Duhamel Quotes

I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world.

sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

I can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images.

Do not trust your memory, it is a net full of holes; the most beautiful prizes slip through it.

What distinguishes man from his innocent brothers, the animals,...is not language, nor reason, nor even civilization...it is man's enormous appetite for suffering.

Evalue ta richesse à l'importance de ce que tu donnes.

أنا لا أحب أن يُرثى لحالي، وخصوصًا إذا كنت لا أستحق غير الرثاء

أمضيت الليل وقبضتاي على فكي، أمضيته في احتقار نفسي وكراهة ذاتي

The busybody (banned as sexist, demeaning to older women) who lives next door called my daughter a tomboy (banned as sexist) when she climbed the jungle (banned; replaced with "rain forest") gym. Then she had the nerve to call her an egghead and a bookworm (both banned as offensive; replaced with "intellectual") because she read fairy (banned because suggests homosexuality; replace with "elf") tales. I'm tired of the Language Police turning a deaf ear (banned as handicapism) to my complaints. I'm no Pollyanna (banned as sexist) and will not accept any lame (banned as offensive; replace with "walks with a cane") excuses at this time. If Alanis Morrissette can play God (banned) in Dogma (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "Doctrine" or "Belief"), why can't my daughter play stickball (banned as regional or ethnic bias) on boy's night out (banned as sexist)? Why can't she build a snowman (banned, replace with "snow person") without that fanatic (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "believer," "follower," or "adherent") next door telling her she's going to hell (banned; replaced with "heck" or "darn")? Do you really think this is what the Founding Fathers (banned as sexist; replace with "the Founders" or "the Framers") had in mind? That we can't even enjoy our Devil (banned)-ed ham sandwiches in peace? I say put a stop to this cult (banned as ethnocentric) of PC old wives' tales (banned as sexist; replace with "folk wisdom") and extremist (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "believer," "follower," or "adherent") conservative duffers (banned as demeaning to older men). As an heiress (banned as sexist; replace with "heir") to the first amendment, I feel that only a heretic (use with caution when comparing religions) would try to stop American vernacular from flourishing in all its inspirational (banned as patronizing when referring to a person with disabilities) splendor.

يضحكنى أولئك الذين يقولون إن الحياة قصيرة. أتسمع؟ إنهم يضحكوننى. يضحكوننى! إن السنين هى القصار، أما الدقائق فطويلة. وما حياتى انا إلا دقائق.

إن أمي امرأة جديرة بالإعجاب، إنها الشخص الوحيد في العالم الذي يجعلني أرغب أحيانًا في أن أركع على ركبتَي

I will be gone, but I will miss you if I’m still able to miss anything, that is, if some particle of me remains and some particle of you.

همت بخطى النائم فى باريس مظلمة وجافة. وكانت تنفح فى الشوارع رائحة خانقة من التراب والروث المحموس. وكان ك مصباح يمسك ظلى وأنا مار به، ويديره ثم يسلمه إلى المصباح التالى، حتى كاد ذلك يغثى نفسى

من العسير أن تُعبر بالتحديد عما تريده. فأنا حين أتحدث عن النشاط الذى كان يميز تفكيرى ألاحظ أنى لا أترجم الحقيقة بتَّة، فالقول إنى كنت أفكر بنشاط قد يوهم أنى كنت عتكف ‘لى التفكير عكوفًا إراديًا ظافرًا. مع أن الأمر خلاف ذلك. فالواقع أن الشئ الذى يسترعى النظر هو - على الأرجح - السلبية التى كنت افكر بها فقد كانت تساورنى وتنتابنى وتنغضنى وتأسرنى ألف فكرة أخضع لها ولا أبتعثها أنا بوجه ما. فهل أستطيع القول إنى كنت افكر؟ هل أستطيع ان أدعى هذه الصفة؟ أليس الأصح أنى كنت ساحة المعمعة التى حاق بها الدمار؟ بلى. الحق أنى ما كنت أفكر، وما كنت أفعل شيئًا لأفكر، وإنما كان التفكير يدور فىًّ، وخلالى، وتجاهى، وضدى. كان التفكير يدور بلا مشقة على حسابى، كما يقام معسكر فى قطر مغزوًّ

إن سرور الإنسان، يا سيدى، شعور غريب، غير محض. فهو يحتاج دائمًا إلى أن يعتمد على أشياء مادية ندخلها فى المعدة؛ حتى حين يبدو السرور منقطع الصلة بكل هذه التوافه لابد له - إن أراد البقاء - من أن يستعين بقضايا هضمية. قلمًَا يعترف بأن هذه القضايا هى السبب الجوهرى فى وجوده، ولكنه يلتمس فيها تأكيدات وترشيحات ونتائج . وقد لا يكون فى هذا مدعاة للخجل، فهو طبيعى من كائنت شرهة مثلنا. انبش ذكرياتك وانظر. ألم تشعر بالحاجة إلى أن تؤكد أحسن لحظاتك بربط سعادتك بمتعة حارة من متع اللسان أو المعدة؟ هكذا نحن!

Buddhist Barbie" In the 5th century B.C. an Indian philosopher Gautama teaches "All is emptiness" and "There is no self." In the 20th century A.D. Barbie agrees, but wonders how a man with such a belly could pose, smiling, and without a shirt.

Qu’un poète élève la voix, qu’un musicien saisisse son violon, qu’un peintre ou qu’un sculpteur surprenne et fixe les raisons de la vie, qu’un véritable créateur surgisse en quelque endroit du globe, et je dis que ma patrie est là même où cet homme respire, je dis que ma patrie est en tout lieu que je peux connaître et chérir à travers l’âme d’un poète.

لقدد اتفق لك - بلا ريب - أنك انتظرت أحدًا فى المساء فى ركن شارع تحت مصباح من مصابيح الغاز. وقد اتفق لك أن انتظرت ساعة. ثم ساعتين، ثم علمت أن الشخص الذى تنتظره لن يأتى، وعلى الرغم من ذلك ظللت تأمل. لقد اتفق لك ان خبرت مثل تلك الأمور، كما جربت ألم الانصراف والتلفت مرة كل عشرة أمتار، وإن كان جليًا أنه لن يأتى أحد. جربت الم التلفت والنكوص، وإن كنت موقنًا أن ذلك كله لن يجدى عليك فتيلًا

Dacă n-am ști să uităm, n-am mai putea trăi.

With his makeshift centrifuge, Knight had applied a force on the seedlings that mimicked gravitation and demonstrated that the roots always grew in the direction of this centrifugal force-while the shoots grew in the opposite direction. Knight's work provided the first experimental corroboration for Duhamel's observations. He showed that roots and shoots respond not only to natural gravity, as Duhamel showed, but also to an artificial gravitational force supplied by his waterwheel-powered centrifuge. But this still didn't explain how a plant could sense gravity.

It’s about time I started looking for a new challenge.” It struck me then how young she was: late twenties, at most. She was of a different generation. My father had drummed into me the importance of finding a job for life, one with a strong union behind it, good healthcare and benefits, and from which you couldn’t easily be dismissed, short of setting fire to your place of employment and giggling while it burned. That hadn’t really worked out for me, but I doubt it had ever even crossed Delaney Duhamel’s mind.

A short time ago death was the cruel stranger, the visitor with the flannel footsteps . . . today it is the mad dog in the house. One eats, one drinks beside the dead, one sleeps in the midst of the dying, one laughs and sings in the company of corpses. —GEORGES DUHAMEL, French doctor serving at Verdun in the Great War

A priori, I want to go to bed with every pretty woman I meet. If I don't do it, it's because I'm afraid of being disappointed.

La conducerea statului se află rebuturile toate carierelor posibile. [...] Ar trebui ca oamenii fără cultură să fie împiedicați să ajungă la conducerea statului. Ar trebui să existe studii și concursuri. În fond, poporul disprețuiește cultura deoarece vede că nu-i necesară în posturile cele mai înalte; își dă seama că se poate lipsi de ea. Iată de ce puterea cade în mâinile unor nevrednici. Din nenorocire, oamenii care-și iubesc meseria și sunt înzestrați pentru ea nu acceptă s-o părăsească, pentru a ajunge valeții lepădăturilor electorale.

...suntem foarte săraci, foarte neajutorați când vrem să procedăm cum trebuie. Când e vorba să faci rău, e altfel, e mult mai ușor.

O femeie trebuie să-și piardă totdeauna puțin timp înainte de a pleca de acasă, ca să fie absolut sigură că uită ceva.

[Henry:] Strange feeling it gave me, to read [Georges Duhamel’s]Salavin when you were gone—Salavin who resembles you when “il contemplait le pauvre sire avec une intérêt poignant, et, dans son coeur, grandissait un indicible désir d’être aussi cet homme si seul et si bas qu’il ne redoute plus ni l’abandon ni la chute.” Who resembles you when you are joyless and springless. You have his moods.

In solitary reading a man who is seeking himself has some chance of finding himself.

Duhamel calls the movie “a pastime for helots, a diversion for uneducated, wretched, worn-out creatures who are consumed by their worries a spectacle which requires no concentration and presupposes no intelligence which kindles no light in the heart and awakens no hope other than the ridiculous one of someday becoming a ‘star’ in Los Angeles.

I just didn’t get it— even with the teacher holding an orange (the earth) in one hand and a lemon (the moon) in the other, her favorite student (the sun) standing behind her with a flashlight. I just couldn’t grasp it— this whole citrus universe, these bumpy planets revolving so slowly no one could even see themselves moving. I used to think if I could only concentrate hard enough I could be the one person to feel what no one else could, sense a small tug from the ground, a sky shift, the earth changing gears. Even though I was only one mini-speck on a speck, even though I was merely a pinprick in one goosebump on the orange, I was sure then I was the most specially perceptive, perceptively sensitive. I was sure then my mother was the only mother to snap, “The world doesn’t revolve around you!” The earth was fragile and mostly water, just the way the orange was mostly water if you peeled it, just the way I was mostly water if you peeled me. Looking back on that third grade science demonstration, I can understand why some people gave up on fame or religion or cures— especially people who have an understanding of the excruciating crawl of the world, who have a well-developed sense of spatial reasoning and the tininess that it is to be one of us. But not me—even now I wouldn’t mind being god, the force who spins the planets the way I spin a globe, a basketball, a yoyo. I wouldn’t mind being that teacher who chooses the fruit, or that favorite kid who gives the moon its glow.

Je ne peux déjà plus penser ce que je veux. Les images mouvantes se substituent à mes propres pensées.