Quote Digest

[ZeaLitY]

Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed.

Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

The virtuous man is driven by responsibility, the non-virtuous man is driven by profit.

When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.

In archery we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.

[tushantin]

A scarcastic comment sounds rather dangerous.  Does it leave a permanent scar?

At first, I was gonna mention, "When Bartimaeus is sarcastic it's always dangerous", but then I realized what ya meant. Whoops! Fixed the error. Thanks! xD

But yeah, Bartimaeus' sarcasm always leaves a permanent scar! He loathes us humans, despises the way we think and wants us get trampled by an army of the dead (Thus, the beginning of Mystic Wars in Chrono Trigger). You like Harry Potter and Chrono Trigger, so you have every reason to enjoy this books (marriage of both worlds) and laugh your ass off.  

“Can you define ‘plan’ as ‘a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision and ignorance’? If so, it was a very good plan.”

(Bartimaeus) "I wanted to wake you straightaway, but I knew I had to wait several hours to ensure you were safely recovered."
(Nathaniel) "What! How long has it been?"
(Bartimaeus) "Five minutes, I got bored."

According to some (generally those who don't have to do it; politicians and writers spring to mind), heroic deaths are admirable things. I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead.

[Thought]

"I can respect a dessert that requires a blowtorch." Rachel Held Evans (although I am not 100% positive on this).

[Shee]

"I can respect a dessert that requires a blowtorch." Rachel Held Evans (although I am not 100% positive on this).

CREEPINESS
I spent last night in a few comedy clubs/bars trying to hammer out a joke about when I saw Gordon Ramsay bust out a blowtorch for a dessert.  (For the record, I thought it was absurd.)

[Mr Bekkler]

Creme brulee! I make a mean one-o-those!

[Lord J Esq]

That's my dessert-o-choice when I'm at a new restaurant. I love creme brulee and it's hard to do it really well. I use creme brulee as one of the measures of a restaurant's competencies...sorta like how I usually get a plain old latte when I go to a cafe for the first time, or a clam chowder when I go to a fish house for the first time.

[Mr Bekkler]

The trick is the angle of the torch and an even, consistent rotation of the brulee dish. And, obviously, not burning the living sh*x out of yourself from the caramelized sugar. (In the preparation, it's all about consistency. Cooked too much and it tastes like straight egg. Cooked too little and it's like soup.)  It took several failures and months of pinky finger healing before I got the hang of the latter part of said trick.

[Thought]

... the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

[tushantin]

'Learn a lesson,' Crowe said amiably. 'Traps can be reversed. That's the difference between animals and humans - rabbits don't suddenly turn around and hunt foxes, but men can switch roles. Prey can become predator. Look out for the signs. If your prey is leadin' you somewhere isolated then just maybe they've spotted you and want to get you alone.'

He turned and took a step forward. Something crunched beneath his feet. He looked down, and saw a white section of bone protruding from the ground. He'd stepped on it, cracking it in two. Boxes sometimes get dropped, the feral boy had said. Smashed. It looked like the contents got left where they had fallen. All this pomp and circumstance for the dead -- special trains, a massive city of the day at Brookwood -- and yet the remains were just left to rot where they fell if the coffins got broken. It was as if the spectacle was more important than the actuality. The mourners did not know, or maybe even did not care, whether the family member they had lost was in the coffin when it was buried.

Eventually he (Sherlock) turned away and started to walk in the direction Crow had indicated. He passed taverns and shops, market stalls and people standing on street corners with trays of goods. And people -- all kinds of people, from toffs in in fine clothes to urchins in rags. London was indeed a melting pot for all humanity.

Constable: ...but I think she more or less told the Commissioner of Police to replace them, or she would replace him.
Amyus Crowe: Interestin' that a woman has so much power in a country that denies its women the vote an' the opportunity to own property.

Rufus Stone: Suffice to say there was an actress, and a vacancy in the Salisbury Playhouse pit orchestra, and the chance to gaze up at her beautiful face all evening as I played and she acted her little heart out.
Sherlock: What happened?
Rufus Stone: (winced) She parceled that same heart up and gave it to the leading man, of course. As they always do, of course, buoyed up by the admiring glances of their followers in the pit.

Too many questions and logic did not seem to be any help. Logic was telling him that if this was alright then that was alright as well, but instinctively he knew that there was a difference. There were limits. The trouble was, he didn't know where they had come from or how to think about them properly.

And all this because he hadn't given his horse a name.

Sherlock: I think Mycroft knows. I think he warned me about her earlier.
Amyus Crowe: (Smiled) Your brother knows a lot of things. And the things he don't know generally ain't worth knowin' anyway.

[Thought]

I don't often quote the compendium itself, but...

Writing can be immensely enjoyable...and damn annoying.

[Sajainta]

Always learn poems by heart.  They have to become the marrow in your bones.  Like fluoride in the water, they’ll make your soul impervious to the world’s soft decay.

[Syna]

That's gorgeous. I have, somewhere, an ongoing list of poems I want to memorize -- I keep forgetting about them, because there's no direct use when you can just google the poem, but I must get around to them soon. There's something to memorization and recitation that just feels soul-nourishing.

I sometimes think I may use my memorized poems the way some people use prayer. I'm not sure, but I certainly understand why people chant mantras when I recite "Kubla Khan" to myself.

.

ALSO,

If the egg's shell does not break... the chick will die without being born. We are the chick; the egg is the world. Break the world's shell! For the sake of revolutionizing the world!

UTENA IS AMAZING

[alfadorredux]

::Sigh:: The fact that I can still recite the Utena version of that quote (which doesn't quite match what you have here, so I assume you posted the Damien version) makes me a big anime geek, I guess.

[tushantin]

I sometimes think I may use my memorized poems the way some people use prayer. I'm not sure, but I certainly understand why people chant mantras when I recite "Kubla Khan" to myself.

True!

Kinda reminds me of an incident at the institute. It was our examination time, and before we began a lot of us began to pray before their paper in unison, all asking for strength and wisdom (and luck) to pass the test. And I broke into my prayer aloud:

"Do the impossible, see the invisible;
ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH!
Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable;
ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH!"

They laughed at me, asking, "What the hell was that?" I told them this was my prayer and it instantly gave me all the strength I need to tear the heavens. They thought I was crazy. xDDD

But a friend of mine goes by a similar, even more badass prayer:

Another dream that will never come true
Just to compliment your sorrow
Another life that I've taken from you
A gift to add on to your pain and suffering
Another truth you can never believe
Has crippled you completely
All the cries you're beginning to hear
Trapped in your mind, and the sound is deafening

Let me enlighten you
This is the way I pray:

[Chorus:]
Living just isn't hard enough
Burn me alive, inside
Living my life's not hard enough
Take everything away

[Syna]

::Sigh:: The fact that I can still recite the Utena version of that quote (which doesn't quite match what you have here, so I assume you posted the Damien version) makes me a big anime geek, I guess.

No, it just makes you awesome. CRACK THE WORLD'S SHELL!