philosophical

Ask yourself, if there was to be no blame, and if there was to be no praise, who would I be then?

The 21st chapter gives the novel the quality of genuine fiction, an art founded on the principle that human beings change. ----- "A Clockwork Orange Resucked" intro to first full American version 1986

The way we live, decides the meaning of life.And the way we die, tells how much meaningful we made it.

If we forget the past, individually or as a culture, we lose knowledge that has already been gained, and we lose valuable tools by which our knowledge may grow.

...if the actor gave his performance without knowing that he was in a play, then his tears would be real tears and his life a real life. And whenever I think of this pain and joy that rise up in me, I am carried away by the knowledge that the game I am playing is the most serious and exciting there is.

Yet if all reality is subjective, all certitude is impossible.

One species on the planet, and one species only, has reached the point of being able to have an impact on the evolutionary fortunes of all other species and upon the functioning of all ecosystems. We also have, in a way that is not true for any other species, a relationship to the planet as a whole and to the future. We live with all life.

Of all the things I expected to find in my lunch, a live snake wasn't one of them.

Are we all in fact two people, not one? Are we all One and Another? What I know is that I have an "everyday self," the one who does things, says things, deals with the ins and outs, ups and downs of daily life, and another, an "inner self," the one I think of as my real self, the self who observes everything my everyday self does, comments and judges, praises and dispraises, considers what would be best to do and not to do, and assesses the results.

Some people remember the sixties better than others do. Some weren't even there, some who were there were not really there, and some who were not really there were "really there".

A book without conversation, is like a life without friends, you know it's going to end, but you want it to be soon.

The same way a compact disk isn't responsible for what's recorded on it, that's how we are. You're about as free to act as a programmed computer. You're about as one-of-a-kind as a dollar bill

It's not always wise to assume that just because the surface of the world appears undisturbed, life is where you left it.

It is indeed a curse to dream as you walk amongst the dreamless

As we try to envisage what the world will be like for our grandchildren and imagine who will inherit the good and bad we leave behind, we pause to think of those who have shaped our attitudes. We pay homage to those spirits who have expanded our potential for understanding the unique circumstances of our lives and who have given us hope and courage to be strong and live bravely. We will always be fascinated by the thoughts of others, and by the way they have expressed their truths and insights, because they are the real teachers. They have shared with us the truth as they have experienced it.

Rubashov had always believed that he knew himself rather well. Being without moral prejudices, he had no illusions about the phenomenon called the "first person singular" and had taken for granted, without particular emotion, that this phenomenon was endowed with certain impulses which people are generally reluctant to admit. Now, when he stood with his forehead against the window or suddenly stopped on the third black tile, he made unexpected discoveries. He found that those processes wrongly known as monologues are really dialogues of a special kind - dialogues in which one partner remains silent while the other, against all grammatical rules, addresses him as "I" instead of "you," in order to creep into his confidence and to fathom his intentions, but the silent partner just remains silent, shuns observation, and even refuses to be localized in time and space.

Truly, the old maid is a most useful person, one of the reserve forces of the community. They talk of the superfluous woman, but what would the poor superfluous man do without her kindly presence?

The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life__ most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.