Quotes from Trevanian

Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting.

No one really likes Switzerland, except those who prefer cleanliness to life.

Confession is good for the soul, it empties the spirit making more room for sin.

Listen!" Hannah pled. "Is there someone who could drive me to the Château of Etchebar?" A quick conference was held between the café owner and the mousse players. There was some argument and a considerable amount of clarification and restatement of positions. Then the proprietor delivered the consensus opinion. "No.

A lee-tle bit

The Trevanian Buff is a strange and wonderful creature: an outsider, a natural elitist, not so much a cynic as an idealist mugged by reality, not just one of those who march to a different drummer, but the solo drummer in a parade of one.

my job to color the margarine, putting the white, lard-like block into a bowl then sprinkling orange coloring powder over it and mixing with a fork until it was more brazenly yellow than any butter would dare to be.

Well, of course one must have concentration. Courage. Self-control. That goes without saying. But more important than these, one must have... I don't know how to say it. One must be both a mathematician and a poet. As though poetry were a science; or mathematics an art. One must have an affection for proportion to play Go at all well.Ah... what Go is to philosophers and warriors, chess is to accountants and merchants.

bir yazar?n edebiyat okumas?n?n bir at bak?c?s?n?n at pisli?iyle u?ra?mas?ndan farks?zd?r (...)

Gerçi bu durumda bunlar?n otlar?n? ay?klay?p bak?mlar?n? yapmak çok güç oluyor ama, hayat mücadelesi uÄŸruna güzelliÄŸi feda edersek, barbarlar daha ÅŸimdiden bizi yenmiÅŸ say?l?r.

Would the young men called to arms laugh and joke and exchange hearty platitudes in imitation of popular fiction, while they waited to be mutilated by the stupidity and arrogance of aged politicians?

But he could feel nothing but disdain for the artificial class of the merchant, who sucks up his living through buying and selling things he does not create, who collects power and wealth out of proportion to his discrimination, and who is responsible for all that is kitsch, for all that is change without progress, for all that is consumption without use.

Obtuseness was its own defense

However, little by little, I am coming to the view that what I mistook for humility was, in fact, an accurate evaluation of your worth.

But I was a polite kid, so I went. Even the wildest and toughest of us kids, several of whom ended up in prison and one on death row, would be accounted polite by today's standards.

the first batch of ads just after the couple broke up, and the second just before they got together again...two moments that the sponsors considered so suspenseful that the listener wouldn't be able to step away from the radio for fear of missing the resolution.

Prudence is a bourgeois virtue, because the rich have something worth saving. The poor splurge because they need desperately to make a colorful splash across the drab fabric of their lives. The hungry don't dream of brown rice and vegetables; they dream of cake.

No one really likes Switzerland, except those who prefer cleanliness to life.

S?k?lmak ve k?zmak benim dostumun kulland??? duygulardan de?ildir.

Don't overlook the truth; properly handled, it can be an effective weapon. But bear in mind that weapons get blunted with overuse.

Halk?n sesi her zaman cahilliÄŸin sesi olduÄŸu için demokrasi yürümüyor zaten.

Biz çok iyi biliriz ki, hayat?ndan memnun görünenler beÅŸ paras?zd?r veya hak ettikleri gibi günahlar?n?n cezas?n? ödüyorlard?r. DiÄŸer taraftan, en ac?kl? ÅŸekilde yoksulluktan yak?nanlar?n da gizliden gizliye servet sahibi kiÅŸiler olduÄŸunu gayet iyi biliriz.

Indeed, my first interest in the pioneer work of Doctor Freud sprang, not from a concern for persons wounded in their collisions with reality, but from my personal curiosity about the nature of creativity and the springs of motivation. So

there were more critics than painters, more publishers than writers, more teachers than practitioners.