W. J. T. Mitchell Quotes

Nothing attunes you to the beauty of the quotidian like a man who decides not to kill you after all

Glass & peace alike betray proof of fragility under repeated blows.

I was right when I said I’d never look back. It hurts too much, it drags at your heart till you can’t ever do anything else except look back.

Don't you suppose men get surprised after they're married to findthat their wives do have sense?""Well, it's too late den. Dey's already mahied.

One writes music because winter is eternal and because, if one didn't, the wolves and blizzards will be at one's throat all the sooner.

Disco's are tricky. You look a total wally if you dance too early but after one crucial song tips the disco over, you look a sad saddo if you don't.

I’m not sorry it stopped. [on Lady Gaga’s ”Poker Face”]

I've never listened to music lying down. Listening's reading if you close your eyes.Music's a wood you walk through.

In search of love and music my whole life has beenIlluminationCorruptionAnd diving, diving, diving, diving down To pick up on every shiny thing

In the Belgian backwaters, south of Bruges, there lives a reclusive English composer, named Vyvyan Ayrs. You won’t have heard of him because you’re a musical oaf, but he’s one of the greats.

A book can’t be a half-fantasy any more than a woman can be half pregnant

The most important parts of building a family are "God's Love" and "Meaningful Friendships.

The learnin' mind is the livin' mind... an' any sort o' smart is truesome smart, old smart or new, high smart or low.

Mind is every thing.

The empowered may serve justice, remodel the Earth, transform lush nations into smoking battlefields, and bring down skyscrapers, but power itself is amoral.

Power and moneyLike Pooh Bear and honeyStick fast.

Not a clue – and, no, I don’t touch drugs. The world’s unstable enough without scrambling your brain for kicks.

I know a lie when I hear one.

Do, " said Louisa finally, "whatever you can't not do.

I curtsied. 'Thank you, Mr. Stansbury. And I apologize for my lack of grace.'He bowed. 'Never apologize for being courageous, Miss Withersby.

A new day is a new beginning, a new life to live!

The change of language is a change in reality.

People who seek the truth never stop looking for it

Cynicism can blind one to subtler virtues

A wise man does not step betwixt the beast and his meat

Nonfiction that smells like fiction is neither.

If Beyoncé Knowles and Miley Cyrus represent the latest branch of feminism, then surely the male-dominated power elite must be aroused with concern.

The sacred is a fine hiding place for the profane.

When I'm in doubt - as I am now - I ask myself, 'What would Carl Jung do?' - and act accordingly.

My limits know me well enough to stay out of my way.

Books’ll be back, ” Esther-in-Unalaq predicts. “Wait till the power grids start failing in the 2030s and the datavats get erased. It’s not far away. The future looks a lot like the past.

The Future, ” says Ian, in a film-trailer voice. “Coming soon, to a Present near you.

the oncoming night was filled with the mystery of unknown places and of distance, of things that happened long ago and happenings yet to com

No religion can fully accept another religion, that’s the one belief all religions share

As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

The truth of a myth, your Honor, is not its words but its patterns.

I wish, he thinks, spoken words could be captured and kept in a locket.

Words are what you fight with but what you fight about is whether or not you’re afraid of them.

Prayer may be a placebo for the disease of helplessness, but placebos can make you feel better.

I've looked at life from both sides now From up and down and still somehowIt's life's illusions I recallI really don't know life at all

Even a lion finds time to relax and look for a good spot.

Every woman deserves to be handled like a princess, She just needs to find her prince.

Spend every moment in "Hope" and "Love" for God for he has risen and brought us courage.

Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable haemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed.

Here’s the truth: Who is spared love is spared grief.

This is what happens when you look back to happiness, this pain, this heart-break, this discontent

But, Scarlett, did it ever occur to you that even the most deathless love could wear out?

Be a Force of Good in the World. You can't change everything.

One kind of walking which I do not recall seeing mentioned anywhere in the literature of the subject is imaginary walking.

The other day, a friend of a friend said that everyone started out as girls, but boys evolved… But don’t worry girls, I hit him.