More thoughts
"Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men.
For though the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again. "
--Bertolt Brecht
***
Gary: " . . . Good luck, tomorrow."Dude: "Yeah, thanks man."
Gary: "I was sorry to hear about Donnie."
Dude: "Ah, yeah . . . Well, you know, sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes . . .
uh . . . well . . . Hey, Man!"Stranger: " . . . How dee do, Dude?"
Dude: ". . . I wondered if I'd see you again."
Stranger: ". . . How things been goin'?"
Dude: ". . . Well, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs . . . Yeah. Thanks Gary . . .
Well, take care man, gotta get back . . . "Stranger: "Sure. Take it easy, Dude."
Dude: "Oh, yeah."
Stranger: "I know that you will."
Dude: ". . . Yeah, well . . . the Dude abides."
Stranger: ". . . 'The Dude abides' . . . I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that.
It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude, taken 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh.
I sure hope he makes the finals. Well'p, that about does 'er. Raps 'er all up.
Things seem'd to have work'd out pretty good fer the Dude and Walter.
And it was a pretty good story, don't you think? Made me laugh to beat the band.
Parts, anyway. I didn't like seein' Donnie go. But, then I happen to know that there's a
little Lebowski on the way. I guess that's the way the whole dern human comedy keeps perpetuatin'
itself, down through the generations. Westward the wagons, across the sands of time until we
. . . ah, look at me, I'm ramblin' again. Well, I hope you folks enjoyed yerselves.
Catch yer later on down the trail . . . Say friend, got any more of that good sarsparilla?"
--The Big Lebowski
***
Tony: "This whole war could have been averted. . . Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this." Carmela: "You had to see a shrink because of the mother you had." Tony: "When I look at the guys now, all I feel is humiliation . . . " --The Sopranos, Episode 13, January 15, 2001.
*** "Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over." -Frank Zappa
*** "My sword leans against the sky. With its polished blade I'll behead The Buddha and all of his saints. Let the lightning strike where it will."
--Death poem of Shumpo Soki, a zen monk who died on the fourteenth day of the first month, 1496 at the age of eighty-eight.
Hoffman, Y. 1986. Japanese Death Poems Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on The Verge of Death. Rutland, VT.: Charles E. Tuttle Company. Page 115
["It is said that after reciting this poem, Shumpo gave a single 'laugh of derision' and died. To 'behead/The Buddha' suggests spiritual independence and an awareness freed from the manner of thought dictated by religious tradition. According to Buddhist belief, a man who sins against religion and morality is liable to die by a stroke of lightning." (Hoffman, 1986)]
*** From A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt (1960)
The scene is in court just before Sir Thomas More is found guilty of high treason. The script in the actual play by Robert Bolt is slightly different from the screenplay, also written by Robert Bolt, for the movie version. The movie version won the Academy Award for best picture in 1966. In the book, on page 151, The Duke of Norfolk and More have the following exchange:
NORFOLK (Leaning forward urgently) "Your life lies in your own hand, Thomas, as it always has."
MORE (Absorbs this) "For our own deaths, my lord, yours and mine, dare we for shame enter the Kingdom with ease, when Our Lord Himself entered with so much pain?"
(And now he faces CROMWELL, his eyes sparkling with suspicion)
However, in the script for the movie the exchange is as follows (verbatim):
NORFOLK (Leaning forward urgently) "Your life lies in your own hands, Thomas, as it always has!"
MORE "Is that so, my lord?" (slight pause) "Then I’ll keep a good grip on it."
(The courtroom then erupts in laughter.)
*** "I am looking for an honest man."
--Diogenes the Cynic, c. 400 - c. 325 B.C., From DIOGENES LAERTIUS, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes, sec. 6
