Bloch Quotes & Sayings

Sam, what do you think happened? — Robert Bloch

Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly... — Robert Bloch

But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding. — Marc Bloch

The universe is simmering down, like a giant stew left to cook for four billion years. Sooner or later we won't be able to tell the carrots from the onions. — Arthur Bloch

The historian is, by definition, absolutely incapable of observing the facts which he examines. — Marc Bloch

People hear that I am a horror writer and they think that I must be a monster, but actually I have the heart of a small child - I keep it in a jar on my desk. — Robert Bloch

It is surely not unreasonable to think that this extraordinary immunity [to foreign invasions after the tenth century], of which we have shared the privilege with scarcely any people but the Japanese, was one of the fundamental factors of European civilization, in the deepest sense, in the exact sense of the word. — Marc Bloch

Any given program will expand to fill all available memory. — Arthur Bloch

Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him. — Robert Bloch

The cleaner and nicer the program, the faster it's going to run. And if it doesn't, it'll be easy to make it fast. — Joshua Bloch

The very names we use to describe ancient ideas or vanished forms of social organization would be quite meaningless if we had not known living men. — Marc Bloch

I urge you with all sincerity to get to work, write a book, write two - three - four books, just as a matter of course. Don't worry about 'wasting' an idea or 'spoiling' a plot by going too fast. If you are capable of turning out a masterpiece, you'll get other and even better ideas in the future. Right now your job is to write, and to write books so that by so doing you'll gain the experience to write still better books later on. — Robert Bloch

She'd thrown something at the mirror, and then the mirror broke into a thousand pieces and she knew that wasn't all; she was breaking into a thousand pieces, too. — Robert Bloch

The thought came creeping, just as the numbness came creeping, stealing over his senses, softly, smoothly, there in the silken silence. — Robert Bloch

You are a child of the universe, "fearfully and wonderfully made." In the history of creation, there has never been anyone like you. Accept this reality about yourself- that you are a special, unique human being who has a place on this earth that no one else can fill. Acknowledge yourself as a glorious expression of your loving Creator. This healthy self-love will form the foundation of a joyful and satisfying life. Then, as you love and accept yourself, your inner light will shine outward to bless and heal your fellow human beings. — Douglas Bloch

Mother had wandered off - where? Was she out on the highway, ready to be picked up by anyone who might come driving by? Was she still suffering a hysterical reaction, would the shock of what she had done cause her to blurt out the truth to whoever came along and found her? Had she actually run away, or was she merely in a daze? Maybe she'd gone down past the woods back of the house, along the narrow ten-acre strip of their land which stretched off into the swamp. Wouldn't it be better to search for her first? Norman sighed and shook — Robert Bloch

The ethical decision is always the fearsome decision. When something matters enough that we are afraid of the consequences afraid that even the honorable choice could result in harm or loss or sorrow that's when ethics are involved. — Henry W. Bloch

Man is that which has still much before it. He is repeatedly transformed in his work and by it. [...] The authentic in man and in the world is potential, waiting, living in fear of being frustrated, living in hope of succeeding. — Ernst Bloch

You can't make a good deal with a bad person. — Robert L. Bloch

He [Bloch] was one of those touchy, highly-strung people who cannot bear to have made a blunder, will not admit it to themselves, and whose whole day is ruined by it. — Marcel Proust

A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates. — Bernard Bloch

God helps me--that's what I think--and then I am calm. — Carl Bloch

I would not be among you to-night (being awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) but for the mentors, colleagues and students who have guided and aided me throughout my scientific life. I wish I could name them all and tell you their contributions. More, however, than anyone else it was the late Rudolf Schoenheimer, a brilliant scholar and a man of infectious enthusiasm, who introduced me to the wonders of Biochemistry. Ever since, I have been happy to have chosen science as my career, and, to borrow a phrase of Jacques Barzun, have felt that 'Science is, in the best and strictest sense, glorious entertainment'. — Konrad Bloch

Lila closed her mouth, but the scream continued. It was the insane scream of an hysterical woman, and it came from the throat of Norman Bates. — Robert Bloch

As she reached the landing, the thunder came. The whole house seemed to shake with it. — Robert Bloch

When working on a project, if you put away a tool that you're certain you're finished with, you will need it instantly. — Arthur Bloch

The nature of our intelligence is such that it is stimulated far less by the will to know than by the will to understand. — Marc Bloch

What I do instead is I will cheerfully spend literally hours on identifier names: variable names, method names, and so forth, to make my code readable. If you read some expression using these identifiers and it reads like an English sentence, your program is much more likely to be correct, and much easier to maintain. — Joshua Bloch

We like to test things ... no matter how good an idea sounds, test it first. — Henry W. Bloch

Their smiles were cracking. Glass is brittle. — Robert Bloch

One advantage of static factory methods is that, unlike constructors, they have names. — Joshua Bloch

Favor composition over inheritance, — Joshua Bloch

Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings. — Robert Bloch

She was the only one left, and she was real.
To be the only one, and to know that you are real - that's sanity, isn't it?
But just to be on the safe side, maybe it was best to keep pretending that one was a stuffed figure. Not to move. Never to move. Just to sit here in the tiny room, forever and ever.
If she sat there without moving, they wouldn't punish her.
If she sat there without moving, they'd know that she was sane, sane, sane.
She sat there for quite a long time, and then a fly came buzzing through the bars.
It lighted on her hand.
If she wanted to, she could reach out and swat the fly.
But she didn't swat it.
She didn't swat it, and she hoped they were watching, because that proved what sort of a person she really was.
Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly ... — Robert Bloch

Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cause of errors, or until someone insists on getting some useful work done. — Arthur Bloch

Once you began speculation about that, once you admited to yourself that you didn't really know how another person's mind operated, then you came up against the ultimate admission - anything was possible. — Robert Bloch

A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. — Arthur Bloch

Medieval men had little control over their immediate impulses; they were emotionally insensitive to the spectacle of pain, and they had small regard for human life, which they saw only as a transitory state before Eternity; moreover, they were very prone to make it a point of honor to display their physical strength in an almost animal way (411) — Marc Bloch

What kind of a hick town is this, anyway?" she murmured. "A bank is held up and the sheriff is in church. What's he doing, praying that somebody will catch the robbers for him? — Robert Bloch

But she didn't listen, she was in the bathroom, she was getting dressed, she was putting on make-up, she was getting ready. Getting ready. — Robert Bloch

Magic
that's just a label, you know. Completely meaningless. It wasn't so very long ago that people were saying that electricity was magic. — Robert Bloch

The lawyer was Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of a venerated Viennese composer who had fled the rise of Hitler. The return of this ominous heir was anything but welcome. The painting Schoenberg sought was a shimmering gold masterpiece, painted a century earlier, by the artistic heretic Gustav Klimt. It was a portrait of a Viennese society beauty, Adele Bloch-Bauer. — Anne-Marie O'Connor

The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else he can blame it on. — Robert Bloch

Even more than the depression, it was my anxiety and agitation that became the defining symptoms of my illness. Like epileptic seizures, a series of frenzied anxiety attacks would descend upon me without warning. My body was possessed by a chaotic, demonic force which led to my shaking, pacing and violently hitting myself across the chest or in the head. This self-flagellation seemed to provide a physical outlet for my invisible torment, as if I were letting steam out of a pressure cooker. — Douglas Bloch

So I had this problem
work or starve. So I thought I'd combine the two and decided to become a writer. — Robert Bloch

Norman Bates will never die... — Robert Bloch

The Ninety-Ninety Rule of Project Schedules - the first ninety percent of the task takes ninety percent of the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety percent. — Arthur Bloch

If you improve or tinker with something long enough, eventually it will break or malfunction. — Arthur Bloch

The good historian is like the giant of the fairy tale. He knows that wherever he catches the scent of human flesh, there his quarry lies. — Marc Bloch

As you begin to live in the present moment, you will experience a subtle but profound change. Worrying about the future will cease. A deep peace will enfold you, a peace that says, 'all is well. There is nothing to fear. Everything is unfolding according to plan, and you are being guided each step along the way. — Douglas Bloch

There is no pain quite like that of a broken heart. But a broken heart is an open heart. When we allow ourselves to be broken, a gentle transformation takes place. — Douglas Bloch

The most tragic form of loss isn't the loss of security; it's the loss of the capacity to imagine that things could be different. — Ernst Bloch

First Rule of Acting: Whatever happens, look as if it were intended. — Arthur Bloch

There's nothing to this telepathy business. It's all in the mind. — Robert Bloch

Friends come and go but enemies accumulate. — Arthur Bloch

Inheritance adds complexity to a program, and, as such, it's a dangerous technique. As Java guru Joshua Bloch says, "Design and document for inheritance, or prohibit it." If a class isn't designed to be inherited from, make its members non-virtual in C++, final in Java, or non-overridable in Microsoft Visual Basic so that you can't inherit from it. — Steve McConnell

A second advantage of static factory methods is that, unlike constructors, they are not required to create a new object each time they're invoked. — Joshua Bloch

The room was plainly but adequately furnished; she noted the shower stall in the bathroom beyond. Actually, she would have preferred a tub, but this would do. — Robert Bloch

And Ricardo has no interest in the war coming to a rapid end. He is making a fortune out of it. So long as it continues and Portuguese neutrality is maintained, he will become one of the richest men in Europe. — Michael Bloch

She was afrad of him, now. Yes, she must be. Because not once, all through this, had she called him "son". — Robert Bloch

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. — Arthur Bloch

The car was in the swamp. And the hamper was in the trunk. And the body was in the hamper. The twisted torso and the bloody head. But he couldn't think about that. He mustn't. There were other things to do. — Robert Bloch

The light shone down on his plump face, reflected from his rimless glasses, bathed the pinkness of his scalp beneath the thinning sandy hair as he bent his head to resume reading. — Robert Bloch

Free imagination is the inestimable prerogative of youth and it must be cherished and guarded as a treasure. — Felix Bloch

I'VE never seen such a look of mortal agony on a human face before. She screamed quite a bit before she died, and the last shriek was forever frozen on her face. — Robert Bloch

I know why you didn't bother to switch on the sign. I know why you haven't even gone up to open the office tonight. You didn't really forget. It's just that you don't want anyone to come, you hope they don't come." "All — Robert Bloch

Evil exists everywhere. Sometimes I think our limited senses are designed to protect us from awareness of its presence. We trust them to provide us with knowledge but it may be that they block out realization of horrors we cannot bear. — Robert Bloch

Builder pattern is more verbose than the telescoping constructor pattern, so it should be used only if there are enough parameters, say, four or more. — Joshua Bloch

Marc Bloch was born in 1886, fought in World War I, — Clive James

Besides, that thing was waiting for him. Waiting for him - — Robert Bloch

A foolish man tells a woman to stop talking, but a wise man tells her that her mouth is extremely beautiful when her lips are closed. — Robert Bloch

HLADE'S LAW:

If you have a difficult task give it to a lazy man - he will find an easier way to do it. — Arthur Bloch

Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed. — Robert Bloch

I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar on my shelf. — Robert Bloch

When it is a question of ascertaining whether or not some human act has really taken place, [historians] cannot be too painstaking. If they proceed to the reasons for that act, they are content with the merest appearance, ordinarily founded upon one of those maxims of common-place psychology which are neither more nor less true than their opposites. — Marc Bloch

Forget the past, let the dead bury the dead. Things were working out fine, and that was the only thing he had to remember. — Robert Bloch

Where are the ethical concerns, that so many people called animal lovers invoke, when you steal the children of wild dog mothers and other family members from right before their eyes? Do ethics always refer only to what people think appropriate for purely subjective reasons?
Ultimately, our long-term research resulted in a very sad picture: With the exception of the random puppy, who today as an adult actually is interested in people, neither male Maccia nor the most of the other "rescued" dogs are socially and environmentally secure, but had remained shy and partly vegetate in kennels with empty eyes. Such dogs are neither fish nor fowl, although taken from the wild population in the early age of about eight to twelve weeks (except Maccia, whom Funny "rescued" at the age of four months, which is even more irresponsible). — Gunther Bloch

But meanwhile he had to do something about the way his heart pounded. — Robert Bloch

No trouble at all. Mother's gone back to bed, and she won't be doing any cooking - I was only going to set out some cold cuts and make some coffee. If that's all right with you." "Well - — Robert Bloch

Thanking you once more, I want to wish you the best of luck for your future life and to conclude by saying to you: Dream your dreams and may they come true! — Felix Bloch

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. — Robert Bloch

Premature optimization is the root of all evil. - Donald E. Knuth [ — Joshua Bloch

Yes, Norman, I suppose you're right. That's where I'd probably be. But I wouldn't be there alone." Norman slammed the door, locked it, and turned away. He wasn't quite sure, but as he ran up the cellar steps he thought he could still hear her chuckling gently in the dark. — Robert Bloch

Murder was a terrible thing. Even if you're not quite right in the head, you can realize that much. Mother must be suffering quite a bit. Perhaps — Robert Bloch

Why do we personify time? Is it because we're afraid to admit that our lives are measured by an abstract force that neither knows nor cares about our entry into existence? Or our departure into death? Time is our mysterious master giving it a face and hands we attempt to transform it into our servant. — Robert Bloch

Forget the pat, let the dead burry the dead. — Robert Bloch

Mother would be in real trouble right now. — Robert Bloch

A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle. — Arthur Bloch

Henderson sighed. There was a time, he reflected, when the coming of this night meant something. A dark Europe, groaning in superstitious fear, dedicated this Eve to the grinning Unknown. A million doors had once been barred against the evil visitants, a million prayers mumbled, a million candles lit. There was something majestic about the idea, Henderson reflected. — Robert Bloch

The lesson is clear: As impractical as it may sound, the safest and most secure way to lead your life is to follow your dream. — Douglas Bloch

I haven't had this much fun since the rats ate my baby sister — Robert Bloch

Being doped is a pleasure you pay for. There was always opium there for the people
in the end it tainted their whole faith. If the Church had not always stood so watchfully behind the ruling powers, there would not have been such attacks against everything it stood for
although of course it may have been competing with them for the first place among the rulers, as in the Middle Ages. Whenever it was a question of keeping the serfs, and then the paid slaves down, the dope-dealers came unfailingly to the help of the oppressors. — Ernst Bloch

Instead of explaining the sober facts of mechanics and electricity, I want to say a few words about the debt which we owe to youth; and with your permission I shall consider you as representing here not only the academic youth of Sweden nor even of Europe but also of America. — Felix Bloch

It is inevitable that many ideas of the young mind will later have to give way to the hard realities of life. — Felix Bloch

Strange how everyone tried to disguise truth with nonsense. Like the slang for death: kicking the bucket, wiped out, snuffed, wasted, blown away. The light touch to dispel the heavy fear. — Robert Bloch

He wanted to shout at her that she was wrong, but he couldn't. Because the things she was saying were the things he had told himself, over and over again, all through the years. It was true. She'd always laid down the law to him, but that didn't mean he always had to obey. Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed. There had been other widows, other only sons, and not all of them became enmeshed in this sort of relationship. It was really his fault as much as hers. Because he didn't have any gumption. — Robert Bloch

Horror is the removal of masks. — Robert Bloch

Funny how we take it for granted that we know all there is to know about another person, just because we see them frequently or because of some strong emotional tie. — Robert Bloch

History is, in its essentials, the science of change. It knows and it teaches that it is impossible to find two events that are ever exactly alike, because the conditions from which they spring are never identical. — Marc Bloch

Learning the art of programming, like most other disciplines, consists of first learning the rules and then learning when to break them. — Joshua Bloch