Clerisy Quotes & Sayings

Nobody can get at your heart once it's lying six feet under. — Lesley Kagen

If you understand something, you don't forgive it, you are the thing itself: forgiveness is for what you don't understand. — Doris Lessing

I have an excellent father, his strength is making me stronger. — Taylor Swift

This is how we can distinguish true religion from superstition: when the Word of God directs us, there is true religion; but when each man follows his own opinion, or when men join together to follow an opinion they hold in common, the result is always concocted superstition. — John Calvin

The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books. — Robertson Davies

But one has to ask: why do the big things at such a high cost? I chose the quiet life. I like the idea of being recognized by my field and no one else. This way I have a purpose, one I believe in, but I'm not burdened by the constant idea of putting on a public image, a view of myself the masses can accept. Nobody cares whether I'm fat or cheat on my taxes. It is not the only right kind of life, of course, but it is the honest life for me. What I'm saying is, I make the right choices for myself. — Jaroslav Kalfar

I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal. — Milton Friedman

When the heart is heavy cheerful words can carry it. — Matshona Dhliwayo

I like to be wild, and I like to do wild, crazy things. I need excitement. At all times. Normal is not my type. — Neon Hitch

When the sands run out for someone, don't stop them going. You can't give them anything to replace life. Do you think I didn't love Polett? That it meant nothing to me when she'd had enough and wanted out? It's just that, as well as love, you also have to know how to kill. It won't do you any harm to remember that. Ask your God - since you're on such good terms with him - what Polett told him when they finally met. — Magda Szabo

One suspects that the conservatives of left and right don't much like the "mass" and its badly informed preferences. Let us take care of you, they cry. Let tradition celebrated by wise elders, or planning implemented by wise experts, guide you, oh you sadly misled mass. (The ruling lords and the monopolists view the clerisy's conservative theorizing with delight, resting assured that the elders and the planners will inadvertently shield their rents.) — Deirdre N. McCloskey

[ ... ] but just as formerly these pursuits and ideas had seemed petty and insignificant in comparison with the darkness that overshadowed all existence, so now they seemed as petty and insignificant in comparison with the brilliant sunshine in which the future was bathed. He went on with his work but now he felt that the centre of gravity of his attention had shifted, making him look at his work quite differently and with greater clarity. Formerly this work had been an escape from life: he used to feel that without it life would be too gloomy. Now he needed it so that life might not be too uniformly bright. — Leo Tolstoy

The clerisy are those who seek, and find, delight and enlargement of life in books. The clerisy are those for whom reading is a personal art. — Robertson Davies