Don't you think you're being rather high-handed, young man? You thought you saw a young girl enter the yard, you imagine you heard her voice, you believe she might be in there. Not very substantial, is it?
— The Doctor, to Ian, in “An Unearthly Child”
A quotation from Douglas Adams
It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression “as pretty as an airport.”
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humourist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently, No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 1 (1988)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-douglas/1462/
What a sentimental old thing this TARDIS is!
— The Doctor, in “The Enemy Within”
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.
Neil Postman (1931-2003) American author, media theorist, cultural critic
The Disappearance of Childhood, Introduction (1982)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/postman-neil/70066/
“Tommy, you're normal! You're just like everybody else!”
“I sincerely hope not.”
— Sarah and Tommy, in “Planet of the Spiders”
“You're working for a madman, Scorby; you know that?”
“He pays well. And when it comes to money, Mr Chase and I are of the same religion.”
“Franklin Adams, 1881-1960. American humorist.”
“The quotes are over, Doctor!”
— The Doctor and Scorby, in “The Seeds of Doom”
Doctor, the more you try to convince me that you're a fool, the more I'm likely to think otherwise.
— The Countess, in “City of Death”
Circular logic will only make you dizzy, Doctor.
— Peri, in “The Two Doctors”
Then [President Coolidge] said he wished I had the time to go up into Canada and see what kind of deal I could make in the way of annexation, that Canada was just about on the verge of seeing the advantage of having a working connection with some live growing concern. […]
Now from what I can see, there don’t seem to be any demand in Canada to join in with us and be murdered or run over with us. They strike me as entirely too sane a nation to fit in our scheme of things down home. Why, you can still buy a drink without having to take a whole case, and can believe in Evolution. You can do both of these things and not be considered an Atheist up here.
They have the queerest ideas of what is right and wrong that way. Now I have no idea but what we could take them over and make a paying proposition out of them, for the country now is supplying about everything we use in the way of raw materials. But I hate to interrupt a friendship that has been going on now pretty steady since the battle of Lake Erie. You see they don’t owe us and they still think we are pretty good neighbors, so if we can just keep from annexing them, and keep from loaning them anything in the way of a government debt, why we ought to be friends for years to come. […]
What we need is some good country to annex us.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1926-10-17), “Weekly Article: Will Rogers Back in U. S. Wants To Hear About Your Vote” (# 201)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/rogers-will/78279/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #willrogers #America #annexation #Canada
Not a very efficient way to hunt, is it? All that noise and pantomime just to slaughter one little animal. No, if you're going to hunt, you stalk your prey, you observe it so you can take it by surprise, and then you don't kill too many, cover your tracks, so you don't leave a smell. Can you smell that?
— The Doctor, in “Survival”
You were the noblest Romana of them all.
— The Doctor echoes Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, in “Warrior's
Gate”
“By the look of him, he didn't die easily.”
“It is never easy to die.”
— Colby and Max, in “Image of the Fendahl”
“Oh, stop being so silly.”
“Remember the French at Agincourt.”
“But they lost!”
— Sarah and the Doctor, in “The Masque of Mandragora”
A quotation from Wendell Berry
The National Security Strategy defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents” (p. 5). This is truly a distinct kind of violence, but to imply by the word “terrorism” that this sort of terror is the work exclusively of “terrorists” is misleading. The “legitimate” warfare of technologically advanced nations likewise is premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents. The distinction between the intention to perpetrate violence against innocents, as in “terrorism,” and the willingness to do so, as in “war,” is not a source of comfort.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (2003-02-09), “A Citizen’s Response,” sec. 1, paid advertisment, New York Times
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/berry-wendell/17607/
“Objects can't harm us, it's human belief. And you stopped believing when the bombs started falling.”
“I'm not frightened of German bombs.”
“Not German bombs; British, falling on German cities.”
— The vampiric Phyllis and Rev Wainwright, in “The Curse of Fenric”
“Orthogonal reading is zee ess plus one oh one ee queue.”
"'Zee'? Oh, 'zed'.”
— Peri and the Doctor, in “Vengeance on Varos”
The point of archaeology is to carefully recover the past, *not* disintegrate it.
— The Doctor, in “Battlefield”
It takes time, Doctor, but eventually you get there.
— The Master, in “The Ultimate Foe”
“Another explosion might bring the roof down on top of our heads.”
“Oh, just a *small* one?”
— The Doctor and Ace, in “The Curse of Fenric”
A quotation from Bertrand Russell
The man who has double my salary is doubtless tortured by the thought that someone else in turn has twice as much as he has, and so it goes on. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon. But Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed. You cannot, therefore, get away from envy by means of success alone, for there will always be in history or legend some person even more successful than you are. You can get away from envy by enjoying the pleasures that come your way, by doing the work that you have to do, and by avoiding comparisons with those whom you imagine, perhaps quite falsely, to be more fortunate than yourself
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 6 “Envy” (1930)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/russell-bertrand/780…
