quotables at tank green dot com

Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters

Tank — Sat, 28 May 2005 16:26:18 +0000

“What else can love do? If we’re selling it, we’d better point out that it’s a starting-point for civic virtue. You can’t love someone without imaginative sympathy, without beginning to see the world from another point of view. You can’t be a good lover, a good artist or a good politician without this capacity (you can get away with it, but that’s not what I mean).”

Noah Grey

Tank — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 14:36:43 +0000

“I don’t think it’s about finding happiness, but rather, finding redemption — finding the ability to redeem yourself, to give yourself
back to yourself. And that’s not something you find once and then you’re done; you don’t reach some magical point one day where the whole puzzle falls into place. Every day is the process of looking for the missing pieces — every day you find some new way to give yourself back to yourself, every day is a healing process, every day is a happily-ever-after in progress. It never ends — it’s as eternal as we are.” (Link.)

Carol Tavris, Anger

Tank — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 22:14:59 +0000

“It’s when people leave their “place” in the social heirarchy that the trouble starts. It’s when they start getting uppity and rebellious that they invoke the wrath of the complacent and of the powerful.”

Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker

Tank — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 15:18:31 +0000

“I may not always be right, but I care passionately about what is true and I never say anything that I do not believe to be right.”

Henry Miller, from an interview with George Wicks in The Paris Review (1962)

Tank — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:37:14 +0000

“When a man is crucified, when he dies to himself, the heart opens up like a flower.”

Henry Miller, from an interview with George Wicks in The Paris Review (1962)

Tank — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:36:23 +0000

“Whenever a taboo is broken, something good happens, something vitalizing.”

Henry Miller, from an interview with George Wicks in The Paris Review (1962)

Tank — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:35:16 +0000

“I believe in saying the truth, coming out with it cold, shocking if necessary, not disguising it.”

Indira

Tank — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 12:11:29 +0000

“America is a dumbass country. It’s sad that we’re a superpower in this world. We treat this country like it’s a sports team: Go America!! Kick Iraq’s ass! All right red, white and blue!”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Tank — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:04:56 +0000

“Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a broad consciousness and a deap heart. Truly great men, I think, must feel great sorrow in this world.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Tank — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:03:57 +0000

“In short, I deduce that all, not only great men, but even those who are even a tiny bit off the beaten track - that is, who are a tiny bit capable of saying something new - by their very nature cannot fail to be criminals - more or less, to be sure.”