Quotes and Authors

[MSFixR]

Want to play a guessing game involving quotes from famous works/authors?

Ok, I'll start (afterall it was my idea).

"The time has come", the Walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

Name the author and the work (for extra credit).

(This is a piece of cake.)

[Moshe..]

That's what happens when they let oxford logic professors write fiction! But he was also a horrible paedophile, a total freak. I want to join in, I just hope I'm not going to be way too obscure.

I hated the novel, and it's very famous (or infamous), but this was such a sexy quote (left out of the 1950 revised version):

“These memories are the memorials and pledges of the vital hours of a lifetime. These hours of afflatus in the human spirit, the springs of art, are, in their mystery, akin to the epochs of history, when a race which for centuries has lived content, unknown, behind its own frontiers, digging, eating, sleeping, begetting, doing what was requisite for survival and nothing else, will, for a generation or two, stupefy the world, bring to birth and nurture a teeming brood of genius, droop soon with the weight of its grandeur, fall, but leave behind a record of new rewards won for all mankind; the vision fades, the soul sickens, and the routine of survival starts again.

The human soul enjoys these rare, classic periods, but, apart from them, we are seldom single or unique; we keep company in this world with a hoard of abstractions and reflexions and counterfeits of ourselves - the sensual man, the economic man, the man of reason, the beast, the machine and the sleep-walker, and heaven knows what besides, all in our own image, indistinguishable from ourselves to the outward eye. We get borne along, out of sight in the press, unresisting, till we get the chance to drop unnoticed, or to dodge down a side street, pause, breathe freely and take our bearings, or to push ahead, out-distance our shadows, lead them a dance, so that, when at length they catch up with us, they look at one another askance, knowing we have a secret we shall never share."

[MSFixR]

Ok, I guess I should have stated some rules up front instead of assuming all would know how to play.

The Rule: The first one with the correct answer wins the round and then submits another quote for the next round.

I assume you are alluding to the answer, Moshe, but less there is a misunderstanding, please give the author's name and optionally the name of the work.

[Moshe..]

Dodgson, looking glasses, and something involving a walrus therein... you're making it slightly boring now! I want you to get my one. I'll be so impressed. I'll give you the main clue and make it super easy: it's infamously set in dodgson's very own house (i.e. "The House"). And ok I'm off to bed now.

[MSFixR]

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is correct but most of our members would probably more readily identify with his pen name, Lewis Carroll. The quote is taken from his poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" which appeared in his book "Through the Looking-Glass".
I searched for the identity of the author of your quote, Moshe, but could find nothing. Want to try again? Please bear in mind that my degree is in Chemistry not English Literature.

[Jocasta]

If I haven't read the book but only saw the sumptuous tv adaptation from the 80's is it cheating? Or if I used google, is that cheating?

[MSFixR]

All is fair in love, war, and FanHost.

[Moshe..]

And don't worry chemistry is a far more important & serious subject than english litt. Without chemistry we wouldn't have unconsummated gay love at dodgson's old college. Television series is better than book anyway! "Sounds perfect poppet to me" "My sister's very pompous tonight"

[MissyO]

Oooh, great thread.

[Jocasta]

"Charles, we're going to have a heavenly time alone." I loved those darling boys, my first gay crush.

[Moshe..]

Jeremy irons is such a genius actor too. Incredibly beautiful voice. But you know waugh's greatest ever character will always be anthony blanche. Argentine etonian with seven chauffeurs, said to have bedded both duke and duchess de vincennes, not to mention prince & princess de portallon. Sounds more piers gaveston society than bullington. He was so taken up with princess's toe-nails he took to painting his own with the same shade of varnish. I'd loved to meet someone like that. Uni is not like it was in the old days, that's for sure! I think people will be so disappointed when they visit now. Most of the students walk around wearing ugly old ruck-sacks, no jokes. Evelyn wouldn't be very happy.



Love at first-sight, English-style. It is so romantic. And that quote is too cool:
"I trust that you will forgive my friend. The wines were too various. It was neither the quantity nor the quality that was at fault. It was the mixture. You grasp that and you have the very root of the matter. To understand all is to forgive all."

I am obsessed with the bullington white tie. I always used to dream about starting my own design house based on the eccentric and bizarre anglo-saxon coat tail aesthetic. Like it was going to be called ‘bullington boy’ and would be an exclusive ultra-feminine range of clothing for women. Accessories would include harrow boater (spray painted pink with sprinkled on glitter), cricket box (the irony!) and empty bottle of chateaux margaux 1987 (obviously we siphon off the wine for re-bottling). Another idea was a haute-couture house inspired entirely by betjeman’s poem about slough. It was meant to be called ‘slough-girl’ (you know rhymes with ‘cow girl’) and the great technological innovation was to be an asbestos lined coat, just think of insulation properties. “The closest thing to wearing a council house”.

[Jocasta]

But you know waugh's greatest ever character will always be anthony blanche.

He sounds just fabulous but I don't remember him, it's been a while.


"and empty bottle of chateaux margaux 1987 (obviously we siphon off the wine for"... drinking.

I used to play tennis on the lawn at home, after I'd chalked out the lines myself (chalked? it was like paint in a roller contraption). Miss J Hunter Dunn has a special place in my memory.

[SilverSpoon]

*yawn*

[Jocasta]

I'm so glad silverspoon bothered to come back to post such an insightful comment, bravo.

Barely a square inch of wood or wall or floor was visible. Walking was only allowed by pathways cut between the piles of books. Treading these pathways with books waist-high either side was like negotiating a maze. He called the room his 'librarinth'. Areas where seating was possible were like lagoons in a coral stand of books.

[Moshe..]

Oh don’t know the quote. You'll have to do more clues. My mum has a friend who is just like that! He is a very quiet giant who lives in a tiny little flat and he collected so many books and piles of old manuscripts on byzantine architecture that somehow he couldn’t turn on the central heating anymore and had to wear a coat indoors. Like he couldn't even get to the kitchen, he is a very big person. And he lost a piano underneath all the books. Chalking out a tennis court in the garden is exceptionally english behaviour. You must have been so well behaved. We were way too foreign for that kind of thing. We only ever played tennis in my dad’s study, preferably when he was trying to write a paper. It was a very small study.

[Jocasta]

Clues I can do;

The "he" in the quote is a character called Professor Donald Trefusis, who is how I imagine you could be in another 50 odd years.
The story is in part, based on the author's autobiography.

Your tennis games sounded more like squash or perhaps Real Tennis. Mine were very much Lawn Tennis.

[MSFixR]

Stephen Fry, The Liar

[Jocasta]

Correct, Mr Fix!

[MSFixR]

Give me a few hours to think up an new one. I want to have one that almost anyone can (or should) know yet I don't want to make it too easy. Right now I've got to catch a train.

[MSFixR]

Here it is.

P: Well, whaddya think?
B: I'm not sure, what do you think?
P: I've got a bad feeling about him.
B: You do?
P: Yeah, definitely. Don't you?
B: [sighs] I don't know; I think so. You know of course though he's right about the 9000 series having a perfect operational record. They do.
P: Unfortunately that sounds a little like famous last words.
B: Yeah? Still it was his idea to carry out the failed moon analysis experiment. Should certainly indicate his integrity and self-confidence. If he were wrong it would be the surest way of proving it.
P: It would be if he knew he was wrong. Look Dave I can't put my finger on it but I sense something strange about him.
B: [sigh] Still I can't think of a good reason not to put back the number one unit and carry on with the failure moon analysis.
P: No - no I agree about that.
B: Well let's get on with it.
P: Okay. Well look Dave. Let's say we put the unit back and it doesn't fail uh? That would pretty well wrap it up as far as HAL was concerned wouldn't it?
B: Well, we'd be in very serious trouble.
P: We would, wouldn't we. What the hell could we do?
B: [sigh] Well we wouldn't have too many alternatives.
P: I don't think we'd have any alternatives. There isn't a single aspect of ship operations that isn't under his control. If he were proven to be malfunctioning I wouldn't see how we'd have any choice but disconnection.
B: I'm afraid I agree with you.