Offray Quotes & Sayings

It is the importance of this quality of generosity in fiction that requires a measure of childishness in the writer. People who have strong mental focus and a sense of purpose in their lives, people who have respect for all that grownups generally respect (earning a good living, the flag, the school system, those who are richer than oneself, those who are beloved and famous, such as movie stars), are unlikely ever to make it through the many revisions it takes to tell a story beautifully, without visible tricks, nor would they be able to tolerate the fame and fortune of those who tell stories stupidly, with hundreds of tricks, all of them old and boring to the discriminating mind. First, with his stubborn churlishness the good writer scoffs at what the grownups are praising, then, with his childish forgetfulness and indifference to what sensible people think, he goes back to his foolish pastime, the making of real art. — John Gardner

The human body is a machine that winds up its own springs: it is a living image of the perpetual motion. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

Therefore, since we may say, after such long experience, that religion does not imply exact honesty, we are authorized by the same reasons to think that atheism does not exclude it. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

Listening is an important skill to spark creativity and cultivate empathy. — Pearl Zhu

Let us then submit to an invincible ignorance on which our happiness depends. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

The English, who eat their meat red and bloody, show the savagery that goes with such food. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

Nobody - myself included - believes that we could ever achieve total information awareness. But the government needs to set goals and long-range objectives. Total information awareness is a good goal. — John Poindexter

Everyone is born with psychic abilities. It's just a matter of knowing how to tap into it. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

Kallor shrugged. '[ ... ] I have walked this land when the T'lan Imass were but children. I have commanded armies a hundred thousand strong. I have spread the fire of my wrath across entire continents, and sat alone upon tall thrones. Do you grasp the meaning of this?'
'Yes,' [said Caladan Brood.] 'You never learn. — Steven Erikson

As soon as you give your heart to something new you will immediately be able to think in a way that is new. — John De Ruiter

Love conquers everything even karma. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

I don't think I ever got parts that interested me. Well, I did occasionally, but more often than not, they did not interest me. — Maureen O'Sullivan

Nothing is absolutely unjust. There is no real equity, no total grandeur, no pure vice, no absolute crime. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. Let us speak of the first. — Frederic Bastiat

Valek: You know a death sentence hasn't kept us apart before.
Yelena: Is that an order Valek?
Valek: No, it's a promise! — Maria V. Snyder

Even if you do the best you can in all things, your human nature must often fall short; so entrust yourself to God's goodness, for his goodness is greater than your failures. — Hadewijch

Who lives as a citizen, may write as a philosopher - but write as a philosopher, it is to teach materialism! — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

There is a special bond between twin soul mates - unconditional love, respect for each other, bringing out the best in each other, and highly compatible. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

The brain has muscles for thinking as the legs have muscles for walking. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

It is convention and arbitrary rewards which make all the merit and demerit of what we call vice and virtue. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie

Man is a machine and in the whole universe there is but a single substance, matter, variously modified. — Julien Offray De La Mettrie