• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Share your fave snippets/quotes (from books, poetry, etc) (2 Viewers)

kleptomaniac

Member
Joined
May 9, 2004
Messages
34
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2004
First post!

'In vain have I struggled. It will not go. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire an love you'- Darcy

*sigh* that's so romantic- and then he goes and ruins it by telling Lizzy why he shouldn't!
 

Persephone87

Parlez Francais!
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
880
Location
Lost in Translation...
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2003
Originally posted by Gregor Samsa


April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Elliot, Ibid.

Elliot is one of my favourites too...
But I LOVE D.H. Lawrence *points down*. Here is some others:

The creatures outside looked from pig to man,
and from man to pig, and from pig to man again;
but it was already impossible to say which was which.
-George Orwell, Animal Farm

" The time has come the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax,
Of cabbages, and kings,
And why the sea is boiling hot,
And whether pigs have wings. "
-The Walrus and the Carpenter Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carrol

Oderint, dum metuant - Let them hate, so long as they fear.

...I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill's side.

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
- La Belle Dame Sans Merci, John Keats

'But still I know that life is for delight
and for bliss
as now when the tiny wavelets of the sea
tip the morning light on edge, and spill it with delight
to show how inexhaustible it is:
.....Life is for kissing and for horrid strife.
Life is for the angels and the Sunderers.
Life is for the daimons and the demons,
those that put honey on our lips, and those that put salt.
But life is not
for the dead vanity of knowing better, nor the blank
cold comfort of superiority, nor silly
conceit of being immune,
nor pueriIity of contradictions
like saying snow is black, or desire is evil....'
-Kissing and Horrid Strife, D.H Lawrence

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.-ANON

I could go on....but i won't ;)
 

Kwayera

Passive-aggressive Mod
Joined
May 10, 2004
Messages
5,959
Location
Antarctica
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
Hey! Dr. Clutterbuck gave us your 'interpretation' of that last one of yours last year.

You really are long winded. *snicker*
 

veanz

hath no fury
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
521
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
Originally posted by kleptomaniac
First post!

'In vain have I struggled. It will not go. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire an love you'- Darcy

*sigh* that's so romantic- and then he goes and ruins it by telling Lizzy why he shouldn't!
omg tell me ur pic is hugh dancy!!!! is it? cos if he is...keep ur hands off him!
 

Persephone87

Parlez Francais!
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
880
Location
Lost in Translation...
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2003
Originally posted by Kwayera
Hey! Dr. Clutterbuck gave us your 'interpretation' of that last one of yours last year.

You really are long winded. *snicker*
I don't even remember....she used it? *blush* arghhhh...
 

veanz

hath no fury
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
521
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
did you watch daniel deronda?? swooooon!i got it on video for my birthday... :D
 

Enlightened_One

King of Bullshit
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
1,105
Location
around about here - still
Gender
Male
HSC
2004
Originally posted by JazzaT
hey guys... anyone who has read "Along Came A Spider", by James Patteson, should know this little beauty:
"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit" can't remember where it was said, but it's a gem all the same.
:D
That's where I came up with the idea of my avatar.
 
J

jhakka

Guest
Sa'Adar's eyes went wide. "You're mad."

"Scarcely. Why do people always accuse me of that when I'm arranging things to my liking instead of theirs?" He dismissed the priest.
One of Kennit's one liners in Robin Hobb's The Mad Ship. Page 377 in my book.
 

Gregor Samsa

That Guy
Joined
Aug 18, 2003
Messages
1,350
Location
Permanent Daylight
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
Two lines from 'The Real Thing';

Henry- Buddy Holly was twenty-two. Think of what he might have gone on to achieve. I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course :D

Henry-Its no trick loving someone at their best. Love is loving them at their worst.
 
C

CaR

Guest
“Time is a monster that cannot be reasoned with. It responds like a snail to our patience and races like a gazelle when you are out of breath."
 

babydoll_

wat
Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
4,531
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
favourite quote/passage from a book

quote a passage from a book, and tell us why you like it.

my favourite right now is from 'Looking For Alibrandi' :
'I'd run you know. It's like when you're really busy doing something and you don't have time to think about things. Well I'd run and run and run so I couldn't think.'

'And when you'd finish running you'd be thousands of miles away from people who love you and your problem would still be there except you'd have nobody to help you,' he said with a shrug.
I just like the idea of running.. sometimes, somebody understands exactly the way you feel and puts it into the perfect words. This is one of those times.
 

isitjax

New Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
15
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
catch 22 is my favourite book!!!

these are the most hilarious, darkly satirical quotes i have found . you gotta read the book

"Yossarian's heart sank. Something was terribly wrong if everything
was all right and they had no excuse for turning back."

"You have no respect for excessive authority or obsolete traditions.
You're dangerous and depraved, and you ought to be taken outside and
shot!"

"Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are
born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have
mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three.
Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a
man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met
him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was. "

"There were too many dangers for Yossarian to keep track of. There was Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, for example, and they were all out to kill him. There was Lieutenant Scheisskopf with his fanaticism for parades and there was the bloated colonel with his big fat mustache and his fanaticism for retribution, and they wanted to kill him, too. There was Appleby, Havermeyer, Black and Kom. There was Nurse Cramer and Nurse Duckett, who he was almost certain wanted him dead, and there was the Texan and the C.I.D. man, about whom he had no doubt. There were bartenders, bricklayers and bus conductors all over the world who wanted him dead, landlords and tenants, traitors and patriots, lynchers, leeches and lackeys, and they were all out to bump him off. That was the secret Snowden had slipped to him on the mission to Avignon - they were out to get him; and Snowden had spilled it all over the back of the plane.

There were lymph glands that might do him in. There were kidneys, nerve sheaths and corpuscles. There were tumors of the brain. There was Hodgkin's disease, leukemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. There were fertile red meadows of epithelial tissue to catch and coddle a cancer cell. There were diseases of the skin, diseases of the bone, diseases of the lung, diseases of the stomach, diseases of the heart, blood and arteries. There were diseases of the head, diseases of the neck, diseases of the chest, diseases of the intestines, diseases of the crotch. There even were diseases of the feet. There were billions of conscientious body cells oxidating away day and night like dumb animals at their complicated job of keeping him alive and healthy, and every one was a potential traitor and foe. There were so many diseases that it took a truly diseased mind to even think about them as often as he and Hungry Joe did. "
 

_muse_

Come on join the joyride
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
2,019
Location
hunter valley
Gender
Female
HSC
2005
Snow Falling on Cedars... 1 line
"nothing is accidental, everything comes back to you"

so true
 

Gregor Samsa

That Guy
Joined
Aug 18, 2003
Messages
1,350
Location
Permanent Daylight
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
Restricting this to a passage is extremely hard. Hence, I'll probably post more later.

From; TS Elliot-The Waste Land
Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
Then spoke the thunder
DA
Datta: what have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficient spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms
DA
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
Only at nightfall, aethereal rumours
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus
DA
Damyata" The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The sea was calm, you heart would have responded
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain before me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?
London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam uti chelidon
-- O swallow swallow
Le Prince d'Acquitaine a la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih shantih shantih.
This passage epitomises 'The Waste Land', and is beautifully phrased. With wide-ranging allusions and deep insights, Elliot somehow ties together the disperate themes and motifs of his epic work, and establishes an ultimately redemptive vision. This vision however, is founded upon the radical move of embracing 'other' philosophies and ethical codes, traditional Judeo-Christian morality having faltered in the face of the First World War. [Which is a crucial factor in this work.]

The embracement of 'foreign' philosophy is seen in the incantations datta, dayadhvam, and damyata, Hindu phrases respectively meaning to give, sympathise and self-control. Additionally, Elliot's diverse intertextuality culminates in these fragments I have shored against my ruins, both an affirmation of culture and an encapsulation of his technique.

Finally, the repeated shantih [Meaning peace-through-understanding] emphasises the vital importance of understanding in reinventing and preserving society. These notions remain very relevant in considering contemporary society.

There is also notable ambiguity, stimulating interpretation. One example in this passage is the excerpt;
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison


While obviously suggesting isolation and imprisonment (Paralysis is manifest throughout, i.e. I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring) this passage can also be read as urging for community and understanding, through the juxtaposition between hearing (a communal act) and thought (individual, seperated). Whatever your interpretation, its a fine example of the complexity and ambiguity of 'The Waste Land.'

As such, this passage is special to me because of its expression, masterful technique, profound commentary, textual freedom, and openness. (My interpretation is just one possible reading.] Hopefully this vague, incomplete rambling has conveyed something of it.
 

twiddla

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2003
Messages
238
Have to love the Amelie quotes

"Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's. " Hipolito
 

nichhhole

asndihsCfuckingansbdiuahd
Joined
Aug 22, 2006
Messages
605
Location
+GMT 05:00
Gender
Female
HSC
2018
Re: favourite quote/passage from a book

way too many.. heres a few from Conrads 'heart of darkness'that i cant quite choose between...


I saw on that
ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven
terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again
in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme
moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at
some vision,--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath--

"'The horror! The horror!'
----

Droll thing life
is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose.
The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself--that comes
too late--a crop of unextinguishable regrets
---

Since I had peeped
over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that
could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace
the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that
beat in the darkness. He had summed up--he had judged. 'The horror!'
0-----
It is his extremity that I seem to
have lived through. True, he had made that last stride, he had stepped
over the edge, while I had been permitted to draw back my hesitating
foot. And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the
wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that
inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the
invisible
---

i think this is my favourite?
I found myself
back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying
through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour
their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their
insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They
were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense,
because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew
 

w00dy.

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Messages
247
Location
a place not to far from here
Gender
Female
HSC
2007
Re: Share your fave snippets / quotes

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled[SIZE=-2][/SIZE]
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
[SIZE=-2][/SIZE]
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

When You Are Old - W.B Yeats
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 2)

Top