Quote of the Week #77

'What would disguise itself as a rat?'
'A mouse with delusions of grandeur.'

Horrible Histories

Quote of the Week #76

Alice’s end of the daisy chain kept falling apart. She glanced at Marie’s end. It draped across her lap, seeming to go on forever. Marie’s long fingers seemed lightning quick as she pierced the stalks. Alice’s end was measly in comparison. But Marie was older than her, and so self-assured and confident and so kind to her. And it was her kindness that made her beautiful, because nice people are usually the prettiest, as Marie had said to her once. Or pretty people are usually the nicest. Anyway. Marie was amazing. It was a wonder she would let Alice near her at all.

Bró + Ron - Alice.

Quote of the Week #75

My mother said to me 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

Pablo Picasso

Quote of the Week #74

Within an hour the morning classes were under way. At an ink-stained desk, with his chin cupped in his hands, Titus was contemplating, as in a dream, the chalk-marks on the blackboard. They represented a sum in short division, but might as well have been some hieroglyphic message from a moonstruck prophet to his lost tribe a thousand years ago. His mind, and the minds of his small companions in that leather-walled schoolroom, was far away, but in a world, not of prophets, but of swopped marbles, birds’ eggs, wooden daggers, secrets and catapults, midnight feasts, heroes, deadly rivalries and desperate friendships.

Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake

Quote of the Week #73

Anatomy is destiny.

Sigmund Freud

Quote of the Week #72

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

Salvador Dali

Quote of the Week #71

If you're lucky enough to be Irish, then you're lucky enough.


Unknown, but they're probably Irish and awesome.

Quote of the Week #69

I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

Stephen J. Gould

Quote of the Week #68

You know I am a damned ODD animal! And as my mother often says, she never has quite yet made up her mind if it is the deil or angel that watches peculiarly over me; only that it IS one or the other, without doubt! (And for my part, I am quite indifferent which.)

Ada Lovelace

Quote of the Week #67

They’re [Slytherins] not all bad. I know I’ve said this before. I think I said it to Emerson - they are not all bad and— well, far from it, as we know, at the end— they may have a slightly more highly developed sense of preservation than other people, because— A part of the final battle that made me smile was Slughorn galloping back with Slytherins. But they’ve gone off to get reinforcements first, you know what I’m saying? So yes, they came back, they came back to fight. But I’m sure many people would say, well that’s common sense, isn’t it? Isn’t that smart, to get out, get more people and come back with them? It’s the old saying, there is no truth, there are only points of view. 

 J. K. Rowling on Slytherins.

SO THERE.

Quote of the Week #66

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.


George Bernard Shaw

Quote of the Week #63

In the book, of course, she's described as very ugly and toad-like. And people say 'You'd be great for that part.' Thanks very much.


Imelda Staunton on playing the role of Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which I thought she was brilliant in, so there)

Quote of The Week #62

I have no desire to be a goth, but I do kind of envy the clothes they wear. It must be really fun to wake up in the morning when you're a goth. Like, 'I wonder will my black lace parasol go with my gothic Lolita skirt and Edwardian-style blouse? Yes it will, because luckily they are both also black. Being me is awesome.'

Prim Improper - Deirdre Sullivan 

Quote of The Week #61

I've no interest in schools. They have no relevance in the 21st century. They were a Victorian idea to get kids off the street. Who decided that putting 30 kids with only their age in common in a classroom with one teacher was the best way of educating? At my school there were 52 kids in the class and all I learned was how to pass the 11-plus. Testing is the death of education. Kids should leave school at 11 and go to work. Not down the mines or up chimneys, mind, but working with computers or something relevant. Everything I learned after 11 was a waste of time. Trigonometry, Boyle's law: it's never been of any use to me. They should have been teaching me the life skills I was going to need, such as building relationships, parenting and managing money. I didn't have a clue about any of these things at 18. Schools need to change.


Terry Deary

Quote of The Week #60

'That is Blogging Bianca,' Gary said, pointing to a girl who had her fingers curved as if she was ready to type at any second. 'Her blog was her life.'
'Whose isn't?' Scarlet smirked, one of her pet peeves being the amount of valuable time people waste blogging and pushing mundane personal observations in their own little cyber sweatshops for mass consumption.
'Unfortunately, that's what it cost her,' Gary explained. 'She got a DVT, you know, a blood clot from not moving around enough.  Too many snarky entries, too little stretching out.'
'Too much information.' Scarlet squirmed, pun totally intended. 'Talk about logging out.'


Tonya Hurley - Ghostgirl: Homecoming

Quote of The Week #59

I became a highwayman, was daylight robbery
I was no Prince Charming, nothing dandy about me!


Horrible Histories - Dick Turpin

Originally that was going to be my Quote #59, but then I was watching an old Horrible Histories sketch, and now I must honour this gem from Henry VIII...

Oh, why has God forsaken me with only lady babies?

Quote of The Week #58

The castle grounds were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparkling lake; the satin green lawns rippled occasionally in a gentle breeze. June had arrived, but to the fifth-years this meant only one thing: their OWLs were upon them at last.

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Quote of The Week #57

The Indie Handbook Volume Three would read:
'Show girls you fancy them
By getting with their boyfriends
Replace your party-loving mates
With awkward, greasy coy friends
Who like listening to Sonic Youth
You always must appear aloof
Remember no amount of faking
Will make you indie band ground-breaking'


Tom Milsom - Song For The Painfully Indie 

Quote of The Week #56

A Uachtaráin agus a chairde (President and friends). Prince Philip and I are delighted to be here, and to experience at first hand Ireland's world-famous hospitality.

Together we have much to celebrate: the ties between our people, the shared values, and the economic, business and cultural links that make us so much more than just neighbours, that make us firm friends and equal partners.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

Indeed, so much of this visit reminds us of the complexity of our history, its many layers and traditions, but also the importance of forbearance and conciliation. Of being able to bow to the past, but not be bound by it.

Queen Elizabeth II's speech at the State Dinner in Dublin Castle during her state visit to Ireland

Quote of The Week #55

It's not just a hair, it's a statement. - Gravity's trying to push us down, but it can't, because our hair is standing. It's always flying free.

Jedward at the Irish press conference, the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, Dusseldorf, Germany