ŷ������

“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”
― Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

“But don't worry; as I've been saying - and this has been very clever of me, I'm sure you'll agree - if you put enough pressure on coal, it'll turn to pearls!”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“Well, there are times when one would like to hang the whole human race and finish the farce.”
― Mark Twain

“A farce or comedy is best played; a tragedy is best read at home.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“He had a certain air of being a handsome man--which he was not; and a certain air of being a well-bred man--which he was not. It was mere swagger and challenge; but in this particular, as in many others, blustering assertion goes for proof, half over the world.”
― Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit: Volume 1

“Surely you know that whatever the play, the curtain always falls at the end.”
― Bandi, The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea

“After a tragedy, a farce. Philosophy enters into her power, and the earth returns under one's feet.”
― Lev Shestov, All Things are Possible

“Even amidst tragedy there is laughter, sometimes farce. The degree of farce depends on who is running the tragedy.”
― Daniel Prokop, Leaving Neverland: Why Little Boys Shouldn't Run Big Corporations

“One of the great problems of philosophy, is the relationship between the realm of knowledge and the realm of values. Knowledge is what is; values are what ought to be. I would say that all traditional philosophies up to and including Marxism have tried to derive the 'ought' from the 'is.' My point of view is that this is impossible, this is a farce.”
― Jacques Monod

“Tragedies in hindsight look like farces.”
― Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time

“I saw exactly one picture of Marx and one of Lenin in my whole stay, but it's been a long time since ideology had anything to do with it. Not without cunning, Fat Man and Little Boy gradually mutated the whole state belief system into a debased form of Confucianism, in which traditional ancestor worship and respect for order become blended with extreme nationalism and xenophobia. Near the southernmost city of Kaesong, captured by the North in 1951, I was taken to see the beautifully preserved tombs of King and Queen Kongmin. Their significance in F.M.-L.B. cosmology is that they reigned over a then unified Korea in the 14th century, and that they were Confucian and dynastic and left many lavish memorials to themselves. The tombs are built on one hillside, and legend has it that the king sent one of his courtiers to pick the site. Second-guessing his underling, he then climbed the opposite hill. He gave instructions that if the chosen site did not please him he would wave his white handkerchief. On this signal, the courtier was to be slain. The king actually found that the site was ideal. But it was a warm day and he forgetfully mopped his brow with the white handkerchief. On coming downhill he was confronted with the courtier's fresh cadaver and exclaimed, 'Oh dear.' And ever since, my escorts told me, the opposite peak has been known as 'Oh Dear Hill.'

I thought this was a perfect illustration of the caprice and cruelty of absolute leadership, and began to phrase a little pun about Kim Jong Il being the 'Oh Dear Leader,' but it died on my lips.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

“Why do I have a sense of impending disaster?
(He reflects) Sonders is after my niece and has discovered the secret address where I am sending her to the safe keeping of my sister-in-law Miss Blumenblatt, who has never laid eyes on him, or, for that matter, on Marie either since she was a baby—while I have to leave my business in the charge of my assistant and an apprentice, and follow my new servant, whom I haven't had time to introduce to anyone, to town to join the parade and take my fiancée to dinner in a uniform I can't sit down in.
One false move and we could have a farce on our hands.”
― Tom Stoppard, On the Razzle

“Meaning, yes -- I don't really exist except on the page or in the back of your brain. But if you think it's weird a fictional character's telling this story, you ain't seen what happened, yet.”
― Kyle Michel Sullivan, The Lyons' Den

“I always feel apprehensive when someone reads my work for the first time. Most writers are probably the same, with a desperate need to be liked �� preferably expressed as lavish praise and uncritical admiration.”
― Jack Messenger, Farewell Olympus

“If it takes years to build a friendship, then every other relationship should be called 'a quickie.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, The Infinity Sign

“That fence has gotta 'lectric charge runnin' through it!" Duffy whispered. "Felt like I got struck by lightnin' right b'tween my shoulder blades! It crackled like when the barber turns on his trimmer."

Ott had had his suspicions about the electric fence, but there had been only one way to know for sure. That's why some people were generals and others were sergeants, after all.”
― Mark Warren, Moon of the White Tears

“The more I learn, the less I know: the less I know, the less I understand: the less I understand, the less I can relate; I know you're crazy.”
― Al Diaz

“I have some devotional books you can look over. Learn to quote from them. Nothing discourages unwanted questions as much as a flow of pious bleating.

(Petyr Baelish to Sansa Stark)”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold

“What is like chemistry?"
"Well. Life."
"It's an outrageous farce, Oliver, with an incompetent producer...”
― William Golding, The Pyramid

“War is the rich old men's favorite spectator sport. They dream of these for young foolish men to die in aimlessly; it makes them feel like a God and they get to make a killing off of it too.”
― Mamur Mustapha

“Ever since my school days I've always taken a scunner to businessmen. They'll do anything for money. They are, after all, what they used to be called in the good old days; the very dregs of society." My master, with a businessman right there in front of him, indulges in tactlessness.

"Oh, have a heart. They arent always like that. Admittedly there's a certain coarseness about them; for there's no point in even trying to be a businessman unless your love for money is so absolute that you're ready to accompany it on the walk to a double suicide. For money, believe you me, is a hard mistress and none of her lovers are let off lightly. As a matter of fact, I've just been visiting a businessman and according to him, the only way to succeed is to practice the 'triangle technique': try to escape your obligations, annihilate your kindly feelings, and geld yourself of the sense of shame. Try-an-geld. You get it? Jolly clever, don't you think?"

"What awful fathead told you that?”
― Soseki Natsume

“you are given the freedom of choice on one condition. that you make the right choice”
― Slavoj Žižek

“VOTERS are the ultimate Consoomers. The product they fanboy over is either Team Red or Team Blue, and their whole self-identify revolves around the ritual of deluding themselves into believing they had any control over the selection of the actor pretending to be their leader.”
― Jarod Kintz, Powdered Saxophone Music

“Judith (sadly): A change has come over my children of late. I have tried to shut my eyes to it, but in vain. At my time of life one must face bitter facts!”
― Noel Coward Sir

“What a farce the toxic Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Mauna Kea is turning into!”
― Steven Magee

“If you are visiting the capital on a budget, the US Congress has a more successful farce exhibition than anywhere in the Washington DC art district and tickets are free.”
― Carmine Savastano

“At the meeting, Lu Dingyi made self-criticism, admitting that it seemed unbelievable that he could have lived with Yan Weibing for twenty-five years without knowing about her letters, but insisting on his innocence. 'Yan Weibing is now at the Ministry of Public Security, so please ask her. If I knew anything about her letters before reading the Ministry of Public Security files, please treat me like a chief conspirator and accomplice of counterrevolution and punish me more harshly.' In reply to Lin Biao's grilling, Lu said: 'isn't it quite common for husbands not to know what their wives are up to?' Lin Biao said: 'I'm itching to shoot you right here and now!' He went on, 'I've always had a liking for some intellectuals, and I've been especially fond of you, Lu Dingyi. So why do you engage in this kind of mischief? What's your intention?' When Lu Dingyi said he really didn't know about the letters, Lin Biao smacked the table and said, 'How can you not know when you're in bed fucking every day?' The denunciation turned farcical as Zhou Enlai hurled a a tea mug in Lu Dingyi's direction, and Yang Chengwu shook his fist under Lu's face and said, 'This is the dictatorship of the proletariat!”
― Yang Jisheng, The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

“Minister of Public Security Xie Fuzhi approved an infantile demand by the Red Guards that traffic police replace their batons with Quotations of Chairman Mao, claiming that only Mao Zedong Thought could point people in the correct direction. Zhou Enlai managed to talk the Red Guards out of their demand to change traffic lights because red was the symbol of the revolution and should not be the color for obstructing progress. He and the commander of the Beijing Military Region, Zheng Weisan, were also able to convince the Red Guards to abandon their demand to march from west to east (i.e. away from capitalism) when being reviewed by Mao at Tiananmen Square, pointing out that reversing the direction would require Red Guards to salute Mao with their left hands and force Mao to look right rather than left from the gate tower.”
― Yang Jisheng, The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, Karl Marx wrote, correcting Hegel. But what's next? There's no word for a farce of a farce.”
― Dale Beran, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office

“She looks right at my face. “Love isn’t a farce just because of how often it can be felt.�� Miranda takes a slow drink of her wine, thoughtfully. Then, “It’s more real because of that reason.”
― Tarin Lex, Jason