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other people's words and me
Aug. 16th, 2004 09:18 pmI like quotes a lot. Maybe a little too much.
I'd like to think this quote is a good description of me:
"There was also in his nature a trait which some people might have called laziness, though it was not quite that. No one was capable of harder work, when it had to be done, and few could better shoulder responsibility; but the facts remained that he was not passionately fond of activity, and did not enjoy responsibility at all. Both were included in his job, and he made the best of them, but he was always ready to give way to anyone else who could function as well or better. It was partly this, no doubt, that had made his success in the Service less striking than it might have been. He was not ambitious enough to shove his way past others, or to make an important parade of nothing when there was really nothing doing. His dispatches were sometimes laconic to the point of curtness, and his calm in emergencies, though admired, was often suspected of being sincere. Authority likes to feel that a man is imposing effort on himself, and that his apparent nonchalance is only a cloak to disguise an outfit of well-bred emotions. With Conway the dark suspicion was that he really was as unruffled as he looked, and that whatever happened, he did not give a damn. But this, too, like the laziness, was an imperfect observation. What most observers failed to perceive in him was something quite bafflingly simple- a love of quietness, contemplation, and being alone."
That's from Lost Horizon, by James Hilton. My sister recommended it to me; I guess she thought I'd identify with the main character.
Actually, it was my brother who originally spurred me to reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, saying that Dr. Frankenstein had reminded him of me. Reading the book I was surprised to find I identified a great deal with Frankenstein. I didn't realize how well my brother actually knew me, I guess.
Here's another that really makes me think of me:
"I know myself often foolish and sometimes weak- lonely and frightened, too much inclined to passive good nature and all too ready, as I have said, to desert my closest friends in pursuit of some ideal."
That's from Urth of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe. It's kind of an epilogue book to the Book of the New Sun, one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. That quote's kind of my negative vision of myself, I guess.
me me me
"It's my birthday present to meee! Oh, I'm so happy..."
I'd like to think this quote is a good description of me:
"There was also in his nature a trait which some people might have called laziness, though it was not quite that. No one was capable of harder work, when it had to be done, and few could better shoulder responsibility; but the facts remained that he was not passionately fond of activity, and did not enjoy responsibility at all. Both were included in his job, and he made the best of them, but he was always ready to give way to anyone else who could function as well or better. It was partly this, no doubt, that had made his success in the Service less striking than it might have been. He was not ambitious enough to shove his way past others, or to make an important parade of nothing when there was really nothing doing. His dispatches were sometimes laconic to the point of curtness, and his calm in emergencies, though admired, was often suspected of being sincere. Authority likes to feel that a man is imposing effort on himself, and that his apparent nonchalance is only a cloak to disguise an outfit of well-bred emotions. With Conway the dark suspicion was that he really was as unruffled as he looked, and that whatever happened, he did not give a damn. But this, too, like the laziness, was an imperfect observation. What most observers failed to perceive in him was something quite bafflingly simple- a love of quietness, contemplation, and being alone."
That's from Lost Horizon, by James Hilton. My sister recommended it to me; I guess she thought I'd identify with the main character.
Actually, it was my brother who originally spurred me to reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, saying that Dr. Frankenstein had reminded him of me. Reading the book I was surprised to find I identified a great deal with Frankenstein. I didn't realize how well my brother actually knew me, I guess.
Here's another that really makes me think of me:
"I know myself often foolish and sometimes weak- lonely and frightened, too much inclined to passive good nature and all too ready, as I have said, to desert my closest friends in pursuit of some ideal."
That's from Urth of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe. It's kind of an epilogue book to the Book of the New Sun, one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. That quote's kind of my negative vision of myself, I guess.
me me me
"It's my birthday present to meee! Oh, I'm so happy..."
