"She was well aware that she must ultimately come forward and stand revealed in her proper individuality; but,
like other sensitive persons, she could not bear to be observed in the gradual process, and chose rather to flash
forth on the world's astonished gaze at once."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (The House of the Sevven Gables)
"He did not know what to do or what to think. Finally, he went over to the table and wrote a passionate letter
to the girl he loved, imploring her forgiveness, and accusing himself of madness. He covered page after page
with wild words of sorrow, and wilder words of pain. There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves
we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
When Dorian Gray finished the letter, he felt that he had been forgiven."
- Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
"Someone might come up and talk to him, he might strike up a conversation with the old man who walked here
every day, but this, while not impossible, was unlikely. The problem, it occured to him, was that we think of
life in circular terms but instead we get an uneven line, and this park bench is just one point on the line,
one point only, and nothing ever circles back and becomes whole as we know it should.
- Frank Huyler (The Laws of Invisible Thinggs)
"Perhaps. Perhaps. But take what is for me the central fact of all history." He pointed sweepingly at the crucifix. "As a Catholic the facts are plain to me; I believe what is written in the Gospels to be literally true: that the Son of Man died for me on that cross. But what are the facts for a contemporary Roman statesman? That an obscure local agitator threatened the stability of an uneasy province and was promptly executed in the approved Roman fashion, as a warning to others. And for a contemporary fellow countryman? That no such person existed. YOu think these facts are mutually exclusive? Yet you know that no two people see exactly the same thing, too many honest witnesses have contradicted each other. Even the Gospels must be reconciled."
"You are saying that truth is relative."
"Am I? Then I shall have my tongue examined, or my head. Because I mean to
say no such thing. Truth is absolute and for all time. But one man
cannot envisage all of truth; the best he can do is see one aspect of it
whole. That is why I say to you, be a skeptic, Hodge. Always be the
skeptic."
- Ward Moore (Bring the Jubilee)
"Don't think you can beat them without using force! Don't be decieved...when our revolution has been finally stamped out
and they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even
if you've got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods, and even if it seemed to you that
you never had so much. That is only the slogan of those who have that much more than you. Don't be taken in when they pat
you paternally on the shoulder and tell you there's no more inequality worth speaking of and no more reason for fighting.
If you believe them they will be completely in charge in their shining homes and granite banks from which they rob the
people of the world under the pretense of bringing them freedom. Watch out! For as soon as it pleases them they will
send you out to protect their wealth... in war! Those weapons rapidly developed by servile scientists will become more
and more deadly till they can, with the flick of a finger, tear a million of you to pieces."
~ spoken by Jean-Paul Marat in "THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE
INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE" acted out by the Royal Shakespeare
Company