Salman Rushdie  - Quotes

 A book is a product of a pact with the Devil that inverts the Faustian contract, he'd told Allie. Dr Faustus sacrificed eternity in return for two dozen years of power; the writer agrees to the ruination of his life, and gains (but only if he's lucky) maybe not eternity, but posterity, at least. Either way (this was Jumpy's point) it's the Devil who wins. 

Tags: book   faust   immortality   knowledge     


Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  - Quotes

 Waste not a day in vain digression;

with resolute, courageous trust

seek every possible impression

and make it firmly your posession

you'll then work on because you must.
 

Tags: faust     
Christopher Marlowe  - Quotes

 Faustus: Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me, what good will

my soul do thy lord?



Mephistopheles: Enlarge his kingdom.



Faustus: Is that the reason he tempts us thus?



Mephistopheles: Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.

(It is a comfort to the wretched to have companions in misery)
 

Tags: damnation   faustus   hell   lucifer   mephistopheles     


Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  - Quotes

 Just take a look at our patrons, and you'll know

Some don't appreciate us, others never will.
 

Tags: appreciate   faust   patrons     
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  - Quotes

 Through many a long day you'll be taught

That what you once did without thinking,

As easy as if it were eating or drinking,

Must be done in order: one! two! three!

But truly, this though factory of ours

Is like some weaver's masterpiece:

One treadle stirs a thousand threads,

This way and that the shuttles whistle,

Threads flow invisibly, one ... Read morestroke

Ties a thousand knots .... The philosopher steps in

And proves to you it had to be so;

The first was so, the second was so,

And therefore the third and fourth were so.

If the first and second hadn't existed,

The third and fourth would never have existed.

And this is praised by every scholar,

But never a one becomes a weaver.

To know and describe a living thing

You first get rid of all its spirit:

Then the parts are all in the palm of your hand,

And all that you lack is the spirit that binds them!

Encheiresis naturae, chemists call it,

And fool themselves and never know it
 

Tags: faust     
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  - Quotes

 How to please the public - that's the test,

But nowadays I find I'm in a fix;

I know they're not accustomed to the best,

But they've all read so much they know the tricks.

How can we give then something fresh and new

That's serious, but entertaining too?
 

Tags: entertain   faust   goethe   public     
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  - Quotes

 Who are you then? 

Tags: devil   evil   faust   good     
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  - Quotes

 Once I blazed across the sky,

Leaving trails of flame;

I fell to earth, and here I lie -

Who'll help me up again?

-A Shooting Star
 

Tags: faust     


Quotes of the Day