“It wasn’t the sun. It wasn’t the wind. I have no excuses. My play led to a loss [and] I’m taking full responsibility. Maybe I can learn something from this.” Brant Brown on a dropped fly ball in the Cubs outfield in September 1998. (Here’s Ron Santo’s version of the event.)
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. Napoleon Bonaparte
“The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.” Unknown
“Nothing bad ever happens to a writer. Everything is material.” A Message from the Profession of English Majors, Garrison Keillor
“The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.” To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
[In reference to the poetry of Anne Sexton:]
“How do I explain these poems? Not at all. I quit teaching in colleges because it seemed so criminal to explain works of art.” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
“The great question which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?'” Sigmund Freud
“No, no, you’re not thinking; you’re just being logical.” Niels Bohr
For being reminded of those days when we did not know any better is all that is left to us when we do. Djuna Barnes
“She gave me everything a good woman can give a man. In return, she received from me all the heartache and misery a man can inflict upon a woman.” Diego Rivera
“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” Italo Calvino