Random Utterances

Nothing, nothing is certain, except the insignificance of everything I can comprehend and the grandeur of something incomprehensible but most important!

—Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace | trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky | p. 293

Besides, in order to tell everything as it had been, one would have to make an effort with oneself so as to tell only what had been. To tell the truth is very difficult, and young men are rarely capable of it.

—Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace | trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky | p. 242

The mind is a strange and wonderful thing. I’m not sure it’ll ever be able to figure itself out. Everything else, maybe—from the atom to the universe. Everything except itself.

—Don Siegel | Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The German tutor tried to memorize all the kinds of dishes, desserts, and wines, in order to describe everything in detail in his letter to his family in Germany, and was quite offended that the butler with the napkin-wrapped bottle bypassed him. The German frowned, trying to show by his look that he did not even wish to have this wine, but was offended because no one wanted to understand that the wine was necessary for him, not in order to quench his thirst, nor out of greed, but out of a conscientious love of knowledge.

—Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace | trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky | p. 62

During troubled times, superstition spawns bustling activity, and the ignorant find consolation only in self-deception.

—Lao She | Rickshaw Boy | trans. Howard Goldblatt | p. 288

Xiangzi’s friendship with tobacco and alcohol was rekindled. Without cigarettes, how could he think? And without alcohol, how could he forget?

—Lao She | Rickshaw Boy | trans. Howard Goldblatt | p. 274

A man alone is nothing—a bird, perhaps, that falls into a trap when it tries to feed itself. But if it’s content to be fed, it must live in a cage and sing for its food until the day it’s sold to someone else.

—Lao She | Rickshaw Boy | trans. Howard Goldblatt | p. 183-184

‘This isn’t about what is,’ said Mr. Nancy. ‘It’s about what people think is. It’s all imaginary anyway. That’s why it’s important. People only fight over imaginary things.’

—Neil Gaiman | American Gods | p. 381

The perfect man takes a false step, apparently commits a moral slip, and we ordinary mortals stand puzzled before the incident. It may be less an actual error of commission on his part than a lack of understanding on ours; measured in Eternity, such an event might stand out differently. But until we attain that breadth of view, we are likely to feel disturbed and question the action.

—R. K. Narayan | The Ramayana | p. 90

All we have to believe with is our senses: the tools we use to perceive the world, our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.

—Neil Gaiman | American Gods | p. 125