Quotes

Posted by Vale

The book of the week on Radio 4 this week has been the Winter Journal by Paul Auster. I was struck by two quotes from Joseph Joubert included in today’s excerpt. Joubert, who was living in the early 1800s, published nothing in his lifetime but a book of Pensees was culled from his note books and papers. Auster reports that this jotting was found amongst them:

‘The end of life is bitter’

But, written about a year later this was found:

‘One must die lovable (if one can).

Now, there’s a challenge! 

When debating the murder of 6 Sikhs in Wisconsin by a white supremacist:

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal accused Akali Dal of “baking political cake on funeral pyre” of the victims.

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Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

Albert Camus, The Outsider

Hat tip Richard Rawlinson

“This was the last of the fast Oval pitches. If Malcolm hadn’t taken nine for 57, there might have been a case for making Harry Brind the man of the match. Brind, in his last season as head groundsman at Surrey, produced a glorious wicket: hard, fast and as true as a dying man’s final words.”

Rob Smyth in the Guardian on the third Test vs South Africa, 1994.

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“For me there’s a daffodil in every dustbin.”

Eric Sykes, who died today. 

From Matthew Parris’ column in yesterday’s Times:

“My sister … remarked lightly one evening that as men get old we turn into either lizards or toads: one or the other, there is no escape, no third option.”

If you’re a man, which one are you turning into?

“It is the role of the mortuary staff to pack orifices, not the nurse.”

NHS guide to last offices here.

“One of the best pieces of advice I had came from a friend whose husband died suddenly… “Don’t forget that you are you,” she said cryptically. How right she was. She meant that I should not allow myself to be changed by my experience of grief.”

Anne Penketh here

“When a very loved friend dies they make a gift of their love of life to you in that it’s now your responsibility to love life as much as they did.”

Martin Amis on the death of his lifelong friend Christopher Hitchens

“Traditionally, older folks would say this profession is only for those people who are not married, have no children, and have no choice.” 

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