Rose > Rose's Quotes

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“On the way home I absently minded (you know what I mean) went through a stop sign in Hyannis so of course there was a police car to apprehend me. A soft answer turnethed away wrath, fortunately.”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“Anyway, for whatever interest is to be derived therefrom. Bacon, Balthus, and Magritte are my three favourite painters, along with Dubuffet, of the whole post-impressionist period, by which I mean that before them Bonnard, Vuillard, & Seurat are my favourite painters of that time.”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“The world may think it idiotic,
Nor care at all we're symbiotic,
But I will say at once and twice:
I find it nice. I find it nice.”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“This is the theory… that anything that is art… is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.”
― Edward Gorey

“I should like a parsley sandwich.
To the best of my knowledge they are not in season.”
― Edward Gorey

“I have given up considering happiness as relevant.”
― Edward Gorey

“Such excess of passion
is quite out of fashion”
― Edward Gorey, Amphigorey

“There was a young lady named Mae
Who smoked without stopping all day;
As pack followed pack,
Her lungs first turned black,
And eventually rotted away.”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“To take my work seriously would be the height of folly.”
― Edward Gorey

“A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.
B is for Basil assaulted by bears.
C is for Clara who wasted away.
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh.
E is for Ernest who choked on a peach.
F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech.

G is for George smothered under a rug.
H is for Hector done in by a thug.
I is for Ida who drowned in a lake.
J is for James who took lye by mistake.
K is for Kate who was struck with an axe.
L is for Leo who choked on some tacks.

M is for Maud who was swept out to sea.
N is for Neville who died of ennui.
O is for Olive run through with an awl.
P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl.
Q is for Quentin who sank on a mire.
R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire.

S is for Susan who perished of fits.
T is for Titus who flew into bits.
U is for Una who slipped down a drain.
V is for Victor squashed under a train.
W is for Winnie embedded in ice.
X is for Xerxes devoured by mice.

Y is for Yorick whose head was bashed in.
Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.”
― Edward Gorey

“Some tiny creature, mad with wrath, is coming nearer on the path.”
― Edward Gorey, The Evil Garden

“I don't know what it is I'm doing. But it's not that. Despite all evidence to the contrary.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“The Suicide, as she is falling,
Illuminated by the moon,
Regrets her act, and finds appalling
The thought she will be dead so soon.”
― Edward Gorey

“I just got a rather nasty shock. In looking for something or other I came across the fact that one of my cats is about to be nine years old, and that another of them will shortly thereafter be eight; I have been labouring under the delusion they were about five and six. And yesterday I happened to notice in the mirror that while I have long since grown used to my beard being very grey indeed, I was not prepared to discover that my eyebrows are becoming noticeably shaggy. I feel the tomb is just around the corner. And there are all these books I haven't read yet, even if I am simultaneously reading at least twenty...”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak; what's important is left after you have explained everything else.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“The helpful thought for which you look
Is written somewhere in a book.”
― Edward Gorey

“It's well we cannot hear the screams we make in other people's dreams.”
― Edward Gorey

“I tend to be rather inconsequential and trail off.”
― Edward Gorey

“My favorite journey is looking out the window.”
― Edward Gorey

“If something doesn't creep into a drawing that you're not prepared for, you might as well not have drawn it.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“Interviewer: What is your greatest regret?
Gorey: That I don't have one”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“There are so many things we've been brought up to believe that it takes you an awfully long time to realize that they aren't you.”
― Edward Gorey

“What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“I am a person before I am anything else. I never say I am a writer. I never say I am an artist...I am a person who does those things.”
― Edward Gorey

“When people are finding meaning in things - beware.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey