Being a practiced liar doesn’t mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it’s that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.
—Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
Money in one’s possession is the instrument of liberty; money one pursues is the symbol of servitude. That is why I hold fast to what I have, but covet no more.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Confessions
What we have is government, representative government by a non-intellectual minority of politicians, generals, and businessmen.
—Herbert Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance”
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
Paul Klee
What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.
Mrs. Weasley, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Belligerence knows no tempo.
—Amy Leach, “Please Do Not Yell at the Sea Cucumber”
There’s plenty of folk as’d like a lion as a daemon and they end up with a poodle. And till they learn to be satisfied with what they are, they’re going to be fretful about it. Waste of feeling, that is.
Northern Lights
–Mrs. Bullock, Deadwood
Let us give thanks.
–Charlier Udder, Deadwood
Don’t you know? The world says it’s fucking name to us.
–Jane, Deadwood
I don’t wanna open my eyes but you can go ahead and kiss me if that’s what you fucking do.