James Clarke > Quotes

“Canadian comedian, Emo Phillips, said he used to pray every night for a bike until he realised that the Lord doesn’t always work that way, so he stole one and then prayed for forgiveness.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“Ernest Hemingway said cycling was the best way to learn a country’s contours because you physically experience them – you sweat up the hills and there’s the sheer joy of coasting down the other side.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“The site on which the Cité stands has been occupied for 2 500 years and it commands a view of a countryside that has witnessed the most terrible Middle Age atrocities. Muslims massacred people who did not believe in Mohammed; Catholics slaughtered people who didn’t believe in Christ and then they fell upon even those who did. In nearby Béziers, Catholics murdered non-Catholics and, on a productive day, if everybody skipped lunch, they were able to kill up to 20 000 people. When they reported to the Pope’s emissary that they found they had, by mistake, killed Catholics he told them to carry on because God would sort them out at the other end.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“I believe the bicycle is on the edge of a golden age. Today there are about a billion bikes in the world – most of them in China – yet the advent of the mass-produced chain-driven cycle occurred little more than a century ago. It was an event that affected human evolution. Being cheaper to buy and cheaper to keep than a horse, the bicycle enabled more and more young men living in villages to court girls in distant villages thus giving a wider choice of mate and resulting in a more widespread and therefore richer human gene pool.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“Richard commented on the ecstasy of cycling through foreign lands and how both hiker and cyclist were able to enjoy the aromas and sounds of the countryside far, far more than those touring by car or bus who, literally, suffer sensory deprivation. Cycling has an advantage even over hiking: the scenery changes at a more stimulating pace, yet not so fast that one does not have time to savour it. And at cruising speed one creates one’s own cooling breeze. Cycling, said Harvey, is the one form of wheeled transport that cannot in any way be regarded as offensive – no pollution, no noise, little demand on road space.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“Wildlife television programmes and their depiction of the African wilds and the creatures that inhabit them tend to give the false impression that elephants are friendly creatures (while they are indeed noble beasts, they are at best indifferent to our presence), and that you can cuddle lions and make pets of hyaenas.”
― James Clarke, Save Me from the Lion's Mouth

“One thing about Italian drivers, they slow down when they see somebody sprawled in the road. We watched anxiously as Harvey remounted. It was, he said, essential to remount as soon as one can after being thrown because, first, it shows the bike who is boss and second, if you don’t you will live in fear of bikes for the rest of your life and will want to climb up a tree whenever one comes near.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“He felt the one experience sharpened the other. He said one feels one has earned a beer after cycling for a couple of hours and then the continued cycling afterwards gives one the satisfying feeling that one is working it off and will soon need another. In this way one can achieve a comfortable rhythm of exercise and relaxation getting neither fitter nor fatter.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“The Dordogne Valley is one long smorgasbord.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles

“the bicycle enabled more and more young men living in villages to court girls in distant villages thus giving a wider choice of mate and resulting in a more widespread and therefore richer human gene pool.”
― James Clarke, Blazing Bicycle Saddles