Benno Quotes & Sayings

Yale is a crucible in American life for the accommodation of intellectual achievement, of wisdom, of refinement, with the democratic ideals of openness, of social justice and of equal opportunity. — Benno C. Schmidt Jr.

Poetry is the least imposition on silence in a world of chatter. — Marvin Bell

An avidity for more is built into the love of movies. Something else is built in: you have to be open to the idea of getting drunk on movies. (Being able to talk about movies with someone
to share the giddy high excitement you feel
is enough for a friendship. — Pauline Kael

If there's only one God, your God is also the God of your enemy. — Benno Van Der Toren

But now it's time for all of us to face the truth. It's time for the last Ever After, Sophie — Soman Chainani

The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses. The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and to liberate the mind ... Attitudes on campuses often presage tendencies in the larger society. If that is so with respect to freedom of expression, the erosion of principle we have seen throughout our society in recent years may be only the beginning ... — Benno C. Schmidt Jr.

You can't live and write at the same time. — Alison Bechdel

Privacy is absolutely essential to maintaining a free society. The idea that is at the foundation of the notion of privacy is that the citizen is not the tool or instrument of government - but the reverse ... If you have no privacy, it will tend to follow that you have no political freedom ... — Benno C. Schmidt Jr.

Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height. — George Chapman

It was like my hormones had decided to stage a revolt whenever he got within a ten-foot radius. — Lili St. Crow

Thanks," Johann finally said. "It's the irony of war. Those who want to live, die. Those who want to die, live on. — Lee Strauss

It is always the silly things that remind me — Alexandra Potter

To take the measure of oneself by reference to one's colleagues leads to envy or complacency rather than constructive self-examination. — Benno C. Schmidt Jr.

Who you are vs. who you wish you were: Who wins? — Julian Casablancas

Myrtle


How funny your name would be
if you could follow it back to where
the first person thought of saying it,
naming himself that, or maybe
some other persons thought of it
and named that person. It would
be like following a river to its source,
which would be impossible. Rivers have no source.
They just automatically appear at a place
where they get wider, and soon a real
river comes along, with fish and debris,
regal as you please, and someone
has already given it a name: St. Benno
(saints are popular for this purpose) or, or
some other name, the name of his
long-lost girlfriend, who comes
at long last to impersonate that river,
on a stage, her voice clanking
like its bed, her clothing of sand
and pasted paper, a piece of real technology,
while all along she is thinking, I can
do what I want to do. But I want to stay here. — John Ashbery

Whoever is in charge of such things had been sparing with his blessings on the moment Benno was born. He had neither looks nor wit nor skill. He was not large or strong, he could not sing; in fact, he had a stammer, which on most occasions left him self-consciously mute. One gift only had been given, a gift as simple as it is rare: the gift of pure goodness. He knew, unerringly, what was right, what was kind, what would make people happy, and he did it without fail. His goodness took no effort; there was no internal scale to be balanced. He hoped for no reward and feared no hell. He was not clever- in his final year of school before the teachers despaired of him, he was asked how he would equitably divide a half-pound loaf of bread among himself and two friends. He said he would go without and his two friends would each have a quarter pound, and neither threats of failure not the switch could persuade him to change his answer. — Laura L. Sullivan

Yale's greatness carries an urgent need to guard against the fall of excellence into exclusivity, of refinement into preciousness, of elegance into class and convention. — Benno C. Schmidt Jr.

My kids and I make pasta three days a week now. It's not even so much about the eating of it; they just like the process. Benno is the stuffer, and Leo is the catcher. They've got their jobs down. — Mario Batali

Benno was the kind of bully who did what the bigger bullies told him to do. He didn't make his own judgments. And he wasn't stupid enough to think he could override Caine's orders. Something — Michael Grant

We should not try to understand God from what we think we know about love, but rather we should strive to understand love in the light of who God is. — Benno Van Der Toren

Sam's eyes wandered up to the camera again. "Are we being recorded?" "Yes." "Who's watching us right now?" The detective sighed. "A couple of really experienced police officers. Actually, I have no idea. Wave if you want to." Sam lifted a hand and wiggled a few fingers. — Jennifer Hillier

Reason can never prove the existence of God. — Immanuel Kant

Obama was willing to compromise and Republicans were not. That's not a biased statement. One of my problems with the limitations of journalism is that straightforward descriptions of reality are seen as being biased. — Jonathan Alter

I think it's very, very important that people outside the capital cities, not just Sydney and Melbourne but also Brisbane Perth Adelaide and so on, have the greatest access to the best cultural experiences they can in both the performing arts and the visual arts. — George Brandis

You gotta love the cops. They start the night ready to shoot someone's eyes off and at the same time ready to carry a child with a grandmother's tenderness. Ready to shatter and ready to soothe at the touch of a trigger, a good cop is an amazing animal. — Marc Parent

Benno blushed violently. "I am not a murderer!" he protested. "No one is, until he commits his first crime," William said philosophically. — Umberto Eco