
'Do you know them at all, those comrades who meet at Richefeu's?'
'Not very well. But we're on friendly terms.'
'What will you say to them?'
'I'll talk to them about Robespierre, of course! And about Danton. About principles.'
'You?'
'Yes, me. But I'm not being given the credit I deserve. When I put my mind to it, I'm terrific. I've ~ Victor Hugo

I became interested in librarians while researching my first book, about obituaries. With the exception of a few showy eccentrics, like the former soldier in Hitler's army who had a sex change and took up professional whistling, the most engaging obit subjects were librarians. An obituary of a librarian could be about anything under the sun, a woman with a phenomenal memory, who recalled the books her aging patrons read as children - and was also, incidentally, the best sailor on her stretch of the Maine coast - or a man obsessed with maps, who helped automate the Library of Congress's map catalog and paved the way for wonders like Google Maps. ~ Marilyn Johnson

On a late-winter evening in 1983, while driving through fog along the Maine coast, recollections of old campfires began to drift into the March mist, and I thought of the Abnaki Indians of the Algonquin tribe who dwelt near Bangor a thousand years ago. ~ Norman Mailer

We're all weird. ~ John O'Callaghan

As of Election Day, Lincoln had successfully avoided not only his three opponents, but also his own running mate, Hannibal Hamlin. Republicans had nominated the Maine senator for vice president without Lincoln's knowledge, much less his consent - true to another prevailing political custom that left such choices exclusively to the delegates - in an attempt to balance the Chicago convention's choice of a Westerner for the presidency. ~ Harold Holzer

I am more than what they say I am. ~ John O'Callaghan

Nobody needs saving, just a little bit of empathy ~ John O'Callaghan

What is most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest, with fewer open intervals or glades than you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, the narrow intervals on the rivers, the bare tops of the high mountains, and the lakes and streams, the forest is uninterrupted. ~ Henry David Thoreau

When I was in the Maine Senate and proposed Maine RX - a plan to lower prescription drug costs by forcing the pharmaceutical companies to negotiate - I was told by many people that it was too big an idea, and we couldn't overcome opposition from the drug companies. ~ Chellie Pingree

Lette me stande to the maine chance. ~ John Lyly

It is frightfully hard to explain to Protestants that if you give Roman Catholics a good job and a good house, they will live like Protestants ... they will refuse to have 18 children ... If you treat Roman Catholics with due consideration and kindness, they will live like Protestants in spite of the authoritative nature of their Church. ~ Terence O'Neill, Baron O'Neill Of The Maine

Sometimes not much is just enough. ~ John O'Callaghan

Ye who made war that your ships Should lay to at the beck of no nation, Make war now on Murder, that slips The leash of her hounds of damnation; Ye who remembered the Alamo, Remember the Maine! ~ Richard Hovey

Never ignore someone who loves you and cares about you. 'Cause one day you may realize you lost the moon while counting stars. ~ John O'Callaghan

Be apprised, though, that the Maine Lobster Festival's democratization of lobster comes with all the massed inconvenience and aesthetic compromise of real democracy. See, for example, the aforementioned Main Eating Tent, for which there is a constant Disneyland-grade queue, and which turns out to be a square quarter mile of awning-shaded cafeteria lines and rows of long institutional tables at which friend and stranger alike sit cheek by jowl, cracking and chewing and dribbling. It's hot, and the sagged roof traps the steam and the smells, which latter are strong and only partly food-related. It is also loud, and a good percentage of the total noise is masticatory. ~ David Foster Wallace

The gnome did indeed have a flag, but not an American one. Not even the Maine flag with the moose on it. The one the gnome was holding had a vertical blue stripe and two fat horizontal stripes, the top one white and the bottom one red. It also had a single star. I gave the gnome a pat on his pointy hat as I went past and mounted the front steps of Al's little house on Vining Street, thinking about an amusing song by Ray Wylie Hubbard: "Screw You, We're from Texas. ~ Stephen King

I don't ever want to feel that way. Feel as if there are no surprises left. The surprises make life worth living. Expecting nothing, accepting it all. Accepting isn't the right word. ACKNOWLEDGING it all. I suppose I'll just try to figure it out as I go or at least try to understand it. Or f***, just think about it. I'll face whatever comes my way ... ~ John O'Callaghan

We are born to believe
We can't change a thing
We can't, and we never could.
But before you believe
The things you believe
You must understand
To be understood. ~ John C. O'Callaghan

He talked about terrible meetings in lonely places, of cyclopean ruins in the heart of the Maine woods beneath which vast staircases led down to abysses of nighted secrets, of complex angles that led through invisible walls to other regions of space and time, and of hideous exchanges of personality that permitted explorations in remote and forbidden places, on other worlds, and in different space-time continua. ~ H.P. Lovecraft

I grew up on a dirt road in Maine, and pretty much everybody on that dirt road was related to me, and they were old. And so grumpy. ~ Elizabeth Strout

Yes, but does Maine have anything to SAY to Florida? ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I did a play called 'On Golden Pond' in a dinner theater in Maine and then went to New York for a talent competition having put together a three-man juggling routine and some one-liners and I got myself an agent from that. ~ Patrick Dempsey

Third box car, midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine. Old worn out suit and shoes, I don't pay no union dues. ~ Roger Miller

Live for One day instead to die every day.
Work is worship
Do or die. ~ Nancy Patchen

he normally had his pastry shipped from Boston's north end ~ Leighann Dobbs

A fitness instructor in Maine has been charged with running a prostitution business out of her Zumba dance studio. Authorities first got suspicious when they saw guys going to work out at a Zumba dance studio. ~ Jay Leno

My mom was always a fan of just really elegant, sophisticated pieces. I mean we grew up in Maine, so we didn't have a lot of call for black tie or anything, but I think I definitely got that sensibility from her. ~ Anna Kendrick

Reality isn't round, it's flat. There are edges where you can fall off and this October when I moved to Maine, I fell off one. ~ Carrie Jones

Access to quality, affordable health care is particularly important here in Maine, where many of us own small businesses or are self-employed. ~ Chellie Pingree

I'm from Maine. I eat apple pie for breakfast. ~ Rachel Nichols

In Maine, nobody is required to belong to a union or pay dues. ~ Cynthia Dill

I made an impulse buy of a house in Maine to make my wife happy and now have gone back into debt and it's all started over for me. ~ John Hodgman

Excellent education and an excellent environment are two hallmarks of our state. How we treat our environment is connected to so many other opportunities in Maine. ~ John Baldacci

I taught up in Maine a couple of times and wasn't able to take a single picture. All that blue sky! Ugh. Sparkling clear air, just terrible. I couldn't do it. ~ Sally Mann

I can't stop shaking. I need you. I want you. I can't let myself have you. ~ Kelli Maine

This was something that happened in bad horror movies, and books written by people from Maine. ~ Chris Philbrook

Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England. ~ John Irving

Maine out of season is unmistakably a great destination: hospitable, good-humored, plenty of elbow room, short days, dark nights of crackling ice crystals. ~ Paul Theroux

Winter in Maine is a time of alternating rest and frenzied activity. ~ Tom Allen

There's a quality of life in Maine which is this singular and unique. I think. It's absolutely a world onto itself. ~ Jamie Wyeth

Somebody said, 'You may be a committee chair.' I don't think so. I don't think anybody would want me that much. ~ Angus King

I'm living life right now, maine and this what Imma do til it's over, til it's over.. but it's far from over. ~ Drake

When primitive law has once been embodied in a Code, there is an end to what may be called its spontaneous development. ~ Henry James Sumner Maine

Many small towns I know in Maine are as tight-knit and interdependent as those I associate with rural communities in India or China; with deep roots and old loyalties, skeptical of authority, they are proud and inflexibly territorial. ~ Paul Theroux

Do you know how long it takes to charm people from Maine? They're uptight white people coated with a hard exterior made from other uptight white people. ~ Joel Stein

I would really rather feel bad in Maine than feel good anywhere else ~ E.B. White

In my home state of Maine, we've seen out-of-state groups with anonymous donors spend millions of dollars to campaign against issues that don't fit their agenda. ~ Chellie Pingree

Renewable energy has economic advantages that extend beyond steady, predictable electric rates - and Maine is in a good position to capitalize on those opportunities. ~ Chellie Pingree

I was born and raised in a small town in Maine, Waterville. I enjoyed living there - still do - and my goal in life was a fairly specific and focused one of practicing law in Maine. ~ George J. Mitchell

mad: Maine charges lobsterman for "egregious" catch violation ~ Anonymous

There is always a little bit of purslane in Paradise. ~ Jennifer Wixson