Wall Quotes - Page 3

• I can’t stand these damn shows on museum walls with neat little frames, where you look at the images as if they were pieces of art. I want them to be pieces of life!

  W. Eugene Smith

  Art, Museums, Looks

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• I am reminded, now, of Leonardo's advice to painters: You should fix your eyes, he says, on certain walls stained with damp. You will see in these the likenesses of divine landscapes, adorned with mountains, ruins, rocks, extensive plains; and you will see there battles and strange figures engaged in violent actions. For in such walls the same thing happens as in the sound of church bells, in whose reverberations you may find every word imaginable.

  Ciaran Carson

  Eye, Church Bells, Rocks

  Ciaran Carson (2001). “Shamrock Tea”, Granta Books

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• I've learned of life this bitter truth
  Hope not between the crumbling walls Of mankind's gratitude to find repose,
  But rather,
  Build within thy own soul
  Fortresses!

  Georgia Douglas Johnson

  Gratitude, Soul, Crumbling

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• Now remember courage, go to the door,Open it and see whether coiled on the bedOr cringing by the wall, a savage beastMaybe with golden hair, with deep eyesLike a bearded spider on a sunlit floorWill snarl-and man can never be alone.

  Allen Tate

  Men, Hair, Doors

  Allen Tate, “The Wolves”

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• There was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared. An adult could look right over it, and even a child could climb it. Where it crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, an idea of boundary. But the idea was real. It was important. For seven generations there had been nothing in the world more important than that wall. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Children, Real, Rocks

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2009). “The Dispossessed”, p.6, Harper Collins

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• My prophecy is but half his journey yet,
  For yonder walls, that pertly front your town,
  Yon towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds,
  Must kiss their own feet.

  William Shakespeare

  Kissing, Journey, Feet

  William Shakespeare (1790). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: Timon of Athens. Troilus and Cressida. Cymbeline. King Lear. Vol. 8”, p.267

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• Stupidity is like bumping into a wall all the time. After a while you get tired of it and try to look the situation over and see if there’s a doorway somewhere. I think most people eventually do look for the doorway and stop bumping into the wall

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Stupid, Tired, Thinking

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• The miracle is that some have stepped out of the rags of the Republic's definition to assume the great burden and glory of their humanity and their responsibility for one another. It is an extraordinary achievement to be trapped in the dungeon of color and to dare to shake down its walls and to step out of it leaving the jailkeeper in the rubble.

  James A. Baldwin

  Responsibility, Color, Justice

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• You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.

  John Buchan

  Life, Thinking, Civilization

  1916 The Power-House, ch.3,'Tells of a Midsummer Night'.

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• The student of history knows no more refreshing recreation than that of nailing liars, like vermin, to the wall.

  Frederick Rolfe

  Liars, Students, Refreshing

  Frederick Rolfe (1931). “A History of the Borgias”

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• So long as some are strong and some are weak, the weak will be driven to the wall.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Strength, Strong, Weak Will

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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• It is the same: a chosen one is a man whom God's finger crushes against the wall.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Crush, Men, Fingers

  "The Devil and the Good Lord". Book by Jean-Paul Sartre, Act 2, sc. 4, 1951.

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• The educational aspect of art shows has become overbearing: some of exhibits can leave you bleary from trying to read the walls. Presumably a piece of art is timeless and it can say something to us. You are taking away the right of art to talk for itself.

  John Updike

  Art, Educational, Trying

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• The muted color scheme allows the occasional brighter yellow or red to pop out on the wall in a show, which I like.

  Marcel Dzama

  Color, Yellow, Red

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
  From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
  There is an inmost centre in us all,
  Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
  Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
  This perfect, clear perception-which is truth.
  A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
  Binds it, and makes all error: and to know
  Rather consists in opening out a way
  Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
  Than in effecting entry for a light
  Supposed to be without.

  Robert Browning

  Believe, Errors, Light

  Robert Browning (1830). “An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry”, p.35

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• Of course I don't believe in it [pointing to horseshoe on his office wall]. But I understand that it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not.

  Niels Bohr

  Faith, Believe, Office

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• The light of love sees no walls.

  Suzy Kassem

  Light, Light Of Love

  "Rise Up and Salute the Sun". Book by Suzy Kassem, 2010.

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• Don't let your silly dreams fall in between the crack of the bed and the wall.

  Jim James

  Dream, Silly, Fall

  "My Morning Jacket" by Carrie O'Grady, www.theguardian.com. February 12, 2003.

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• If you have white walls, human beings look better in a room than if you have red walls.

  Minoru Yamasaki

  White, Looks, Red

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• I had not yet gotten into the world of light. But I felt as one who, standing outside, could knock against the wall and hear an answering knock from within.

  Simon Newcomb

  Light, World, Standing Alone

  Simon Newcomb (1903). “The reminiscences of an astronomer”, Harper and Brothers

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• They are wise to the ways of Wall Street - and...getting their fair share of the loot.(:)...from who will be the head of NIH, to which honorary degree will go to whom, which congressman gets the campaign funds from AMPAC (the political arm of the AMA), and whether Medicare fees can be hiked a bit for the suffering specialist. ...(or) to nominate their favorite for a Nobel Laureate.

  Edgar Berman

  Wise, Dark, Political

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• As was noted in the Wall Street Journal, last March 21st, FDA approval of drug labelling, '...requires seven to ten years, and costs each applicant an average of $70 million.'

  Orrin Hatch

  Dark, Fda, Average

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• I think academics are infuriating. For every expert on Shakespeare there is another one to cancel his theory out. It drives you up the wall. I think the greatest form of finding out the truth is through fantasy.

  Joseph Fiennes

  Thinking, Finding The One, Experts

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