Crank Quotes

• If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer; if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank.

  William Dean Howells

  Dream, Men, Political

  William Dean Howells (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of William Dean Howells (Illustrated)”, p.4038, Delphi Classics

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• I review novels to make money, because it is easier for a sluggard to write an article a fortnight than a book a year, because the writer is soothed by the opiate of action, the crank by posing as a good journalist, and having an air hole. I dislike it. I do it and I am always resolving to give it up.

  Cyril Connolly

  Book, Writing, Air

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• A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Success, Good Life

  1897 Following the Equator, ch.32.

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• Librarians, Dusty, possess a vast store of politeness. These are people who get asked regularly the dumbest questions on God's green earth. These people tolerate every kind of crank and eccentric and mouth breather there is.

  Garrison Keillor

  People, Eccentric, Mouths

  "A Prairie Home Companion". Radio show, December 13, 1997.

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• I still like to make crank calls.

  Kate Walsh

  Stills

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Was the fun in the fall?

  Ellen Hopkins

  Fun, Fall

  Ellen Hopkins (2012). “Ellen Hopkins: Crank Trilogy”, p.215, Simon and Schuster

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• Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.

  Alfonso X of Castile

  Crazy, Mad, Hints

  Said after studying the Ptolemaic system (attributed)

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• How can I explain purposely setting foot on a path so blatantly treacherous? Was the fun in the fall?

  Ellen Hopkins

  Fun, Fall, Feet

  Ellen Hopkins (2012). “Ellen Hopkins: Crank Trilogy”, p.215, Simon and Schuster

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• Life was good before I met the monster. After, life was great At least for a little while

  Ellen Hopkins

  Monsters, Littles, Mets

  Ellen Hopkins (2012). “Crank”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

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• The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.

  Daniel H. Pink

  Mind, Different, Patterns

  Daniel H. Pink (2006). “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future”, p.14, Penguin

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• Well in the end the world can crank itself up to sanctions, as it has with Zimbabwe, another sad case.

  Helen Clark

  Zimbabwe, World, Sanctions

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• And Seinfeld is so quick: we crank out one show a week, and the hours are very reasonable

  Julia Louis-Dreyfus

  Hours, Week, Shows

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• (Crank theories) always violated the first rule of a scientific model: they were uncheckable.

  Gregory Benford

  Firsts, Theory, Models

  Gregory Benford (2010). “Timescape”, p.235, Spectra

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• Taking no chances means wasting your dreams.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Dream, Mean, Chance

  Ellen Hopkins (2012). “Ellen Hopkins: Crank Trilogy”, p.215, Simon and Schuster

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• I hate this feeling. Like I'm here, but I'm not. Like someone cares. But they don't. Like I belong somewhere else, anywhere but here, and escape lies just past that snowy window, cool and crisp as the February air.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Lying, Hate, Past

  Ellen Hopkins (2008). “Impulse”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

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• We manage to swallow flesh only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing that we do. There are many crimes which are the creation of man himself, the wrongfulness of which is put down to their divergence from habit, custom, or tradition. But cruelty is not of these. It is a fundamental sin, and admits of no argument or nice distinctions. If only we do not allow our heart to grow callous, its protest against cruelty is always clearly heard; and yet we go on perpetrating cruelties easily, merrily, all of us - in fact, anyone who does not join in is dubbed a crank.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Karma, Nice, Heart

  "The Complete Works of Rabindranath Tagore".

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• Now there is any amount of this nonsense cropping up among American cranks. Anybody may propose to establish coercive Eugenics; or enforce psychoanalysis that is, enforce confession without absolution.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Eugenics, May, Nonsense

  "What I Saw in America". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1922.

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• There are a couple of people in the world who can really program in C or FØRTRAN. They write more code in less time than it takes for other programmers. Most programmers aren't that good. The problem is that those few programmers who crank out code aren't interested in maintaining it.

  Bill Joy

  Couple, Writing, People

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• Probably you have noted the resemblance of the critic to the crank.

  E. W. Howe

  Criticism, Critics, Resemblance

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• Students of the heavens are separable into astronomers and astrologers as readily as the minor domestic ruminants into sheep and goats, but the separation of philosophers into sages and cranks seems to be more sensitive to frames of reference.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Science, Sheep, Heaven

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• We simulated the predator with livestock and the perennial grassland returned. Just put the whole back, and there it was. You'll find the scientific method never discovers anything. Observant, creative people make discoveries. But the scientific method protects us from cranks like me.

  Allan Savory

  Discovery, People, Creative

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• Everybody should espouse three or four harmless crank theories for the pure pleasure of having something harmless to be cranky about. And when a theory of this sort proves correct, it is a true moment for celebration.

  Alexei Panshin

  Four, Three, Celebration

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• There's little to see, but things leave an impression. It's a matter of time and repetition. As something old wears thin or out, something new wears in. The handle on the pump, the crank on the churn, the dipper floating in the bucket, the latch on the screen, the door on the privy, the fender on the stove, the knees of the pants and the seat of the chair, the handle of the brush and the lid to the pot exist in time but outside taste; they wear in more than they wear out. It can't be helped. It's neither good nor bad. It's the nature of life.

  Wright Morris

  Doors, Buckets, Floating

  Wright Morris, James Alinder (1982). “Photographs & words”, Friends of Photography Bookstore

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• But the writing life, it turned out, was difficult. It wasn't like you could sit down and flip a switch and crank on the ventilation system. Sometimes it didn't work, and sometimes you couldn't even find the switch.

  Jeanne Marie Laskas

  Writing, Down And, Flip

  Jeanne Marie Laskas (2010). “Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm”, p.12, Bantam

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• You ain't ever gonna get an Academy Award for doing 'Crank,' and you certainly won't for doing all the other movies I've done.

  Jason Statham

  Awards, Done, Academy

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