Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Door Slogans Three

Aphorism 82: “Browsers Welcome!”

Full Quote: “It didn't have a name - just a banner strung across the front, saying in large letters, BROWSERS WELCOME.” From June W. Siegel’s e-mail to Jan Weber, Moderator of the Trollope@Yahoogroup.com

Aphorism 81: “Look for Surprises!”

Full Quote: “People aren’t looking for any more surprises.” Bill Keller, editor of New York Times as quoted by Matthew Rose, The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday July 15, 2003

Aphorism 80: “It’s being on the court!” Chris Evert, professional tennis player.

Aphorism 79: “Catch fire and carry the rest of us forward!” Rick Livingston, Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities

Friday, May 22, 2009

Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres and one Winston Churchill



Aphorism 78: “The main requirement is simple endurance!”

Full Quote: “At the quarry, it was easier to feel that the main requirement was simple endurance.” Jane Smiley, Chapter 32 of A Thousand Acres, 1991, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Aphorism 77: “Accept the gifts that you have been given!”

Full Quote: “The lesson I could not seem to learn was how to refuse the gifts I was to be given.” Chapter 32, Smiley, see 78 above

Aphorism 76: “A blur, that blessing of urban routine!”


Full Quote: “Otherwise, my life passed in a blur, that blessing of urban routine.” Chapter 42, Smiley, see 78 above.

Aphorism 75: “A guide to a man is his conscience!” Winston Churchill from his eulogy to Neville Chamberlain.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Anita Brookner: Hotel du Lac, Final




Aphorism 74: “Celebrate the person that you are!”

Full Quote: “And the enormous celebration of her own person, of her physical charm, so ruthlessly yet innocently set forth, was this altogether attractive in a woman of her age?” Chapter Six

Aphorism 73: “It is a mistake to confuse happiness with one particular situation!”

Full Quote: “’It is a great mistake,’ he resume, after a pause, ‘to confuse happiness with one particular situation, one particular person.’” Chapter Seven

Aphorism 72: “There is a sorrow of reminiscence!”

Full Quote: “Her mother was stimulated into reminiscences of the coffee houses of her youth, and had talked vividly and amusingly, before falling once again into the sorrow of reminiscence.” Chapter 8

Aphorism 71: “Outwit disappointment!

Full Quote: “But Edith, who had spent the years of her youth in silence and wariness, and who, in order to outwit disappointment, had learnt not to make claims.” Chapter 12

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Door Slogans for Graduates



Aphorism 70: “Be Skeptical of received Wisdom!” John J. Mearsheimer

Full Quote: “Specifically, we teach you to think for yourself and to be skeptical of received wisdom.” Keynote address, June 11 and 12, 2004, The 477th Convocation, University of Chicago.

Aphorism 69: “Achievement is a prerequisite!” Edwin L. Colodny

Comment: From “A Year of Achievement,” a position booklet provided by Dr. Edwin I. Colodny, Interim President University of Vermont, April 15, 2002

Aphorism 68: “Push Out of Comfort and Into Challenge!” Diane Lane

Full Quote: “And we need to push ourselves out of comfort and into challenge in order to grow.” As quoted by Bob Strauss from “Leading Lady at Last” in Los Angeles Daily News as reprinted in the Times-Picayune, September 27, 2003,Section E Page 1-2.


Aphorism 67: “Bring Light Into Dark Places!” Donald Newlove

Full Quote: “Again and again in Ironweed, Kennedy’s power to bring light into dark places and to write tragic dialogue ring with Shakespearean blackness strikes me as the happiest art.” From First Paragraphs: Inspired Openings for Writers and Readers, St. Martin’s Press, NY, 1992.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

John Le Carré



Aphorism 66: “Age is not an excuse!”

Full Quote: “Age is not an excuse. It never was and never will be.” Absolute Friends, 2003.

Aphorism 65: “I walk to keep company with my mind!”

Full Quote: “I walk to keep company with my mind, I drink to hide from it.” The Russian House, 1989.

Aphorism 64: “Another time, another life, another couple of brandies!” Single and Single, 1999.

Aphorism 63: “Dream to play one perfect note!” Our Game, 1995

Monday, May 11, 2009

Anita Brookner Interview by John Haffenden

Aphorism 62: “Regression effect acknowledged, the centre cannot hold!”

Full Quote: “But the centre cannot hold. Those two activities that you've mentioned are outside the natural order, I only ever wanted children, six sons.” Anita Brookner as quoted by John Haffenden, “Novelists in Interview,” London, New York, Methuen

Aphorism 61: “One's character determines one's fate!”

Full Quote: “I think one's character or predisposition determines one's fate. I'm afraid.” See above

Aphorism 60: “The power of images!”

Full Quote: “ What attracted me to art history is the power of images which act differently from words. Images recur in a way that words don’t.”

Aphorism 59: "Pull order out of chaos!"

Full Quote: "The artists of the eighteenth century were obsessed with pulling order out of the surrounding chaos, whereas in the nineteenth century it seemed more powerful and more valid to dissolve order . . . more true to the human condition."

Sunday, May 10, 2009

LeCarre, Tyler, Donne


Aphorism 58: “Choose what to lose!”

Full Quote: “’After a certain age’ he told Sarah, ‘it seems to me you can only chose what to lose.” Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist, Alfred A. Knopt, NY, 1985, p. 310

Aphorism 57: “Deal in the art of the legitimate!”

Full Quote: “He dealt in the art of the legitimate, in transferring informal assets to firmer grounds.” John Le Carre from Single and Single, Scribner, 1999. P.21.

Aphorism 56: “Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee!” John Donne

Aphorism 55: “If you are an alien, at least try to act normal!”

Full Quote: To live on Earth, aliens have to blend in.” Inspired by Men in Black II, quote appeared on a Burger King food sack.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Web Browsing



Aphorism 51: “Never sell the mother plant!”

Full Quote: “When selling bonsai, never sell the mother plant.” Francis Q. Nguyen, amateur gardener par excellent, private conversation, May 7, 2009. Advise about doing business on EBay.

Aphorism 52: “There is an earned innocence!”

Full Quote: “There is an earned innocence, I believe, which is as much to be honored as the innocence of children.” From Gilead, a novel by Marilynne Robinson as quoted by “Kilian in Tucson” on the Trollope@yahoogroups.com on line Anthony Trollope reading group. May 7, 2009.

Aphorism 53: “Anywhere but here!”

Full Quote: “I picked up a hitchhiker once with a sign ‘anywhere but here.’” Reported by “Kilian in Tucson” on the Trollope@yahoogroups.com on line Anthony Trollope reading group. May 7, 2009.

Aphorism 54: "No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent!"

Comment: attributed to Susan B. Anthony by Dr. Drew, http://twitter.com/drdrew

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Anita Brookner: The Bay of Angels, 2001.



Aphorism 47: “Prefer to suffer!”

Full Quote: “Uncensored behavior seemed to me unbelievably dangerous, and like the Spartan boy with the fox under his shirt I preferred to suffer.” Chapter Six

Aphorism 48: “Beware of uncensored behavior!”

Full Quote: see 47 above

Aphorism 49: “Pay your dues to friendship!”

Full Quote: “Thus I failed to pay my dues to friendship, persuading myself that in time I should do what was expected of and offer up my broken hopes for their scrutiny.” Chapter Six

Aphorism 50: “Never allow unhappiness to become routine!”

Full Quote: “It was after all a banal disappointment. My unhappiness became routine, my secret dialogues with an absent Adam ceased to ramify.” Chapter Six

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Door Slogans Part III



Aphorism 43: “Virtues of Trend Resistance!”

Full Quote: “The restaurant’s food is a testament to the virtues of trend resistance, and the kitchen’s renderings of classic French-Creole dishes are hard to surpass.” By Brett Anderson in “Creole Contretemps”, The Times-Picayune, Section E, p. 3, July 7, 2002.

Aphorism 44: “Serve the Picture!”

Full Quote: “They all want to show their talents, but they must serve the picture.” By Roman Polanski as quoted from an interview on cable television concerning Polanski’s appreciation of the actors in the award winning movie Pianist, April 2004.

Aphorism 45: “Good People Learn to Like Each Other!”

Full Quote: “Good people learn to like each other if they are given a chance by being together.” By Ward, written as an entry to Trollope@yahoogroups.com on-line discussion group, May 9, 2004.

Aphorism 46: “To stir up undisputed matters seemed a reward in itself.” By Sallust, Roman historian, friend of Julius Caesar.