a20 > a20's Quotes

“As an artist, you normally reach your peak of creativity, regardless of whether you are singing or acting, when you develop the greatest possible freedom within very strict boundaries.

For I can't just improvise away while the band's playing something different. I have to say my lines and maintain my position. By the same token a footballer must stick to the rules too.

But the most exciting thing is when people manage, within the rules, to develop a freedom that is unpredictable surprising and simply artistic and marvellous.”
― Jasmin Tabatabai

“[Aunt] Patricia smiled, and we walked in silence for a while. But it wasn't a poisonous silence. It was the sort of silence shared by two people who're comfortable enough not to force a conversation ahead of its logical progression. I found this woman's company to be incredibly soothing.”
― Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street

“It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of a son of a bitch or another. --Malcolm Reynolds”
― Melodie Ramone

“It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”
― Marlene Dietrich

“...where were answers to the truly deep questions? Religion promised those, though always in vague terms, while retreating from one line in the sand to the next. Don't look past this boundary, they told Galileo, then Hutton, Darwin, Von Neumann, and Crick, always retreating with great dignity before the latest scientific advance, then drawing the next holy perimeter at the shadowy rim of knowledge.”
― David Brin, Kiln People

“யார் மறப்பார்...?"


மூவென்பது ஆண்டின் முன்னே. நல்லூரின்
மூவிரண்டு முகத்தான் முன்றலிலே..
ஆறிரண்டு நாளாக -அன்னந் தண்ணிஇன்றி
நாவரண்டு நீபுரண்டு பாய்கிடந்து - உயிர்
போய்முடித்த சோகத்தினை தியாகத்தினை
யார் மறப்பார? யார்மறப்பார் ? சொல் திலீபா?

தாயிருந்து பார்த்திருந்தால் தாங்குவளோ? -இந்தியா
எம்தாயாக நினைந்திருந்தால் உன்னுயிர். வாங்குவரோ?
தோலுரித்து காட்டினாயே அவர் துரோகத்தை வெளிவேசத்தை
நாலாறு வயதே வாழ்ந்த திலீபனே!.

நாரறுந்து கிழிந்தவராய் போர்புரிந்து தோற்றவராய்
புறப்பட்டார் தம்பொதிகளோடு தொண்ணூறில்
வேறுக்க வேசம்போட்டு நாருரிக்கும் நரிகளாகி
நமையழிக்க வந்தாரே நந்திக் கடல்காண..இனியும் ..நம்புவதா....?


கவிஞர்:கவிவன்
பிரசுரித்த திகதி: 19, 09, 2014”
― கவிவன

“The Rebel, Within the Rubble

From the rubble, arises the rebel,
Embarking on the freedom struggle.
Lost and frustrated, survival is slim
Yet the fire of the cause burns from within

Our people melt, our people burn
Our people shelled, our stomachs churn
The world is cold, the world is grim
Our people hang, on their last limb

Billions more, from the IMF
Don’t hear our cries, cos they claim deaf
Rape, torture, and abusive camps
Thamils die in government clamps

1400 now die in a camp each week
All because of the language we speak
Each day I wake up, more havoc they wreak
Each day I wake up, the situation looks bleak

The Phoenix arises, from the ashes
This Phoenix surmises, previous clashes
Beware of our youth, they burn with the truth
Merciless, and furious, you will get the boot

The Eelam pride, I will never hide,
The Thamil side, is forever my guide
The Tigers died, with cyanide
They collide, for us to reside,
In the land where we were denied
Forevermore, they have cried,
Forevermore, we’ll bring this worldwide!

Thamilarin Thaagam, Thamileela Thayagam!”
― Priya Suntharalingam

“Only people with full stomachs become environmentalists.”
― David Brin, Earth

“Where subtlety fails us we must simply make do with cream pies.”
― David Brin, The Uplift War

“I had to admit, standing there, that sometimes you just gotta admire the passion of the truly insane -- a passion that bulls right past all sense or reason.”
― David Brin, Kiln People

“Friends are the family you choose (~ Nin/Ithilnin, Elven rogue).”
― Jess C Scott, The Other Side of Life

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
― James Baldwin

“No two social scientists agree on what “fascism” really is (though everyone agrees it’s terrible!). But historical examples that most people agree to call fascist states all had in common a strong national ideology and a standing army. The State is not just the governor in a fascist country: We are the State, the State is Us.

The State is the source of polite behavior and moral instruction. And we know our State – and therefore our ideology – are better than that of neighboring States because our standing army is so much stronger than theirs. If our army is defeated, it has nothing to do with insufficient manpower or poor strategy or losing the arms race. It’s because we were sabotaged by traitors, or because the National Will at home wasn’t strong enough (see “We are the State”; above).

Such circular reasoning appeals to the hunter-gatherer instincts which ten thousand years of civilization have not yet eradicated. We want to belong to a tribe. We also want to belong to the right tribe: the strongest tribe, the one that can best protect us. And we want to provide for the tribe with which we identify so closely. Appealing to people’s desire for strength and safety can open any door.”
― John Perich

“War pictures are always fascinating for people; they were for me growing up, even though I'm not nuts about war."

"War is the ultimate conflict, and conflict is the basis of drama to begin with.”
― Clint Eastwood

“We stared at the odd garment and wondered what it was for. 'What is it?' asked Larry at length. 'It's a bathing costume, of course,' said Mother. 'What on earth did you think it was?' 'It looks like a badly skinned whale,' said Larry, peering at it closely.”
― Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
― Smedley D. Butler, War Is a Racket

“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
― Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket

“Struggle for justice invariably alters the base culture. So did the long Tamil Eelam struggle. Its crystallization was the Vanni society during the last years of LTTE. My four years experience in Vanni also gave me a unique opportunity to see firsthand the devastating truth about the ways of the powerful on this globe - about which I and many other Tamils have puzzled over for many years. For us Tamils of Tamil Eelam it is a new source of power through knowing. It is also our proud history.”
― N Malathy

“There ain't no clean way to make a hundred million bucks.... Somewhere along the line guys got pushed to the wall, nice little businesses got the ground cut out from under them... Decent people lost their jobs.... Big money is big power and big power gets used wrong. It's the system.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

“Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.
But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please—this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time—and squawk for more!
So learn to say No—and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.
(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“Preoccupation with style will not produce it. No amount of editing and polishing will have any appreciable effect on the flavor of how a man writes. It is a product of the quality of his emotion and perception; it is the ability to transfer these to paper which makes him a writer, in contrast to the great number of people who have just as good emotions and just as keen perceptions, but cannot come within a googol of miles of putting them on paper.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction 1909-1959

“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

“He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn't owe too much money.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.”
― Raymond Chandler

“Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
― Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“I like bars just after they open for the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny and the barkeep is giving himself that last look in the mirror to see if his tie is straight and his hair is smooth. I like the neat bottles on the bar back and the lovely shining glasses and the anticipation. I like to watch the man mix the first one of the evening and put it down on a crisp mat and put the little folded napkin beside it. I like to taste it slowly. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar—that's wonderful.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

“There are blondes and blondes and it is almost a joke word nowadays. All blondes have their points, except perhaps the metallic ones who are as blond as a Zulu under the bleach and as to disposition as soft as a sidewalk. There is the small cute blonde who cheeps and twitters, and the big statuesque blonde who straight-arms you with an ice-blue glare. There is the blonde who gives you the up-from-under look and smells lovely and shimmers and hangs on your arm and is always very tired when you take her home. She makes that helpless gesture and has that goddamned headache and you would like to slug her except that you are glad you found out about the headache before you invested too much time and money and hope in her. Because the headache will always be there, a weapon that never wears out and is as deadly as the bravo’s rapier or Lucrezia’s poison vial. There is the soft and willing and alcoholic blonde who doesn’t care what she wears as long as it is mink or where she goes as long as it is the Starlight Roof and there is plenty of dry champagne. There is the small perky blonde who is a little pal and wants to pay her own way and is full of sunshine and common sense and knows judo from the ground up and can toss a truck driver over her shoulder without missing more than one sentence out of the editorial in the Saturday Review. There is the pale, pale blonde with anemia of some non-fatal but incurable type. She is very languid and very shadowy and she speaks softly out of nowhere and you can’t lay a finger on her because in the first place you don’t want to and in the second place she is reading The Waste Land or Dante in the original, or Kafka or Kierkegaard or studying Provençal. She adores music and when the New York Philharmonic is playing Hindemith she can tell you which one of the six bass viols came in a quarter of a beat too late. I hear Toscanini can also. That makes two of them. And lastly there is the gorgeous show piece who will outlast three kingpin racketeers and then marry a couple of millionaires at a million a head and end up with a pale rose villa at Cap Antibes, an Alfa-Romeo town car complete with pilot and co-pilot, and a stable of shopworn aristocrats, all of whom she will treat with the affectionate absent-mindedness of an elderly duke saying goodnight to his butler.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye