Brian > Brian's Quotes

“A Roman came to Rabbi Gimzo the Water Carrier, and asked, "What is this study of the law that you Jews engage in?" and Gimzo replied, "I shall explain. There were two men on a roof, and they climbed down the chimney. One's face became sooty. The other's not. Which one washed his face?" The Roman said, "That's easy, the sooty one, of course." Gimzo said, "No. The man without the soot looked at his friend, saw that the man's face was dirty, assumed that his was too, and washed it." Cried the Roman, "Ah ha! So that's the study of law. Sound reasoning." But Gimzo said, "You foolish man, you don't understand. Let me explain again. Two men on a roof. They climb down a chimney. One's face is sooty, the other's not. Which one washes?" The Roman said, "As you just explained, the man without the soot." Gimzo cried,"No, you foolish one! There was a mirror on the wall and the man with the dirty face saw how sooty it was and washed it." The Roman said, "Ah ha! So that's the study of law! Conforming to the logical." But Rabbi Gimzo said, "No, you foolish one. Two men climbed down the chimney. One's face became sooty? The other's not? That's impossible. You're wasting my time with such a proposition." And the Roman said, "So that's the law! Common sense." And Gimzo said, "You foolish man! Of course it was possible. When the first man climbed down the chimney he brushed the soot away. So the man who followed found none to mar him." And the Roman cried, "That's brilliant, Rabbi Gimzo. Law is getting at the basic facts." And for the last time Gimzo said, "No, you foolish man. Who could brush all the soot from a chimney? Who could ever understand all the facts?" Humbly the Roman asked, "Then what is the law?" And Gimzo said quietly, "It's doing the best we can to ascertain God's intention, for there were indeed two men on a roof, and they did climb down the same chimney. The first man emerged completely clean while it was the second who was covered with soot, and neither man washed his face, because you forgot to ask me whether there was any water in the basin. There was none.”
― James A. Michener, The Source

“When you are wronged repeatedly, the worst thing you can do is continue taking it--fight back! ”
― Donald Trump

“They celebrate love as though it's power, even though it has killed far more humans than I ever have.”
― Alexandra Christo, To Kill a Kingdom

“An official brought the chief rabbi of a town before the Court of the Inquisition and told him, “We will leave the fate of your people to God. I’m putting two slips of paper in this box. On one is written ‘Guilty.’ On the other is written ‘Innocent.’ Draw.” Now this inquisitor was known to seek the slaughter of all the Jews, and he had written “Guilty” on both pieces of paper. The rabbi put his hand inside the box, withdrew a slip of paper—and swallowed it. “What are you doing?” cried the inquisitor. “How will the court know—” “That’s simple,” said the rabbi. “Examine the slip that’s in the box. If it reads ‘Innocent,’ then the paper I swallowed obviously must have read ‘Guilty.’ But if the paper in the box reads ‘Guilty,’ then the one I swallowed must have read ‘Innocent.”
― Leo Rosten, The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

“Leon, no offense, but you don't exactly look like a hockey player."

"I told 'em I was a goalie. That's where they put the guy who can't skate, right? Just like in baseball when they put the worst player at catcher.”
― Steve Hamilton, Winter of the Wolf Moon

“Once you freeze all the way through to your soul, you will never feel warm again.”
― Steve Hamilton, Winter of the Wolf Moon

“I didn't dare think of the future; the past was still happening.”
― John Grisham, The Street Lawyer

“I don't feel stupid, just inadequate. After three years of studying the law, I'm very much aware of how little I know.”
― John Grisham, The Rainmaker

“Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.”
― John Grisham, The Street Lawyer

“A low mood is not the time to analyze your life. To do so is emotional suicide. If you have a legitimate problem, it will still be there when your state of mind improves. The trick is to be grateful for our good moods and graceful in our low moods—not taking them too seriously. The next time you feel low, for whatever reason, remind yourself, “This too shall pass.” It will.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life

“Certainly our market economy places less value on the work of cleaning houses or working in a child-care center than it does on financial management, the practice of medicine, or jobs in manufacturing. To the extent that these latter fields have been understood as male domain, they represent a piece of the male-dominated system that keeps women in subjugated roles.”
― Sandra Hack Polaski, Inside the Red Tent

“All of these show us the web of relationships that narrative forms, a web that supports and sustains us.”
― Sandra Hack Polaski, Inside the Red Tent

“For some sick reason, fighting with this woman always ended with her panties in my pocket.”
― Christina Lauren, Beautiful Bastard

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.”
― Margaret Atwood , Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing

“She loaded 'Gypsy', her favorite Fleetwood Mac song, into the CD player and remembered dancing to the magical rhythms and harmonizing with her mother so long ago, virtually levitating as though the song lifted them, weightless as roof angels, above the living room floor.”
― Judy Keeslar Santamaria, Jetty Cat Palace Café

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus

“Liminal moments. Those moments apart from time when you are gripped. Taken. When you are so fully absorbed in what you are doing that time ceases to exist.
Those early morning birthday moments were liminal, Sidda thought. Momma knew how to embrace liminality inspite of (or maybe because of) her emotional acrobatics. Momma taught me rapture.”
― Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood