ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

QUOTATIONS

  • LITERARY COFFEE:Dangerous Liaisons

    I dispatched my dinner as soon as possible. The dessert was scarcely served, when the infernal Volanges, probably with a design to prejudice me, got up to follow the charming woman. I foresaw this project, but disappointed her. I feigned to take this particular motion for a general one; and rising at the same time,… Read more

  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Erich Fromm

    “When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano… Read more

  • THROWBACK THURSDAY: Monastics, Hippies, and Poets…

    Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on July 24, 2016 This time of year we notice the days growing shorter already in the North Country. Since I am up everyday between 5:00 and 5:30, the later and later sunrises become more noticeable every… Read more

  • LITERARY COFFEE: James Joyce

    — Now touching a cup of coffee, Mr Bloom ventured to plausibly suggest to break the ice, it occurs to me you ought to sample something in the shape of solid food, say, a roll of some description. Accordingly his first act was with characteristic SANGFROID to order these commodities quietly. ~ James Joyce. Ulysses. Read more

  • On the Art of Rereading

    “Rereading, not reading, is what counts,” ~ Jorge Luis Borges.  “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before,” ~ Cliff Fadiman.  ““If a book isn’t worth reading over and over again, it isn’t worth reading at all.” ~… Read more

  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Hannah Arendt

    “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” ~ Hannah Arendt Read more

  • THROWBACK THURSDAY: Now Re-Reading Richard Brautigan

    Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on March 13, 2018. My favorite line in John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley is, “Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” The same could be said of writer… Read more

  • LITERARY COFFEE: James Joyce

    There he is: the brother. Image of him. Haunting face. Now that’s a coincidence. Course hundreds of times you think of a person and don’t meet him. Like a man walking in his sleep. No-one knows him. Must be a corporation meeting today. They say he never put on the city marshal’s uniform since he… Read more

  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Sinclair Lewis on Fascism

    “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ~ Sinclair Lewis Read more

  • John Wayne

    It is not something I am necessarily proud of but, I am a big fan of John Wayne movies. I suppose you could call them a “guilty pleasure.” Today I am highlighting some of the best quotes from John Wayne movies. Beginning with my all-time favorite Duke quote from his last film, The Shootist. If I… Read more