Thorstein Bunde Veblen Quotes & Sayings

What makes bad writers so annoying is their good passages. — Natalie Clifford Barney

A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act. — James Thurber

The hope, and not the fact, of advancement, is the spur to industry. — Henry Taylor

I had no feeling for the things so many others needed. — Charles Bukowski

And don't give me the same old story:
"We're in Mexico. Pray."
You'd be better off taking a snake rattle. — Carlos Fuentes

Troubles are exceedingly gregarious in their nature, and flying in flocks are apt to perch capriciously. — Charles Dickens

Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing. — Henry David Thoreau

One woman reads another's character Without the tedious trouble of deciphering — Ben Jonson

I had, toward the last, been shut off from all visitors, and so when the lawyer, Peter A. Hendricks, came and told me that friends of mine were willing to take charge of me if I would rather be with them than in the asylum, I was only too glad to give my consent. — Nellie Bly

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. — Tom Waits

It's extremely difficult to say what one actually means by 'sculpture' other than, in a provisional sense, it's something that goes on the floor or a pedestal, and loosely applies to a certain history of the use of that term. — Walead Beshty

There is an assumption, in attaching Puritan concepts such as "succesful" and "unsuccesful" to the awful, final act of suicide, that those who "fail" at killing themselves not only are weak, but incompeent incapable even of getting their dying quite right. — Kay Redfield Jamison

I imagined a lot of things. That I would shine. That I'd be good. I'd dwell bareheaded on a summit turning a wheel that would turn the earth undetected, amongst the clouds, I would have some influence; be of some avail. — Patti Smith

The rock has split, the egg has hatched, the prismatically plumed bird of life has escaped from its cage. It spreads its wings and is perched now on the peak of the huge African mountain Kilimanjaro.
Strange recompense, in the depths of our despair at the unfathomable mist into which all mankind is plunging, a curious force awakens. It is Hope long asleep, aroused once more. Wilson has taken an army of advisers and sailed for England. The ship has sunk. But the men are all good swimmers. They take the women on their shoulders and buoyed on by the inspiration of the moment they churn the free seas with their sinewy arms, like Ulysses, landing all along the European seaboard.
Yes, hope has awakened once more in men's hearts. It is NEW! Let us go forward!
The imagination, freed from the handcuffs of "Art", takes the lead! Her Feet are bare and not too delicate. In fact those who come behind her have much to think of. Hm. Let it pass. — William Carlos Williams

Man. "STOP CRYING, DAMMIT! I'M SICK OF YOUR CRYING!" Mark clutched his knees and tried to stop crying. His head pounded and his mouth was dry. He stuck his hands between his knees and bent over. He had to stop crying and think of something. On a television show once some nut was about to jump off a building, and this cool cop just kept talking to him and talking to him, and finally the nut started talking back and of course did not jump. Mark quickly smelled for gas, and asked, "Why are you — John Grisham