Season Two

“Well, these are the facts about how two legends met face to face, many moons ago...”

“You know how they say 'All good things must come to an end'?  Yeah, well, the bad things just tend to get worse.”

“George Orwell said that 'Myths which are believed in, tend to become true'. Now, I've never been big on belief,  but I believe in something now. That a big chunk of myth is locked inside my head. Yeah, I  figure that makes me about two percent myth, myself.  Two percent of everything people disregard, disbelieve and secretly hope is real.” 

— Episode 2.01,  “Legends”

“A babe named Princess Diana once said that 'If men had to have babies, they would only have one'. Truer words were never spoken.” 

“Woody Allen said it best when he said 'Don't knock it—it's sex with someone you love'.”

“Hey, when I was a kid my aunt sent me to summer camp.  Camp Nimrod—something like that.  Anyway, their motto was, 'There's nothing we can't do'.  Yeah, this place's motto looked more like 'Be all that you can be '.” 

“Last time I got put away, they used DNA evidence against me. I cursed the day it was ever invented.  Never thought I'd change my  mind on that one... I just wish it were a little less disgusting to acquire.”

“The poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote, 'Your children are not your children. They come through you but not from you.  And though they are with you, they do not belong to you'.” 

— Episode 2.02, “The Camp”

“A downtown guy named Billy Joel once wrote: 'We all have a face that we have that we hide away, and we take out when everyone's gone'.  He called it 'The Stranger'.  Which pretty much sums up the guy we're looking for.”

“The Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan once wrote, 'Things are seldom what they seem: Skim milk masquerades as cream'. Well, of course he was then promptly beaten up by every kid in the school yard. ... Look, the point is—we probably learned more about Eberts when he was Arnaud, than we ever would've from Eberts himself.”

— Episode 2.03, “The Importance of Being Eberts”

“A philosopher named Wittgenstein once observed that 'Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie'.  Yeah, well, our new agent, Alex Monroe, knew too much.  Way too much, which meant she was gonna lie about practically everything.”

“When God created Adam , he put him in the most perfect place on Earth.  I hope this Adam wakes up to a world like that.”

— Episode 2.04, “Johnny Apocalypse”

“The U.S. Postal Service promises that 'Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays their couriers from their swift completion of their appointed routes'.  But gunfire? ... Now, I found that that tends to bring most routines to a screeching halt.”

“The poet William Blake once said that 'When the doors of perception are finally cleansed—' I'm sorry, did I say that out loud?”

“The poet  William Blake once said that 'When the doors of perception are finally cleansed we will all see things as they truly are'.  Well, maybe that's what Hobbes was afraid of.”

— Episode 2.05, “Going Postal”

“...And the hits just keep on comin'....”

“Thomas Mann said that 'A man's dying is more of the survivor's affair than his own'.  Now my version of that would go great on a T-shirt: 'My brother was murdered and all i got was this lousy gland'.”

“Leonardo da Vinci said that 'Our life is made by the death of others'.  Well, that might sound harsh, but I've learned it's true.  Twice.”

— Episode 2.06, “Brother's Keeper”

“Shakespeare wrote something like, 'The thief doth feareth that eacheth bush is a police officer'.  Yeah, well, I tend to think each bush is some crazy guy who wants to kill me.”

“Alfred Hitchcock once said that 'The terror isn't in the bang, but in the anticipation of it'.  Well, I have to tell you, I hadn't been this nervous about what I was about to see in a long time.”

“The Russian writer, a Nadezhda Mandelstam said that 'The first way of evading responsibility is not to recollect at all'.  Mmm.  I think deep in his mind, that's what Gaither was doing.”

— Episode 2.07, “Insensate”

“An Englishman named Samuel Butler once said that 'Once a thief's committed beyond a certain point, he shouldn't worry about it any more.  Thieving is God's message to him.  Let him try and be a good thief'.  Eh, wonder if that applied to terrorists.”

“You know that saying, 'You can't go home again '?  I don't know what they're talking about.  I mean, come on, the accommodations are great, and hey—ya can't beat the company.”

“Okay, now, you know how in almost every sci-fi movie involving time travel it's very important to the guy traveling back in time to not run into his past self because that would mean he would, ah, essentially implode, or something?  Well, it's kind of how it is with the past me and the present me.”

— Episode 2.08, “Den of Thieves”

“Okay, so you know that old saying 'Honesty is the best policy '?  Well, let's just say some people don't appreciate the benefits.”

“The most powerful motivational word in the English language is 'no'.  Especially when it comes out of the mouth of The Official.”

“Here's a story for you:  kid named Jack climbs a beanstalk; gets to the top; finds a goose that lays golden eggs.  Well, long story short, Jack steals the goose and lives happily ever after.  Now, like my friend Charlie here, Jack had the best intentions.  He used those eggs to support his mother who was poor and starving, but let's not kid ourselves, okay—Jack is not a good role model.”

“Someone once said that 'Wisdom comes through suffering '.  Thanks to Charlie Jay, I may be the smartest man on earth.”

— Episode 2.09, “Bad Chi”

Darien had difficulty recollecting any germane quotes this episode.

— Episode 2.11, “Flash to Bang”

“Composers of traditional Japanese music believe that ' True experience is found not only in the notes, but in the silences between them'.  In other words, know when to shut up.”

“Celebrity scientist Sir Isaac Newton said, 'If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants'.  Because in science, every discovery is built on the ones before it.  Now me, I ain't no scientist, but here's my take on progress: slow down.  Take it from me great new ideas, they ain't always so great.  I mean, when it comes to giants, I think we oughta worry about a giant boot that could come down and squish us like a bug.”

— Episode 2.13, “Germ Theory”

“Margaret Thatcher once observed that 'It is the female of the species which defends when attacked'.  Now, Alex Monroe personified that statement.”

“Alex had done a lot of brave things in her career.  Probably would do a lot more.  Nothing would ever top what she was doing now.”

— Episode 2.14, “The Choice”

“There's an old Yiddish proverb about boredom that says 'Let it be worse, so long as it's change'.  Well, the department of Weights and Measures makes Health and Human Services look like a party at Eminem's house.”

“Francis Bacon said that 'There's a superstition in avoiding superstition'.  Now, if that's the case, I'm extremely superstitious because I don't believe in anything superstitious.  Especially ghosts.”

“Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote that 'A mother's a mother still.  The holiest thing alive'.  Now, I never really understood that quote until now, but I think what it means is: even a mother who's gone is still the holiest thing alive.  Amen.”

— Episode 2.12, “Immaterial Girl”

“Leo Tolstoi , he once observed that 'All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'.  Which made my family about as unique as it gets.  Eh, what little was left of it.”

“I think it was some French scholar, observed that ' All heroism is due to lack of reflection '.  Well, my bad luck, I had to catch Hobbes in “Hero Mode”.  Ah, what the hell, he'll have time to reflect at my funeral.”

“George Gobel once observed that he spent his life feeling like the whole world was in tuxedos and he was stuck wearing brown shoes.  Yeah, well, that's pretty much my reaction watching this group run computers.  On the other hand, I doubt any of them could pick a twelve tumble lock while holding a maglite in their mouth.”

— Episode 2.16, “Father Figure”

“An ancient Greek playwright named Sophocles said 'There's nothing more demoralizing than money'.  Mmm, he was almost right.  It's actually the lack of money that really sucks.”

— Episode 2.10, “A Sense of Community”

“This congress woman from way back named Shirley Chisholm said that 'When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that morality wins'.   There's never been a better example of that than our beloved Official.”

“Voltaire once said that, 'The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks'.  But, uh, Claire was way beyond that.”

“Man is the only animal that blushes.  Or needs to.  Mark Twain .”

— Episode 2.15, “The Three Phases of Claire”

“The philosopher Edmund Burke once said that 'When bad men combine, good men must associate'.  Now, the Agency isn't exactly the Justice League, but, ah, you know, we could hang pretty tight when we had to.  SWRB—definitely bad men.  Just think of them as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.”

— Episode 2.17, “Exposed”

“An author named Jonathan Swift once wrote that 'Vision is the art of seeing things invisible'.  As a guy who was seeing his share of invisible things, I couldn't agree more.  Difference is, when it happens to me it usually spells trouble.”

— Episode 2.19, “The Invisible Woman”

“Salvador Dali once said that 'The only difference between him and a madman is that he wasn't mad'.  Well, unfortunately for me, sometimes even that distinction wasn't quite too clear.”

“It suddenly dawned on me that it's been almost two years since I've been able to enjoy the, ah, finer literary works in a color other than Quicksilver vision...”

“Well, this is of course the part where I Quicksilver; sneak into The Official's office; and spy on my fellow spies.  Unfortunately, I think I'm gonna haveta go, ah, a little more low tech this time.”

“William Shakespeare once said that 'A coward dies a thousand deaths.  A hero dies but one'.  Yeah, 'course what Bill was really trying to say was either way, you loose.”

“Yeah, it did feel good to be back, although it bugged me that Warring had gotten away scott free.  But like George Bernard Shaw said, 'As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living.  Satisfaction is death'.  On the other hand, just because I've accepted what I am doesn't mean I haveta like it.”

— Episode 2.18, “Mere Mortals”

“George Bernard Shaw said, 'We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession'.  Yeah, well, I'm startin' to think maybe we should go back the other way.”

— Episode 2.20, “Possessed”

“I used to get into fights as a kid—a lot—and my mom always gave me the sound advice, 'Turn your enemies into friends'.  I think she meant friends with me, not friends with each other...”

— Episode 2.21, “Enemy of My Enemy”

“In his book The Rebel, Albert Camus said that 'Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present'.  Well, what better time to invest in my future than right now?”

“Cole Porter once said that 'Work is more fun than fun'.  Which I always thought was the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  I mean, come on, you don't work for it, it ain't fun?  Please.  That makes about as much sense as walking away from free money.”

“Ray Bradbury said, 'I don't try to describe the future.  I try to prevent it'.  Eh, I figured it was time I took that kind of control.”

from “On Children,” in The Prophet.

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2.03    Billy Joel (1949-) (born William Martin Joel):  Five-time Grammy award-winning American singer, songwriter and pianist whose works include the Piano Man and River of Dreams .  He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  His album The Stranger was Columbia/CBS's biggest seller (prior to the release of Michael Jackson's Thriller), even surpassing Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. Married to supermodel Christie Brinkley from 1985-1994.
Complete song:

“Well we all have a face / That we hide away forever / And we take them out and / Show ourselves / When everyone has gone / Some are satin some are steel / Some are silk and some are leather / They're the faces of the stranger / But we love to try them on / Well we all fall in love / But we disregard the danger / Though we share so many secrets / There are some we never tell / Why were you so surprised / That you never saw the stranger / Did you ever let your lover see / The stranger in yourself? / Don't be afraid to try again / Everyone goes south / Every now and then / You've done it, why can't / Someone else? / You should know by now / You've been there yourself / Once I  used to believe / I was such a great romancer / Then I came home to a woman / That I could not recognize / When I pressed her for a reason / She refused to even answer / It was then I felt the stranger / Kick me right between the eyes / Well we all fall in love / But we disregard the danger / Though we share so many secrets / There are some we never tell / Why were you so surprised / That you never saw the stranger / Did  you ever let your lover see / The stranger in yourself? / Don't be afraid to try again / Everyone goes south / Every now and then / You've done it why can't / Someone else? / You should know by now / You've been there yourself / You may never understand / How the stranger is inspired / But he isn't always evil / And he isn't always wrong / Though you drown in good intentions / You will never quench the fire / You'll give in to your desire / When the stranger comes along.”

from “The Stranger” from the album The Stranger.

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2.03    Gilbert and Sullivan (Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Sir Arthur Seymor Sullivan (1842-1900)).  A British librettist and a British composer, respectively.  In the period from 1871 to 1896, they collaborated on fourteen comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878).  Complete quote:  “Things are seldom what they seem, / Skim milk masquerades as cream.”  from Mrs.Cripps (Little Buttercup), in HMS Pinafore, act 2, published in The Savoy Operas (1926).

2.04    Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951):  Austrian-born British philosopher noted for his analyses of language and meaning.  Complete quote:  “Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie. ”  from Culture and Value, 1947 journal entry, eds. G.H. von Wright and Heikki Nyman (1980).

2.04    Adam: In the Bible, the first man and the husband of Eve.  From Genesis.

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2.05    U.S. Postal Service:  Contrary to popular belief, the United States Postal Service has no official motto. However, a number of postal buildings contain inscriptions, the most familiar of which appear on postal buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C. This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done. Professor George H. Palmer of Harvard University supplied the translation, which he considered the most poetical of about seven translations from the Greek.  Complete quote: “We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever.”

2.05    William Blake (1757-1827):  British poet, painter, and engraver whose paintings and poetic works, such as Songs of Innocence (1789), have a mystical, visionary quality.   “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 14, “A Memorable Fancy,” (c. 1793), reprinted In Complete Writings, ed. Geoffrey Keynes (1957). “The Doors of Perception” was the title of Aldous Huxley’s essay on his experience with mescaline (1954); the 1960s rock group The Doors also reputedly took their name from Blake’s aphorism. Blake continued, “For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”

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2.06    Thomas Mann (1875-1955):  German writer who won the 1929 Nobel Prize for literature.  Complete quote:   “A man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own.”  from The Magic Mountain, ch. 6, “A Soldier, And Brave,” (1924), trans. by H.T. Lowe-Porter (1928).  

2.06    Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519):  Italian painter, engineer, musician, and scientist whose works include The Last Supper (1495) and the Mona Lisa.  “Our life is made by the death of others.”

2.07    William Shakespeare (1564-1616): English poet and playwright, considered the greatest of all time, whose plays include historical works, such as Richard II, comedies, including As You Like It, and tragedies, such as Hamlet and King Lear. Complete quote:  “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; / The thief doth fear each bush an officer.” from Gloucester to King Henry in King Henry VI. Part III. Act v. Sc. 6. 

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2.07    Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899-1980):  British-American director known for suspense films such as The 39 Steps (1935),  Psycho (1960), and The Birds ( 1962).  Complete quote: “There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it. ” Quoted in Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984).

2.07    Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980) (Nadezhda means 'hope' in Russian): was the wife of one of Russia’s greatest poets, Osip Mandelstam.  Osip was arrested and persecuted by the Stalin regime for composing an unflattering portrait of Stalin in a 16 line poem.  Osip eventually died in one of its infamous prison camps.  Nadezhda traveled to southern Russia to escape the ravages of World War II and the oppression of Stalin’s forces so she could survive to share her husband’s story.  Knowing that possession of her husband's banned manuscripts would endanger her life, she committed all of his works to memory, exercising a daily routine of reciting his poems so as not to forget them. Complete quote unlocatable, but perhaps may be found in one of her autobiographical memoirs: Hope Against Hope (1970) and Hope Abandoned (1974).

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2.08    Samuel Butler (1612-80):  English poet remembered primarily for his three-part work Hudibras (1663-78).  (1835-1902):  British writer best known for his semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh (1903).  Complete quote:  “The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not being a thief any more. Thieving is God’s message to him. Let him try and be a good thief.” from Samuel Butler’s Notebooks, p. 113 (1951).

2.08    “You can't go home again.” by Thomas Wolfe (1900-38) US author.  From the title of his book, You Can't Go Home Again (1940).

2.08    Time paradox:  an impossible situation created by traveling back through time, for example when a man travels back and kills his father, so that he himself could never have existed.

2.09    “Honesty is the best policy.” From Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii. by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616).  His father was a surgeon who presented himself as a nobleman, and his mother may have been a descendant of Jewish converts to Christianity.  Little is known of his early years, what is known is that he was a Spanish writer whose life was almost impossibly adventurous (from fighting in battle, being kidnapped and forced into slavery by Algerian corsairs, to being ransomed by Trinitarians) who wrote Don Quixote. 

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2.09    Jack and the Beanstalk.  The first literary version of the tale, according to Peter and Iona Opie, appeared in the 1734 reprint of Round About our Coal-Fire: or Christmas Entertainments (1730) with the addition of the tale “Enchantment demonstrated in the Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean.” The piece is a skit of the tale and the author demonstrates great familiarity with the traditional tale. The skit is ridiculous and makes light of the story and the society that will enjoy it.  The story does not appear in print in any form for another seventy years. Then, in 1807, it appears in two different publications: The History of Mother Twaddle, and the Marvelous Achievements of Her Son Jack, by B. A. T. and The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk, Printed from the Original Manuscript, Never Before Published by Benjamin Tabart. The first is a metrical rendering of the tale and considerably different in substance and events from the second story. In B.A.T's version, a servant girl lets Jack into the giant's home and gives the giant ale to fall asleep. Once the giant is asleep, Jack beheads him, marries the girl and sends for his mother. The Tabart version is the more familiar tale to 21st century readers and listeners, for it is the version most retellings have been based upon (Opies 1972).  Many variations of the tale's themes exist in different countries. The English version that is the most popular is Jack and the Beanstalk. The events causing the beanstalk to grow as well as the motivation for stealing from and killing the giant vary across versions, some with more “justifiable” reasoning, such as revenge. Still, Jack is a trickster and thus amoral and/or immoral in most versions. The tale has appeared primarily in north-central Europe. It has been popular in Finland and Norway. It has also appeared as far away as Spain and Romania, but never in Russia or further east. It has also appeared through French tellings in Canada and to the Native American nations stretching from Nova Scotia to British Columbia (Thompson 1946).

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2.09    “Wisdom comes through...”  by Aeschylus (524-455 BC). Ancient Greek playwright Responsible for the earliest surviving Greek tragedies, Aeschylus was born in Attica and died in Sicily. Aeschylus made Greek drama deal with profound moral and religious concepts. He wrote between 80 and 90 plays. Seven tragedies survive intact, along with fragments of other works. He won 13 victories at the Greater Dionysia, the annual dramatic festival held in Athens. Aeschylus modified drama in his day by adding a second actor, diminishing the role of the chorus, and giving a stronger role to dialogue. Although Sophocles may have invented the concept of a third actor (so says Aristotle), Aeschylus used this device to good effect in the Oresteia (the Cassandra and Pylades scenes) and possibly in the Prometheus.   His plays include Agamemnon and Prometheus Bound.
Complete quote:

“Zeus sets us on a course toward understanding ­
      This helmsman has established a strict regime:
          Wisdom comes through suffering.
Just as in troubled times
      when we try to get to sleep
          the memory of pain will seep into our mind again:
So wisdom comes to us ­
      whether we want it or not!
          We are all in this boat blessed by the violent grace of
           the gods in the top-seats.”

from Aeschylus' Agamemnon, translation by Adrian Guthrie.

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2.13    “True experience is...”  Not a new concept in Japan, but perhaps introduced to the West most by the music of Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Japan's most famous modern composer.  Who not only helped the old traditions to survive, but also stimulated public appreciation of traditional Japanese music. Takemitsu said “Music is either sound or silence. ” This 'silence' called 'ma' is as important as a sound in Japanese music. 'Ma' is the effective silence for next sounds, and emphasizes each phrase. It is similar to 'rest' in European music, but each duration of 'ma' is different. Takemitsu describes his music: Silence bordered with a necklace of sounds.

2.13    Sir Isaac Newton (1647-1727):  English physicist, mathematician, scientist and universal genius who invented differential calculus and formulated the theories of universal gravitation, terrestrial mechanics, and color.  Most familiar equation:  F=ma.  Complete quote:  “If I have seen further [than certain other men] it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” from a letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675 with reference to his dependency on Galileo’s and Kepler’s work in physics and astronomy.

2.14    Margaret Hilda Thatcher (1925-):  British politician who served as prime minister (1979-1990).  Complete quote:  “Most women defend themselves. It is the female of the species—it is the tigress and lioness in you—which tends to defend when attacked. ” from Daily Mail (London, May 4, 1989).

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2.12    Yiddish / Jewish proverb.  Most Yiddish proverbs stress the importance of wisdom and the superiority of the sage over the foolish, while blending a humorous side with an edgy reality.  During the Jewish Diaspora, languages other than Hebrew evolved due to environmental influences.  The best known of these are Ladino,  the language of the Sephardim (Jews who follow the traditions of those who lived in the Middle Ages on the Iberian Peninsula), and Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazim (descendants of the Jews living in the mediaeval Germany).  Yiddish traces its origins to approximately a thousand years ago in western Germany. Its basis are German dialects, Hebrew, Polish, and a half dozen other European language elements and was written in Hebrew script.  The history of Yiddish is rich, from the early days when Yiddish was spoken only by women and the untutored, to the present, when chutzpah is part of everyone's vocabulary. Complete quote:  “Let it be worse, as long as it's a change. ”

2.12    Francis Bacon (1561-1626): 1st Baron Verulam and Viscount Saint Albans. English Philosopher and essayist who proposed a theory of scientific knowledge based on observation and experiment that came to be known as the inductive method. Complete quote: “There is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men think to do best if they go furthest from the superstition formerly received; therefore care would be had that (as if fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad; which commonly is done when the people is the reformer.”  from “Of Superstition”, Essays, Civil and Moral, XVII, The Harvard Classics.  1909–14.

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2.12    Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834):  British poet and critic whose works include “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798).  Complete quote:  “A mother is a mother still, /
  The holiest thing alive.” from The Three Graves.

2.16    Leo Tolstoi (1828-1910) (Count Leo or Lev Nikolayevich):  Russian writer whose works include War and Peace (1864-69) and Anna Karenina (1873-76).  Complete quote: “All happy families resemble one another but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” from Anna Karenina.

2.16    “All heroism is...” by Ernest Renan (1823–1892), a French writer, critic, and scholar who wrote 'Vie de Jesus,' the first biography of Jesus to present him as entirely human. Complete quote: “As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.” from Orlando, in Caliban, act 2, sc.1.

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2.16    George Leslie Gobel (1919-1991):  'Lonesome George' was an American comedian who had a comedy-variety show, The George Gobel Show, that aired on NBC Primetime, 1954 - 1959, and CBS Primetime, 1959 - 1960.  Complete quote:  “Did you ever feel like the whole world is a black tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes?” from his classic 1972 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

2.10    Sophocles (496?-406 B.C.):  Greek dramatist whose plays include Antigone and Oedipus Rex.  Complete quote: “Money: There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.  Down go your cities, Homes gone, men gone, honest hearts corrupted, Crookedness of all kinds, and all for money!” from Creon to the Priest in Antigone (c. 441 B.C.).

2.15    Shirley Anita Saint Hill Chisholm (1924-)  American politician and human rights advocate who as New York congresswoman (1969-83), was the first black woman in the House of Representatives, and who was the first African-American woman to campaign for U.S. President (1972).  Most famous quote:  “Of my two 'handicaps' being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.”  Complete quote:  “When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.” from Unbought and Unbossed (1970).

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2.15    François-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778):  French philosopher and writer.  A fearless campaigner against injustice, he was imprisoned in the Bastille, exiled to England, Germany, and Switzerland, and later became a hero of French culture. His works include Lettres philosophiques (1734), the fable Candide (1759), and the Dictionnaire philosophique (1764).  “The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks.” from Letter, 1765, 1765.

2.15    Mark Twain (1835-1910) (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens): American author whose masterpieces of humor and sarcasm include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) .  Complete quote:  “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to. ” from Following the Equator, ch. 27, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar,” (1897).

2.17    Edmund Burke (1729-97):  Irish-born British politician and writer who was instrumental in developing the notion of a loyal opposition within the parliamentary system.  Complete quote: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” from Speech, April 23, 1770. Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, repr. In Works, vol. 1 (1865).  He was arguing the need for political parties.

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2.19    Jonathan Dean Swift (1667-1745):  Irish-born English poet, satirist and author whose satirical works include Gulliver's Travels (1726).  “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible,”  also quoted as “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible to others,” and quoted such that 'the' or 'what is' replaces 'things'.   from Thoughts on Various Subjects (1711).

2.18    Salvador Dali (1904-89):  Spanish surrealist artist (painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer), he is undoubtedly one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. Throughout his life he cultivated eccentricity and exhibitionism (one of his most famous acts was appearing in a diving suit at the opening of the London Surrealist exhibition in 1936), claiming that this was the source of his creative energy.  He described his pictures as 'hand-painted dream photographs' and had certain favorite and recurring images, such as the human figure with half-open drawers protruding from it, burning giraffes, and watches bent and flowing as if made from melting wax (The Persistence of Memory, MOMA, New York; 1931). Complete quote:  “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.”  from Diary of a Genius, May 1952 (1966).

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2.18    William Shakespeare (1564-1616): English poet and playwright, considered the greatest of all time, whose plays include historical works, such as Richard II, comedies, including As You Like It , and tragedies, such as Hamlet and King Lear.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;  
The valiant never taste of death but once.  
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,  
It seems to me most strange that men should fear; 
Seeing that death, a necessary end,  
Will come when it will come.”

from Julius Caesar to Calphurnia in Julius Caesar, act 2, sc. 2, l. 37-41 (1623). Caesar disregards objections to his departure on the Ides of March for the Capitol, where he is to be assassinated.

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George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950): Irish-born playwright, critic, essayist, political activist, lecturer, novelist, philosopher, revolutionary evolutionist, and the most prolific letter writer in literary history.   He was a founder of the Fabian Society and won the 1925 Nobel Prize for literature.

  2.18    Complete quote: “As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.” from the character Gregory Lunn, in Overruled.

  2.20    Complete quote: “We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.”

2.22    Albert Camus (1913-60):  French-Algerian existentialist philosopher and author who won the 1957 Nobel prize for literature.    “Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.” from “Beyond Nihilism,” pt. 5, The Rebel (1951, trans. 1953).

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2.22    Cole Albert Porter (1891?-1964):  American composer and lyricist remembered for his witty scores.   This quote is nowhere attributed to him outside of this episode.  However, Porter did collaborate with Noël Coward, to whom the credit for this quote is given.  Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973):  British actor, dramatist, and songwriter. After his first success, The Vortex(1924) , he wrote a number of comedies, including Blithe Spirit (1941) and Brief Encounter (1946), both made into films. His songs include Mad Dogs and Englishmen.  Complete quote: “Work is much more fun than fun.” from Advice to playwrights, ib, Communications & the Arts: Theater: Playwrights, Producers & Directors, and also printed in The Observer , 'Sayings of the Week', 21 June 1963, 1963

2.22    Ray Douglas Bradbury (1920-):  American science fiction writer whose works include “The Martian Chronicles” (1950), and Farenheit 451 (1953).   His stories have been described as 'a strange experience' because the reader is never certain whether a real future is being delineated, or real arguments are being made about how that future might be earned, reached, lived through.  However, according to him, his intentions are merely to write science fiction as ordinarily described.  Complete quote: “I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.” from Independent (London, July 16, 1992).

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Darien's Quotes - Season One