Quote Snack

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars

E. A. Able — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:48:23 +0000

LORD DARLINGTON:
The woman I love is not free, or thinks she isn’t. [Glances instinctively at LORD WINDERMERE while he speaks.]

CECIL GRAHAM:
A married woman, then! Well, there’s nothing in the world...

The ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic

E. A. Able — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:46:05 +0000

The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst-is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis. The constructive or combining...

Suspect Each Moment, for it is a Thief, Tiptoeing Away with More than it Brings

E. A. Able — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:30:34 +0000

Little in the way of eyebrows. Little in the way of lips: my mouth, its two wiggles fitted with a wary set as if ready to dart into an ambiguous flurry of expressions, has never pleased me, though it has allegedly pleased others. Chin a...

The greatest foe to art is luxury

E. A. Able — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:44:22 +0000

You must dismiss at once as a delusion the hope that has been sometimes cherished, that you can have a building which is a work of art, and is therefore above all things properly built, at the same price as a building which only pretends to be this: never forget when people talk...

We love only what we do not wholly possess

E. A. Able — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:54:44 +0000

I must choose to cease from suffering or cease from loving. For, just as in the beginning it is formed by desire, so afterwards love is kept in existence only by a painful anxiety. I felt part of Albertine's life eluded me. Love, in...

The truth is rarely pure and never simple

E. A. Able — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:10:29 +0000

My dear Algy, I don't know whether you will be able to understand my real motives. You are hardly serious enough. When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects...

I’m shallow, but I’m deep for a shallow person

E. A. Able — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:17:54 +0000

Once at an Evangelical Christian Publishers' awards banquet, where all the top books in the industry are honored, I overheard this comment about the guest speaker, a prolific and well-loved author: "Well, he..."

Optimism that does not count the cost is like a house built on sand

E. A. Able — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:52:56 +0000

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference. It is not enough to say that the twentieth...

I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion

E. A. Able — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:13:15 +0000

Everything was being mixed up, and all was falling. I knew my affair with Lucille wouldn’t last much longer. She wanted me to be her way. She was married to a longshoreman who treated her badly. I was willing to marry her and take her baby daughter and...

Writing Prompt – March 11, 2010

E. A. Able — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:42:54 +0000

QuoteSnack offers fresh quotes daily, attributed and linked to a confirmed, published source. In addition, I’ll sometimes post a writing prompt with simple instructions. The next post will be a quote that has something to do with the prompt, so you can take a peek at differences or similarities in how someone else [...]