Perspicacity Quotes

“A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world."

[Speech upon being awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003]”
― Susan Sontag

“Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“That's Third Thoughts for you. When a huge rock is going to land on your head, they're the thoughts that think: Is that an igneous rock, such as granite, or is it sandstone?”
― Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

“One must be careful not to take refuge in any delusion.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

“Don't believe what you're told unless your mind
Confirms its truth: palm trunks, lofty as clouds,
Stay wood.”
― Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, Birds Through a Ceiling of Alabaster: Three Abbasid Poets

“Anything, seen without prejudice, is enormous.”
― Mervyn Peake, The Craft of the Lead Pencil