Chandler > Chandler's Quotes

“As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

“My line of thoughts about dogs is analogous. A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones. And their passing moods may reflect the passing moods of others.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“He held out the written pass. "This is what they want us to be," he said. "They want us to be nothing but a bill of sale and a letter explaining where we is and instructions for where we go and what we do. They want us empty. They want us flat as paper. They want to be able to carry our souls in their hands, and read them out loud in court. All the time, they're on the exploration of themselves, going on the inner journey into their own breast. But us, they want there to be nothing inside of. They want us to be writ on. They want us to be a surface. Look at me, I'm mahogany."
I protested, "A man is known by his deeds."
"Oh, that's sure," said Bono. "Just like a house is known by its deeds. The deeds say who owns it, who sold it, and who'll be buying a new one when it gets knocked down.”
― M.T. Anderson, The Pox Party

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

“There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that's a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It's damaged but it's there. Don't let them take it from you.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.”
― William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

“Great books are great in part because of what they ask of their readers: they are not readily encountered, easily assessed.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

“So the books are waiting. Of this you may be confident: they'll be ready when the whim strikes you.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

“The book that simply demands to be read, for no good reason, is asking us to change our lives by putting aside what we usually think of as good reasons. It's asking us to stop calculating. It's asking us to do something for the plain old delight and interest of it, not because we can justify its place on the mental spreadsheet or accounting ledger (like the one Benjamin Franklin kept) by which we tote up the value of our actions.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

“Slow down. Make a point of revisiting passages that seem especially rich, or especially confusing, or for that matter especially offensive.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

“And yet rereading a book can often be a more significant, dramatic, and, yes, new experience than encountering an unfamiliar work.”
― Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

“Things are always better in the morning.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Gallatin had warned Jefferson that " government prohibitions do always more mischief than had been calculated; and it is not without much hesitation that a statesman should hazard to regulate the concerns of individuals as if he could do it better than themselves.”
― Lynne Cheney, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered

“Elected fifth president of the United States, Monroe transformed a fragile little nation - "a savage wilderness," as Edmund Burke put it - into "a glorious empire." Although George Washington had won the nation's independence, he bequeathed a relatively small country, rent by political factions, beset by foreign enemies, populated by a largely unskilled, unpropertied people, and ruled by oligarchs who controlled most of the nation's land and wealth. Washington's three successors - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison - were mere caretaker presidents who left the nation bankrupt, its people deeply divided, its borders under attack, its capital city in ashes.”
― Harlow Giles Unger, The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

“Contrary to the writings of some historians, Monroe's proclamation was entirely his own creation-not Adam's. The assertion that Adams authored the "Monroe Doctrine" is not only untrue, it borders on the ludicrous by implying that President Monroe was little more than a puppet manipulated by another's hand. Such assertions show little insight into the presidency itself and the type of man who aspires to and assumes that office; indeed, they denigrate the character, the intellect, the intensity and the sense of power that drive American presidents.”
― Harlow Giles Unger, The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

“Sometimes the gift of an inquisitive nature to the young can be greater than that of the wisdom which comes of age.”
― Brian Jacques, Mattimeo

“Weapons may be carried by creatures who are evil, dishonest, violent or lazy. The true warrior is good, gentle and honest. His bravery comes from within himself; he learns to conquer his own fears and misdeeds.

—Matthias”
― Brian Jacques, Mattimeo

“The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“Americans need to learn from the Wilson era, that there is a connection between racist presidential leadership and like-minded public response.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“Broadly put, philosophers think: politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power.”
― Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

“There are an estimated forty square miles of vacant land in Detroit, enough to fit San Francisco inside just what’s been abandoned.”
― Drew Philp, A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City

“We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“She was a little removed,” Jack said as an adult. In private, he complained that Rose never told him that she loved him. Jack’s friend Charles Spalding, who saw the family up close, described Rose as “so cold, so distant from the whole thing . . . I doubt if she ever rumpled the kid’s hair in his whole life. . . . It just didn’t exist: the business of letting your son know you’re close, that she’s there. She wasn’t.” Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy told the journalist Theodore White that “history made him [Jack] what he was . . . this lonely sick boy. His mother really didn’t love him. . . . She likes to go around talking about being the daughter of the Mayor of Boston, or how she was an ambassador’s wife. . . . She didn’t love him. . . . History made him what he was.”
― Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963