Even a dead Zombknee is cooler than people whose brains are still tasty.

When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
- Leonard Cohen, "The Future"

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
- Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows
- Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
- Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
- Leonard Cohen, "Everybody Knows"

Or I'd crawl to you baby
And I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart
And I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please, please I'm your man
- Leonard Cohen, "I'm Your Man"

That's what you get for lovin' me
That's what you get for lovin' me
Ev'ry thing you had is gone
As you can see
That's what you get for lovin' me
- Gordon Lightfoot, "For Lovin' Me"

I ain't the kind to hang around
With any new love that I found
Cause movin' is my stock in trade
I'm movin' on
I won't think of you when I'm gone.
- Gordon Lightfoot, "For Lovin' Me"

So don't you shed a tear for me
B'cause I ain't the love you thought I'd be
I got a hundred more like you
So don't be blue
I'll have a thousand 'fore I'm through
- Gordon Lightfoot, "For Lovin' Me"

Now there you go you're cryin' again
Now there you go you're cryin' again
But then someday when your poor heart
Is on the mend
Well I just might pass this way again
- Gordon Lightfoot, "For Lovin' Me"

You say you got a real solution, well, you know, we'd all love to see the plan.
You ask me for a contribution, well, you know, we're doing what we can.
- The Beatles, "Revolution 1"

She scolded herself for not being able to blind herself to his appearance. But it was no use. He was too ugly
- Victor Hugo, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

It's all wrong, but it's all right.
The way that you treat me baby.
Once I was strong but I lost the fight.
You won't find a better loser. - Eric Clapton, "Bell Bottom Blues"

And my very sweet companion she's the Angel of Compassion she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer lifts a happy face to thank her
- Leonard Cohen, "Closing Time"

How do I feel by the end of the day?
(Are you sad because you're on your own?)
- The Beatles, "With a Little Help from My Friends"

Do you need anybody?
I need somebody to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love.
- The Beatles, "With a Little Help from My Friends"

What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can't tell you but I know it's mine.
- The Beatles, "With a Little Help from My Friends"

And I want you to be my acrobat
I want you to be my lover - Elton John, "Little Jeanne"

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turn my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
- Simon & Garfunkel, "The Sounds of Silence"

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
- Simon & Garfunkel, "The Sounds of Silence"

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
- Simon & Garfunkel, "The Sounds of Silence"

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship
Friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain
- Simon & Garfunkel, "I Am a Rock"

Don't talk of love
Well I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber Of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
- Simon & Garfunkel, "I Am a Rock"

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room
Safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
- Simon & Garfunkel, "I Am a Rock"

I am a rock
I am an island
And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries
- Simon & Garfunkel, "I Am a Rock"

I'm sittin' in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination, mmm
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one-man band
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound"

Every day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward Bound
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound"

I'll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony
I need someone to comfort me
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound"

I knew a man, his brain so small
He couldn't think of nothing at all
He's not the same as you and me
He doesn't dig poetry.
He's so unhip that
When you say Dylan, he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas
Whoever he was
The man ain't got no culture
But it's alright, ma
Everybody must get stoned
- Simon & Garfunkel, "A Simple Desultory Philippic "

When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes,
I will dry them all
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Bridge over Troubled Waters"

Celia, you're breaking my heart
You're shaking my confidence daily
Oh Cecilia, I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please, to come home
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Cecilia"

Making love in the afternoon
With Cecilia up in my bedroom
I got up to wash my face
When I come back to bed
Someone's taken my place
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Cecilia"

I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
- Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"

Asking only workman's wages I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome I took some comfort there
- Simon & Garfunkel, "The Boxer"

I'm not the kind of man who tends to socialize
I seem to lean on old familiar ways
And I ain't no fool for love songs that whisper in my ears
Still crazy after all these years
- Simon & Garfunkel, "Still Crazy after All These Years"

Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken and certainly misused
Ah, but I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home
- Simon & Garfunkel, "An American Tune"

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered,
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong
- Simon & Garfunkel, "An American Tune"

I been told when a boy kiss a girl,
Take a trip around the world
- The Beatles, "Boys"

Well, I talk about boys, now,
Aaahhh, boys,
Well, I talk about boys, now,
What a bundle of joy!
- The Beatles, "Boys"

Someone to love,
Somebody new.
Someone to love,
Someone like you.
- The Beatles, "Love Me Do"

Closer,
Let me whisper in your ear,
Say the words you long to hear,
- The Beatles, "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"

I think of you,
And things you do
- The Beatles, "There's a Place"

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose
- Janis Joplin, "Me and Bobby McGee"

Walk out if it doesn't feel right,
I can tell you're only lying.
If you've got something better tonight
Then don't mess up my mind with your crying.
- Eric Clapton, "Walk Out In The Rain"

I can't tell if the sun's gonna shine
And I don't know if you'll ever be mine,
But I'll make love to you any old time at all.
- Eric Clapton, "I'll Make Love To You Anytime"

I left my woman with a twenty dollar bill.
I left her waiting,
I hope she's waiting for me still.
If I don't be there by morning
You know that I, I never will.
- Eric Clapton, "If I Don't Be There By Morning"

I don't care if you never come home,
I don't mind if you just keep on
Rowing away on a distant sea,
'Cause I don't love you and you don't love me.
- Eric Clapton, "Promises"

I don't care what you do at night,
Oh, and I don't care how you get your delights.
I'm gonna leave you alone,
I'll just let it be,
I don't love you and you don't love me.
- Eric Clapton, "Promises"

I got a problem.
Can you relate?
I got a woman calling love hate.
We made a vow we'd always be friends.
How could we know that promises end?
- Eric Clapton, "Promises"

I tried to love you for years upon years,
You refuse to take me for real.
It's time you saw what I want you to see,
And I'd still love you if you'd just love me.
- Eric Clapton, "Promises"

And when I, I want to kiss you, yeah.
All I gotta do,
Is whisper in your ear
The words you long to hear,
And I'll be kissin' you.
- The Beatles, "All I've Got to Do"

So go away, leave me alone, don't bother me.
- The Beatles, "Don't Bother Me"

I've got no time for you right now, don't bother me.
- The Beatles, "Don't Bother Me"

Little child, little child,
Little child, won't you dance with me?
I'm so sad and lonely
- The Beatles, "Little Child"

If you want someone
To make you feel so fine,
Then we'll have some fun
When you're mine, all mine - The Beatles, "Little Child"

When you're by my side,
You're the only one,
Don't run and hide,
Just come on, come on,
So come on, come on, come on.
- The Beatles, "Little Child"

Let me go on loving you,
To-night to-night,
Making love to only you,
So hold me tight, to-night, to-night
- The Beatles, "Hold Me Tight"

Being here alone tonight with you,
It feels so right now, feels so right now.
- The Beatles, "Hold Me Tight"

I wanna be your lover baby, I wanna be your man,
I wanna be your lover baby, I wanna be your man.
- The Beatles, "I Wanna Be Your Man"

She's got the devil in her heart
But her eyes they tantalize
She's gonna tear your heart apart
Oh her lips are really thrilling
- The Beatles, "Devil in Her Heart"

If you need somebody to love, just look into my eyes,
I'll be there to make you feel right.
- The Beatles, "Anytime At All"

If you're feeling sorry and sad, I'd really sympathize.
Don't you be sad, just call me tonight.
- The Beatles, "Anytime At All"

If you need a shoulder to cry on I hope it will be mine.
Call me tonight, and I'll come to you.
- The Beatles, "Anytime At All"

I've got a chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet,
I Can't talk to people that I meet.
- The Beatles, "I'll Cry Instead"

But I'll come back again someday. And when I do you'd better hide all the girls, I'm gonna Break their hearts all 'round the world. Yes, I'm gonna Break them in two, and show you what your loving man can Do, until then I'll cry instead.
- The Beatles, "I'll Cry Instead"

When I'm getting home tonight, I'm gonna Hold her tight. I'm gonna love her till the cows come home, I bet I'll love her more, Till I walk out that door Again.
- The Beatles, "When I Get Home"

I'm a loser
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be
- The Beatles, "I'm a Loser"

One day you'll look to see I've gone.
For tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun.
- The Beatles, "I'll Follow the Sun"

Some day you'll know I was the one.
But tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun.
- The Beatles, "I'll Follow the Sun"

Ooh I need your love babe,
- The Beatles, "Eight Days a Week"

Well I love you, baby, and you ought to know
I like the way you wear your clothes,
Everything about you is so doggone sweet
- The Beatles, "Honey Don't"

Well sometimes I love you on a Saturday night,
Sunday morning you don't look right.
- The Beatles, "Honey Don't"

She's sweeter than all the girls and I met quite a few.
Nobody in all the world can do what she can do.
- The Beatles, "Another Girl"

She said that living with me
Is bringing her down yeah.
For she would never be free
When I was around. - The Beatles, "Ticket to Ride"

Just the sight of you makes nighttime bright,
Very bright.
- The Beatles, "It's Only Love"

I told a girl that my prospects were good
And she said baby, it's understood
Working for peanuts is all very fine
But I can show you a better time
- The Beatles, "Drive My Car"

I told a girl I can start right away
And she said listen babe I got something to say
I got no car and it's breaking my heart
But I've found a driver and that's a start
- The Beatles, "Drive My Car"

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me...
- The Beatles, "Norwegian Wood"

He's a real nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
- The Beatles, "Nowhere Man"

Doesn't kave a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
- The Beatles, "Nowhere Man"

He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
- The Beatles, "Nowhere Man"

Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else lends you a hand.
- The Beatles, "Nowhere Man"

Say the word and you'll be free
Say the word and be like me
Say the word I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
- The Beatles, "The Word"

Is there anybody gone to listen to my story
All about the girl who came to stay?
She's the kind of girl you want so much It makes you sorry;
Still, you don't regret a single day.
Ah girl! Girl!
- The Beatles, "Girl"

Was she told when she was young that pain
Would lead to pleasure?
Did she understand it when they said
That a man must break his back to earn
His day of leisure?
Will she still believe it when he's dead?
Ah girl! Girl! Girl!
- The Beatles, "Girl"

Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight
- The Beatles, "I'm Looking Through You"

Carve your number on my wall
And maybe you will get a call from me
If I needed someone
- The Beatles, "If I Needed Someone"

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
- The Beatles, "Taxman"

All the lonely people Where do they all come from? All the lonely people Where do they all belong? - The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby"

When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I'm still yawning
When I'm in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
- The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"

Please, don't wake me, no, don't shake me
Leave me where I am - I'm only sleeping
- The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"

Everybody seems to think I'm lazy
I don't mind, I think they're crazy
Running everywhere at such a speed
Till they find there's no need (there's no need)
- The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"

Please, don't spoil my day, I'm miles away
And after all I'm only sleeping
- The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"

Keeping an eye on the world going by my window
Taking my time
- The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"

Lying there and staring at the ceiling
Waiting for a sleepy feeling...
- The Beatles, "I'm Only Sleeping"

She said I know what it's like to be dead
I know what it is to be sad
And she's making me feel like I've never been born. - The Beatles, "She Said, She Said"

She said 'you don't understand what I said'
I said 'No, no, no, you're wrong'
- The Beatles, "She Said, She Said"

I need to laugh and when the sun is out
I've got something I can laugh about
I feel good in a special way
I'm in love and it's a sunny day
- The Beatles, "Good Day Sunshine"

Your day breaks, your mind aches
You find that all the words of kindness linger on
When she no longer needs you - The Beatles, "For No One"

She wakes up, she makes up
She takes her time and doesn't feel she has to hurry
She no longer needs you
- The Beatles, "For No One"

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!
- The Beatles, "For No One"

You want her, you need her
And yet you don't believe her when she said her love is dead
You think she needs you
- The Beatles, "For No One"

If you're down he'll pick you up, Doctor Robert
Take a drink from his special cup, Doctor Robert
- The Beatles, "Doctor Robert"

I was alone, I took a ride,
I didn't know what I would find there
Another road where maybe I could see another kind of mind there - The Beatles, "Got to Get You into My Life"

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void,
It is shining, it is shining.
- The Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows"

You're holding me down, turning me round
Filling me up with your rules.
- The Beatles, "Getting Better"

I used to be cruel to my woman
I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved
Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene
And I'm doing the best that I can.
- The Beatles, "Getting Better"

I'm taking the time for a number of things
That weren't important yesterday
- The Beatles, "Fixing a Hole"

Quietly turing the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
- The Beatles, "She's Leaving Home"

We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul
- The Beatles, "Within You Without You"

Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
- The Beatles, "When I'm Sixty-Four"

Watching the skirts you start to flirt now you're in gear.
Go to a show you hope she goes.
- The Beatles, "Good Morning, Good Morning"

Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,
Somebody spoke and I went into a dream
- The Beatles, "A Day in the Life"

Sad eyes, turn the other way I don't wanna see you cry
Sad eyes, you knew there'd come a day
When we would have to say goodbye - Robert John

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
- The Beatles, "I Am the Walrus"

Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down.
- The Beatles, "I Am the Walrus"

Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
- The Beatles, "Straberry Fields Forever"

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
- The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever"

It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.
- The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever"

How does it feel to be
One of the beautiful people?
Now that you know who you are
What do you want to be?
- The Beatles, "Baby, You're a Rich Man"

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.
Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.
- The Beatles, "All You Need Is Love"

Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
- The Beatles, "All You Need Is Love"

You may think the chords are going wrong
But they're not; He just wrote it like that.
It doesn't really matter what chords I play
What words I say or time of day it is
- The Beatles, "Only a Northern Song"

If you think the harmony
Is a little dark and out of key
You're correct, there's nobody there.
It doesn't really matter what chords I play
What words I say or time of day it is
And I told you there's no one there.
- The Beatles, "Only a Northern Song"

Gee it's good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
- The Beatles, "Back in the U.S.S.R."

Show me round your snow peaked mountains way down south
Take me to your daddy's farm L
et me hear your balalaika's ringing out
Come and keep your comrade warm.
- The Beatles, "Back in the U.S.S.R."

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out and play
- The Beatles, "Dear Prudence"

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low the birds will sing that you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?
- The Beatles, "Dear Prudence"

I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you.
- The Beatles, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

I don't know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
No one alerted you.
- The Beatles, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
- The Beatles, "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun
When I hold you in my arms
And I feel my finger on your trigger
I know no one can do me no harm
Because happiness is a warm gun -Yes it is.
- The Beatles, "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"

I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink
I'm so tired, my mind is on the blink
I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink
No,no,no.
- The Beatles, "I'm So Tired"

I'm so tired I don't know what to do
I'm so tired my mind is set on you
I wonder should I call you but I know what you'd do
- The Beatles, "I'm So Tired"

You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
You know I'd give you everything I've got for a little peace of mind
- The Beatles, "I'm So Tired"

Rocky burst in and grinning a grin
He said Danny boy this is a showdown
But Daniel was hot-he drew first and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner.
- The Beatles, "Rocky Racoon"

I listen for your footsteps
Coming up the drive
Listen for your footsteps
But they don't arrive
Waiting for your knock dear
On my old front door
I don't hear it
Does it mean you don't love me any more.
- The Beatles, "Don't Pass Me By"

I hear the clock a'ticking
On the mantel shelf
See the hands a'moving
But I'm by myself
I wonder where you are tonight
And why I'm by myself
I don't see you
Does it mean you don't love me any more.
- The Beatles, "Don't Pass Me By"

Why don't we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us
Why don't we do it in the road?
- The Beatles, "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"

Who knows how long I've loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime
If you want me to--I will.
For if I ever saw you I didn't catch your name
But it never really mattered I will always feel the same.
- The Beatles, "I Will"

Yes I'm lonely wanna die
Yes I'm lonely wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
- The Beatles, "Yer Blues"

In the morning wanna die
In the evening wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
- The Beatles, "Yer Blues"

The eagle picks my eye
The worm he licks my bone
I feel so suicidal
Just like Dylan's Mr. Jones
Lonely wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why.
- The Beatles, "Yer Blues"

Sexy Sadie what have you done
You made a fool of everyone
You made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.
- The Beatles, "Sexy Sadie"

Sexy Sadie you broke the rules
You layed it down for all to see
You layed it down for all to see
Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.
- The Beatles, "Sexy Sadie"

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover
She came along to turn on everyone
Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all.
- The Beatles, "Sexy Sadie"

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
Just a smile would lighten everything
Sexy Sadie she's the latest and the greatest of them all.
- The Beatles, "Sexy Sadie"

So many tears I was searching,
So many tears I was wasting, oh.
Oh--
- The Beatles, "Long, Long, Long"

Honey pie you are making me crazy
I'm in love but I'm lazy
So won't you please come home.
- The Beatles, "Honey Pie"

Oh honey pie you are driving me frantic
Sail across the Atlantic
To be where you belong.
Will the wind that blew her boat
Across the sea
Kindly send her sailing back to me.
- The Beatles, "Honey Pie"

Cool cherry cream and a nice apple tart
I feel your taste all the time we're apart
- The Beatles, "Savoy Truffle"

He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me
- The Beatles, "Come Together"

You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know
- The Beatles, "Something"

Oh! Darling, please believe me
I'll never do you no harm
Believe me when I tell you
I'll never do you no harm
- The Beatles, "Oh! Darling"

Oh! Darling, if you leave me
I'll never make it alone
Believe me when I beg you
Don't ever leave me alone
- The Beatles, "Oh! Darling"

We would sing and dance around because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
- The Beatles, "Octopus's Garden"

We would be so happy you and me
No one there to tell us what to do
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden with you.
- The Beatles, "Octopus's Garden"

Because the world is round it turns me on
Because the world is round...aaaaaahhhhhh
- The Beatles, "Because"

Out of college, money spent
See no future, pay no rent
All the money's gone, nowhere to go
- The Beatles, "You Never Give Me Your Money"

Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go
But oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go
Oh, that magic feeling
Nowhere to go
- The Beatles, "You Never Give Me Your Money"

Mean Mister Mustard sleeps in the park
Shaves in the dark trying to save paper
Sleeps in a hole in the road
Saving up to buy some clothes
Keeps a ten-bob note up his nose
Such a mean old man
Such a mean old man
- The Beatles, "Mean Mr. Mustard"

Always shouts out something obscene
Such a dirty old man Dirty old man
- The Beatles, "Mean Mr. Mustard"

Well you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good-looking but she looks like a man
Well you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag
Yes you should see Polythene Pam.
Yeah yeah yeah
- The Beatles, "Polythene Pam"

Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt
She's the kind of a girl that makes the 'News of the World'
Yes you could say she was attractively built.
Yeah yeah yeah.
- The Beatles, "Polythene Pam"

She said she'd always been a dancer
She worked at 15 clubs a day
And though she thought I knew the answer
Well I knew what I could not say.
- The Beatles, "She Came in through the Bathroom Window"

Oh yeah, all right
Are you going to be in my dreams Tonight?
- The Beatles, "The End"

And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make.
- The Beatles, "The End"

Two of us Sunday driving
Not arriving
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home
- The Beatles, "Two of Us"

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead
- The Beatles, "Two of Us"

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe
- The Beatles, "Across the Universe"

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
- The Beatles, "Across the Universe"

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
That call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box they
Tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe
- The Beatles, "Across the Universe"

Sounds of laughter shades of earth are ringing
Through my open views inviting and inciting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns, it calls me on and on
Across the universe
Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world.
- The Beatles, "Across the Universe"

I've got a feeling, a feeling deep inside
Oh yeah, Oh yeah.
I've got a feeling, a feeling I can't hide
- The Beatles, "I've Got a Feeling"

I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
- The Beatles, "The Long and Winding Road"

The wild and windy night the rain washed away,
Has left a pool of tears crying for the day.
Why leave me standing here, let me know the way
Many times I've been alone and many times I've cried
Anyway you'll never know the many ways I've tried, but
Still they lead me back to the long and winding road
You left me standing here a long, long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here, lead me to you door
- The Beatles, "The Long and Winding Road"

Get back, get back.
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, get back.
Get back to where you once belonged.
Get back Jojo. Go home
- The Beatles, "Get Back"

Get back Loretta
Your mother's waiting for you
Wearing her high-heel shoes
And her low-neck sweater
Get on home Loretta
Get back, get back.
Get back to where you once belonged.
- The Beatles, "Get Back"

Cold late night so long ago
When I was not so strong you know
A pretty man came to me
Never seen eyes so blue I could not run away
- Heart, "Magic Man"

It seemed like he knew me
He looked right through me
'Come on home, girl' he said with a smile
'You don't have to love me yet
Let's get high awhile
But try to understand
Try to understand
Try try try to understand
I'm a magic man.'
- Heart, "Magic Man"

'Come on home, girl' mama cried on the phone
'Too soon to lose my baby yet my girl should be at home!'
'But try to understand, try to understand
Try try try to understand
He's a magic man, mama
He's a magic man'
- Heart, "Magic Man"

'Come on home, girl' he said with a smile
'I cast my spell of love on you a woman from a child!
But try to understand, try to understand I'm a magic man!'
- Heart, "Magic Man"

If you close the door the night could last forever
Leave the sunshine out and say hello to never
- Velvet Underground, "After Hours"

All the people are dancing and they're having such fun
I wish it could happen to me
But if you close the door I'd never have to see the day again
- Velvet Underground, "After Hours"

If you close the door the night could last forever
Leave the wine-glass out and drink a toast to never
- Velvet Underground, "After Hours"

Oh, someday I know someone will look into my eyes
And say hello you're my very special one
But if you close the door I'd never have to see the day again
- Velvet Underground, "After Hours"

...who search the reason for things are those who bring the most sorrow on themselves
- Sophocles, "The Medea"

But though she knew it was her own ruin, she could not restrain herself, could not resist pointing out to him how in the wrong he was, could not give way to him.
- Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenin"

And where love ends, hate begins.
- Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenin"

I have kept telling myself that I am insanely jealous; but it is not true. I am not jealous, but unsatisfied.
- Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenin"

Are we not flung into the world for no other purpose than to hate each other?
- Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenin"

Your sister's gone out.
She's on a date
You just sit at home and masturbate
The phone is gonna ring soon but you just can't wait
For that call
- Billy Joel, "Captain Jack"

So you play your albums and you smoke your pot
And you meet your girlfriend in the parking lot
Oh, but still you're aching for the things you have not got
What went wrong...
- Billy Joel, "Captain Jack"

And if you can't understand why your world is so dead
And why you've got to keep in style and feed your head
- Billy Joel, "Captain Jack"

My sweet lord. Hm, my lord. Hm, my lord. I really want to see you. Really want to be with you. Really want to see you lord. But it takes so long, my lord.
- George Harrison, "My Sweet Lord"

We love our lovin'
But not like we love our freedom
- Joni Mitchell, "Help Me"

Help me I think I'm falling
In love with you
Are you going to let me go there by myself
That's such a lonely thing to do
- Joni Mitchell, "Help Me"

I know all about love: it's a feeling I have little respect for. Besides, it doesn't exist in nature; it's an invention of women.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

'Girls are like those stray dogs you can't throw a friendly glace at without their assuming that you're calling them and will welcome them with open arms, and without their wagging their tails and scrabbling at your trouser-legs.'
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

The features of her face that he found unattractive he saw as emergency exits through which he could escape should the occasion arise, or as ambiguous clauses in a contract: that rather heavy chin would one day allow him to leave her with a light heart.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

Are you a sort of satanic alchemist concocting feelings you want people to have for you with the same icy indifference as you measure out the feelings you entertain for others?
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

Costals had always been struck, not so much by the (perfectly legitimate) tendancy of girls to see matrimony wherever they go, and to want men to marry them, as by their obstinate belief that he might consider marrying them, even if such a contingency was so improbable as to verge on the grotesque. It seemed to him that each one of them was accompanied by a Chimera - remember, a Chimera has claws - which they mounted at the slightest provocation, or no provocation at all, to gallop around in an element in which they were so much at home that they seemed to be capable of anything - that is to say in a cloud of unreality. He had christened this Chimera 'the Hippogriff', and the word had become a familiar one on his lips and on those of the young ladies who did him the honour of having designs on him. According to whether the idea of a possible marriage gained or lost ground in their imaginations (for in Costals' it was always in neutral) the Hippogriff was said to be thriving or losing weight. Sometimes Costals would 'feed the Hippogriff', sometimes the Hippogriff was 'insatiable', and one of the most chaste of these girls had even gone so far as to designate a certain part of her anatomy, with which she was obsessed, the 'hippogriffic part'. Costals spent his time fighting against the Hippogriff, endeavouring to kill the monster - in other words to convince his girl-friends that nothing in the world would persuade him to marry them. But, like all good mythical creatures, the Hippogriff, brought low, had no sooner breathed its last than it came to life again more fiery than ever. Nothing is more difficult than to persuade a young woman that one has no desire - non whatsoever - to dedicate one's life to her.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

...no sooner was he physically plugged in to a woman than he was filled with light - as when one plugs in an electric lamp
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

'Nothing can alter the fact that I am by nature clear-sighted - and clear-sighted always...And moreover nothing can possibly make me want not to be. My clear-sightedness frightens people, but it never frightens me. I'm amused by it; it is a monster I've tamed. But why "a monster"? Call it rather my tutelary spirit.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

The intimate odour of the girl's body came back to him obsessively, exacerbating his resentment, a wisp of fragrance that seemed to float about the room like seeds borne on the summer air. Finally he thought of going to the larder for a cold chicken which he knew was there. He ate it, and his anguish died away. He even felt glad taht he had suffered a little. One must try everything once.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

With a feeling of deep tenderness he took her in his arms. Never, no, never had she seemed to him so like a child, so defenceless, so vulnerable, so susceptible to the suffering which everything in life, and especially he, would ultimately inflict on her.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

Distrustful as a prince and always prone to believe that others wished him as much harm as he felt capable of doing them, he had unwittingly substituted his own turbulent spirit for that of the girl, and soon found himself confronted by a detached, blurred image of Solange, which was no more than a projection of himself. He had re-created her in his own image.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

It was just as rational to make her suffer in order to compensate for all the unwarranted good he had done her, as to make her happy in order to compensate for all the unwarranted harm he had done her. And in any case, was there any need to behave rationally at all?
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

And now, quiet! Don't try to answer. There's no need for you to understand, as there's no need for me to know that you haven't understood.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

He felt pity for her because he did not love her more, could not find more reasons for loving her
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

Mme Dandillot had the dimensions of a horse and the aspect of a policeman. To reconcile to two, let us say that she resembled a police horse.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

Right up to the very end, one must behave according to what's "done", and not according to reality.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

I've spent forty years doing things I didn't enjoy, and doing them of my own free will. As a young man I sweated over law-books in spite of my wretched memory, although both my family and I knew quite well that I would only be a lawyer for appearance' sake, and only for a year or two. I married without love, or self-interset, or any particular taste for marriage. I had children because my wife wanted them: I don't mind telling you that Solange was not at all welcome. I took a flat in Paris, although I lvoed nature and solitude, because it was "the thing to do". I went on taking the waters year after year, long after I'd satisfied myself that they did me not the slightest good. I did all this without any good reason, simply because everyone round me was doing the same, or because I was told I ought to do it. And now I'm going to die wihtout knowing why I've led a life which I disliked, when there was a time when I could have made for myself a life I would ahve enjoyed.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

It has no importance whatsoever, and to struggle against it is to give it an importance it doesn't deserve
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

Forgetting is so essential to it that the mind might well say: I forget, therefore I am.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

His voice had become a little shrill, and weak, like the voice of a man who hardly speaks any more, who no longer has the strength, and who has anyway lost interest in the sounds he emits.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

It is a great thing to make a success of something one despises, because one has to overcome not only the obstacle but oneself too.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

Pleasant to be the victim, after having been so often the executioner.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

But, after all, there is really no difference between people who are proud and people who are not, since the proud pocket exactly the same number of insults as the rest.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

it answered to that supreme law which men do not take sufficiently into account - to wit, that inestimable advantages can accrue from the mere fact that one has moved from one place to another - that what was impossible becomes possible simply because one has moved from one place to another."

I have wounded her, yet I am not guilty: that is life.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

They don't like real people, but phantoms or archetypes, and they know it. And people are surprised at the blunders they make! And they are surprised to find themselves 'let down' in the end!
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

It is a horrible thing to feel for another person nothing but that hybrid sentiment, half-way between love and indifference, which is pity. A sentiment that makes it impossible to enjoy them unreservedly, or for them to enjoy you (for people sense pity, and who ahs ever lvoed the pity of which he is the object?), that makes one fret and wear oneself out, and all to no purpose, because pity always ends with an explosion which hurls the two people, bruised and panting, in opposite directions, back to where they should always have been.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

It is pointless to be really nice to someone, unless one loves them a great deal. For one must love someone a great deal in order to be satisfied simply with having given them pleasure.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff"

Like all men, often unexpectedly modest, he thought that since she had given herself to him she must be prepared to give herself to anyone.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Lepers"

he had that awful memory of bright children which registers everything, so much so that his father often felt paralysed when about to say something in his presence, for fear that it might impress itself too deeply.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Lepers"

'Men are troubled, not by things, but by opinions about things,' says the Ancient. Yes, but what saves them, too, are opinions about things. Costals, with his romanticism, had attempted to construct a world in which he would not suffer unduly, and he had succeeded, for human nature is extremely well adapted; one has only to manipulate it with a little intelligence.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Lepers"

I will never love you
The cost of love's too dear
But though I'll never love you
I'll stay with you one year.
- Gale Garnet, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine"

...one must choose between loving women and understanding them"
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls

One often sees a man with a pleasant and intelligent face suddenly transformed into an idiot, his smile at once inane and conceited, his whole attitude at once awkward and affected. What has happened? He has just met a woman who attracts him. And inside him it is just the same. For the apparition of an attractive woman instantly lowers a man's self-respect, as sharply as a lump of ice lowers the temperature of a drink. Which is why anyone who loves humanity cannot love women."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls

He knew that women tend to think one loves them less when one does not love them more and more, and that men, being poor at loving, must keep a constant watch over themselves if they do not wish to disappoint"
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women

believe you me, I tried a good many before I found you: "maiden trials", in racing parlance. But the whole effort of society - perhaps the whole effort of mankind - seems directed at showing off worthless women and making them appear interesting."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women

I love and venerate, in a truly religious spirit, stupidity in pretty women, so long as it is sweet and passive. But the braying stupidity of an ugly woman, no thanks."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women

one day he was alone in a canoe not far from the shore when suddenly the frail craft seemed to have become weighed down, he had to paddle furiously, it was as though the boat were paralysed by some evil spell. Then he heard a laugh: a swimmer was clinging to the stern, being dragged along behind, and this swimmer was a woman he loved."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff

I think of that Siamese cat I was rather fond of, but which had such a need to be stroked that it roared ceaselessly - theirty raucous, agonizing miaows per minit - whenever it was not on someone's lap. As soon as it was, and being fondled, it stopped... If I want Solange to purr, I have to pay heed to her the whole time: a little cajolery, an affectionate word, an 'attention' of one kind or another; she must feel continually propped up. To be somebody's oxygen flask is not much fun."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Hippogriff

It is often easier to die for a woman than to live with her"
- Lord Byron

I have been sulking for six months. I am obliged to acquaint you with the fact, since you refuse to do me the honour of noticing it yourself: you ignore my very indifference."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Lepers

By dint of harassing a man, stuffing him with worries, responsibilities, obligations, scruples, decisions to be taken, self-questionings, one can stupef and wear him down to such an extent that he no longer offers any resistance to another's will, even when he knows it to be inimical. Women know this, and that is why to introduce a woman into anything is to intruduce strife and confusion."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Lepers

There is no need for me to tell you that the less you have, the closer I, who have nothing, feel you are to me. My theory about you helps me to live. Therefore it is true."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Lepers

How can she fail to recognize that she belongs to a sorry race when she sees that she is always the asker, always the one who 'needs', always the one who flaps her wings and squawks for a beakful?"
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Appendix

The sentiment of her inferiority secretly governs all her behavior. Whence her tendency to engult, to cling, to heard, to seek assurance: it is as though she were in constant fear of being deprived"
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Appendix

If woman reigns, in spite of her manifest unworthiness, in spite of her incompetence even in her own line - as witness her lack of insight, her weak judgment, her childish wiles - it is therefore only due to the stupidity of men."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Appendix

In desiring, a man flatters the object desired, in order to win its favours, and over-rates its charms in order to justify his lust, as well as the weakness it entails, in his own eyes and those of others."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Appendix

Women play their game, and there is no cause to reproach them for it. The reproach should be aimed at men, for playing theirs badly. For letting themselves be imposed upon by these centuries of gynolatrous literature, not daring to be either clear-headed, truthful, or ruthless enough with women (everythign that women and their toadies call 'caddish'), and all this either from a false sense of honour, because they are mesmerized, or from cowardice, because they are afraid public opinion will be against them if they act otherwise."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Appendix

She had turned her face towards him, and she searched his eyes (like a real woman) not so much in order to understand as to see if she could find reassurance there."
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Appendix

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."
- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

Any hint that a situation is irrelevant to the self (waiting for a bus, meditating) arouses boredom.
- Varela, Thompson, Mind, "The I of the Storm"

...if there is some value in the process of letting go (and not simply in the subsequent state), this would seem to imply that what is let go has at least a utility value.
- Disanto and Steele, "Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

I'm the one that's got to die when its time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.
- Jimi Hendrix, 'If 6 was 9'

The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday
- but never jam today.
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end then stop.'
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

'Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, 'If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
- Lewis Carroll

Depression starts out insipid, fogs the days into a dull color; weakens ordinary actions until their clear shapes are obscured by the effort they require, leaves you tired and bored and self-obsessed.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

It is too often the quality of happiness that you feel at every moment its fragility, while depression seems when you are in it to be a state that will never pass. Even if you accept that moods change, that whatever you feel today will be different tomorrow, you cannot relax into happiness as you can into sadness.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

The surest way out of depression is to dislike it and not to let yourself grow accustomed to it. Block out the terrible thoughts that invade your mind.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

If you stimulate seizures in an animal every day, the seizures eventually become automatic; the animal will go on having them once a day even if you withdraw the stimulation. In much the same way, the brain that has gone into depression a few times will continue to return to depression over and over. This suggests that depression, even if it is occasioned by external tragedy, ultimately changes the structure, as well as the biochemistry, of the brain.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

with each episode, there is an increased 10 percent risk that the depression will become chronic and inescapable.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

Loneliness is depression, but depression also causes loneliness. If you cannot function, your life becomes as much of a mess as you had supposed it was; if you cannot speak and have no sexual urges, your romantic and social life disappear; and that is authentically depressing.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

According to studies done in Pittsburgh, the first episode of major depression is usually closely tied to life events; the second, somewhat less; and by the fourth and fifth episodes life events seem to play no part at all.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

I knew that the more I managed to do, the less I wanted to die.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

I could by now do pretty much all of what I had always been able to do, except that I was still in anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure at all. I kept pushing myself for form's sake, but now that I had the energy to wonder why I was pushing myself, I could find no good reasons.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

many depressed mothers simply fail to respond to their children: they are unaffectionate and withdrawn. They tend not to establish clear control or rules or boundaries. They have little love or nurturance to give. They feel helpless in the face of their children's demands. Their behavior is unregulated; they become angry for no apparent reason and then, in paroxysms of guilt, express extravagant affection for equally indistinct reasons. Their responses to their children are not contingent on what the children are doing or on displays of neediness. Their children are weepy, angry, and aggressive. Such children are often themselves incapable of caring behaviors
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

the earlier your depression starts, the more likely it is to be resistant to treatment. One study says that those who experience depressive episodes in childhood or adolescence have seven times the rate of adult depression of the general population; another says that 70 percent of them will suffer recurrence.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

One therapist describes a young woman who had been sexually abused and couldn't believe that anyone could care for her and be reliable--'all she needed was for me to be consistent in my interactions with her' to break down the automatic mistrust with which she related to the world.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

Feelings are not direct responses to the world: What happens in the world affects our cognition, and cognition in turn affects feelings.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

'I didn't want to die because I hated myself; I wanted to die because I loved myself enough to want this pain to end.'
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

'You don't think in depression that you've put on a gray veil and are seeing the world through the haze of a bad mood. You think that the veil has been taken away, the veil of happiness, and that now you're seeing truly.'
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.
- George Santayana

Animal experiments on monkeys brought up without mothers show that a deprived upbringing lowers serotonin levels in specific areas.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

Self-examination and rumination may lead to suicide, which occurs frequently among artists and other creative people. But the rate is also high among successful businessmen: it would appear that some of the qualities that make for success also make for suicidality. Scientists, composers, and high-level businessmen are five times more likely to kill themselves than the general population; writers, especially poets, have an even higher rate of suicide.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

An octopus, trained for a circus...had been accustomed to do tricks for rewards of food. When the circus was disbanded, the octopus was kept in a tank and no one paid any attention to his tricks. He gradually lost color (octopuses' states of mind are expressed in their shifting hues) and finally went through his tricks one last time, failed to be rewarded, and used his beak to stab himself so badly that he died.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

Suicide attempts range from the conscious, focused, utterly deliberate, and purely objective-oriented to the most slightly self-destructive action.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

The idea of an ultimate nothingness seems to negate the value of a current somethingness.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

If I killed myself, I wouldn't have to fix the roof or mow the lawn or take another shower. Oh, imagine that luxury of never having to comb my hair again.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

If you have never tried it yourself or helped someone else through it, you cannot imagine how difficult it is to kill yourself. If death were a passive thing, which occurred to those who couldn't be bothered to resist it, and if life were an active thing, which continued only by virtue of a daily commitment to it, then the world's problem would be depopulation and not overpopulation.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

It is arguably the case that depressed people have a more accurate view of the world around them than do nondepressed people. Those who perceive themselves to be not much liked are probably closer to the mark than those who believe that they enjoy universal love.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

A depressive may have better judgment than a healthy person. Studies have shown that depressed and nondepressed people are equally good at answering abstract questions. When asked, however, about their control over an event, nondepressed people invariably believe themselves to have more control than they really have, and deppresed people give an accurate assessment.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

In a study done with a video game, depressed people who played for half an hour knew just how many little monsters they killed; the undepressed people guessed four to six times more than they had actually hit.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon"

Perfectly accurate understanding of the world and the self was not an evolutionary priority; it did not serve the purpose of species preservation...moderate optimism is a strong selective advantage.
- Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

Normal human thought and perception is marked not by accuracy but positive self-enhancing illusions about the self, the world, and the future. Moreover, these illusions appear actually to be adaptive, promoting rather than undermining mental health...The mildly depressed appear to have more accurate views of themselves, the world, and the future than do normal people...XtheyX clearly lack the illusions that in normal people promote mental health and buffer them against setbacks.
- Shelley E. Taylor, Positive Illusions

The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

those are technologists, and they speak an inhuman language when describing what they do.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

But there are human forces stronger than logic.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

She seems so depressed sometimes by the monotony and boredom of her city life, I thought maybe in this endless grass and wind she would see a thing that sometimes comes when monotony and boredom are accepted.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

When you hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This is the hardest stuff in the world to photograph. You need a three-hundred-and-sixty degree lens, or something. You see it, and then you look down in the ground glass and it's just nothing. As soon as you put a border on it, it's gone.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

they only thought him eccentric at first, then undesirable, then slightly mad, and then genuinely insane. There seems little doubt that he was insane, but much of his writing at the time indicates that what was driving him insane was this hostile opinion of him.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the ultimate purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why. One lives longer in order that he may live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

But to tear down a factory or to revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because effects rather than causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic thought itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Steel has no more shape than this old pile of dirt on the engine here. These shapes are all out of someone's mind...Hell, even the steel is out of someone's mind. There's no steel in nature. Anyone from the Bronze Age could have told you that. All nature has is a potential for steel. There's nothing else there. But what's 'potential'? That's also in someone's mind! . . . Ghosts.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

When I think of formal scientific method an image sometimes comes to mind of an enormous juggernaut, a huge bulldozer--slow, tedious, lumbering, laborious, but invincible.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

One must be extremely careful and rigidly logical when dealing with Nature: one logical slip and an entire scientific edifice comes tumbling down. One false deduction about the machine and you can get hung up indefinitely.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

He coined a law intended to have the humor of a Parkinson's law that 'The number of rational hypotheses that can explain any given phenomenon is infinite'...It was only months after he had coined the law that he began to have some doubts about the humor or benefits of it. If true, that law is not a minor flaw in scientific reasoning. The law is completely nihilisitc. It is a catastrophic logical disproof of the general validity of all scientific method!
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Einstein had said, 'Evolution has shown that at any given moment out of all conceivable constructions a single one has always proved itself absolutely superior to the rest,' and let it go at that...Did Einstein really mean to state that truth was a function of time? To state that would annihilate the most basic presumption of all science! But there it was, the whole history of science, a clear story of continuously new and changing explanations of old facts. The time spans of permanence seemed completely random, he could see no order in them...Scientific truth was not dogma, good for eternity, but a temporal quantitative entity that could be studied like anything else...What shortens the life-span of the existing truth is the volume of hypotheses offered to replace it...And what seems to be causing the number of hypotheses to grow in recent decades seems to be nothing other than scientific method itself...Instead of selecting one truth from a multitude you are increasing the multitude. What this means logically is that as you try to move toward unchanging truth through the application of scientific method, you actually do not move toward it at all. You move away from it!
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The purpose of scientific method is to select a single truth from among many hypothetical truths. That, more than anything else, is what science is all about. But historically science has done exactly the opposite. Through multiplication upon multiplication of facts, information, theories and hypotheses, it is science itself that is leading mankind from single absolute truths to multiple, indeterminate, relative ones.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

institutions such as schools, churches, governments and political organizations of every sort all tended to direct thought for ends other than truth, for the perpetuation of their own functions, and for the control of individuals in the service of these functions.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

To some extent the romantic condemnation of rationality stems from the very effectiveness of rationality in uplifting men from primitive conditions. It's such a powerful, all-dominating agent of civilized man it's all but shut out everything else and now dominates man himself.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

What Copernicus did was take the existing a priori concept of the world, the notion that it was flat and fixed in space, and pose an alternative a priori concept of the world, that it's spherical and moves around the sun; and showed that both of the a priori concepts fitted the existing sensory data.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

He returned to the Midwest, picked up a practical degree in journalism, married, lived in Nevada and Mexico, did odd jobs, worked as a journalist, a science writer and an industrial-advertising writer. He fathered two children, bought a farm and a riding horse and two cars and was starting to put on middle-aged weight. His pursuit of what has been called the ghost of reason had been given up...Because he'd given up, the surface of life was comfortable for him. He worked reasonably hard, was easy to get along with and, except for an occasional glimpse of inner emptiness shown in some short stories he wrote at the time, his days passed quite usually...He had become much more mature, as if the abandonment of his inner goals had caused him somehow to age more quickly.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

One can believe in the truth and in the process of reason to discover it and in resistance to state legislatures, but why burn one's self out, day after day, over it?
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

We have been traveling and now we will arrive. For me a period of depression comes on when I reach a temporary goal like this and have to reorient myself toward another one.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The material object of observation, the bicycle or rotisserie, can't be right or wrong. Molecules are molecules. They don't have any ethical codes to follow except those people give them. The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed. The test of the machine's always your own mind. There isn't any other test.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

[Classical reason]'s always been completely bankrupt with regard to abstract art. Nonrepresentative art is one of the root experiences I'm talking about. Some people condemn it because it doesn't make 'sense.' But what's really wrong is not the art but the 'sense,' the classical reason, which can't grasp it.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Quality . . . you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is. But that's self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! There's nothing to talk about. But if you can't say what Quality is, how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn't exist at all. But for all practical purposes it really does exist. What else are the grades based on? Why else would people pay fortunes for some things and throw others in the trash pile? Obviously some things are better than others . . . but what's the 'betterness'? . . . So round and round you go, spinning mental wheels and nowhere finding anyplace to get traction. What the hell is Quality? What is it?
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

As a result of his experiments he concluded that imitation was a real evil that had to be broken before real rhetoric teaching could begin. This imitation seemed to be an external compulsion. Little children didn't have it. It seemed to come later on, possibly as a result of school itself.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The world can function without XQualityX, but life would be so dull as to be hardly worth living. In fact it wouldn't be worth living. The term worth is a Quality term. Life would just be living without any values or purpose at all.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

If you got to ask what _is_ it all the time, you'll never get time to _know_.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

That is what caring really is, a feeling of identification with what one's doing.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The effort of fathoming what is in another's mind creates a distortion of what is seen.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I like the word 'gumption' because it's so homely and so forlorn and so out of style it looks as if it needs a friend and isn't likely to reject anyone who comes along.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

tendency to do what is 'reasonable' even when it isn't any good.
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

defenses that initially required deliberate appraising can later become conditioned, so to speak, to merely a cue, thereby producing emotions without awareness of the motives, beliefs, and environmental factors that are involved in the process or its life-span history. We do not have to engage in an elaborate process of appraising each time recurrent personal problems are dealt with, but we can rely on rapid instantaneous judgments without being ware of their internal and external bases or the relational meaning that is entailed.
- Richard S. Lazarus, "Vexing Research Problems Inherent in Cognitive-Mediational Theories of Emotion--and Some Solutions"

Defense mechanisms distort awareness of one's true goals, situational intentions, and assumptions about self and world, so that self-report cannot be trusted if we want to know how a person is appraising an emotional event.
- Richard S. Lazarus, "Vexing Research Problems Inherent in Cognitive-Mediational Theories of Emotion--and Some Solutions"

Preconscious automaticity models the regularities in one's reaction to an event, and eventually subsumes them so that the conscious mind no longer has to make decisions and understandings it always makes the same way anyway. If this were not the case, none of us would be capable of getting out of bed in the morning.
- John A. Bargh, "The Automaticity of Everday Life"

To the extent that moods are continually present, it can also be said that our cognitive processes are always biased or modulated.
- Richard J. Davidson, "On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs"

Positive moods facilitate cognitive flexibility. They result in more creative responses, more remote associations, and an increase in the perception of relatedness among cognitions.
- Richard J. Davidson, "On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs"

emotions can lead to particular moods and moods can alter the probability that particular emotions will be triggered.
- Richard J. Davidson, "On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs"

It is likely that temperament and affective style are associated with differences in the nervous system that can persist over longer durations, such as differences in the receptor densities for particular neurotransmitters or neuromodulators, and indeed a long research tradition has developed around rats that have been bred for different emotional characteristics.
- Richard J. Davidson, "On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs"

Situations that arouse emotions typically are those that demand some form of action or resolution. If the emotion remains unexpressed, the situation is liable to continue unchanged, to the detriment of the individual or the group.
- James R. Averill, "Emotions Are Many Splendored Things"

The usual finding is that positive affect leads subjects to engage in more heuristic processing. Individuals in positive affective states are more likely to use stereotypes, scripts, schemas, and other organizing information and less prone to focus on the details of the information available. Subjects experiencing sad affect are more likely to engage in systematic processing, to be analytical, and to focus more on the presented details.
- Gerald C. Clore, "Why Emotions Are Felt"

Emotions can roughly be regarded as motivators for the behavior meant to deal with the emotional events.
- Nico H. Frijda, "Emotions Are Functional, Most of the Time"

In essence, sadness results when sufficient energy has been expended without the gratification normally associated with the activity. In a coordinated fashion, the motivating biobehavioral system then shuts down, which discourages further action.
- Lee Anna Clark & David Watson, "Distinguishing Functional from Dysfunctional Affective Responses"

Are there dysfunctional emotions? At first glance, the answer to this question seems obvious given the emotional suffering that clearly accompanies mental disorder. However, it may be argued that it is not emotions per se that are dysfunctional, but the fact that negative emotions have the dysfunctional qualities of high intensity and frequency, long duration, and situational inappropriateness, whereas positive emotional responses may be weak, rare, short-lived, and difficult to elicit.
- Lee Anna Clark & David Watson, "Distinguishing Functional from Dysfunctional Affective Responses"

For centuries man lived in the belief that truth was slim and elusive and that once he found it the troubles of mankind would be over. And here we are in the closing decades of the 20th century, choking on truth. There has been so much brilliant writing, so many genial discoveries, so vast an extension and elaboration of these discoveries...
- Ernest Becker, "The Denial of Death"

One of the ironies of the creative process is that it partly cripples itself in order to function. I mean that, usually, in order to turn out a piece of work the author has to exaggerate the emphasis of it, to oppose it in a forcefully competitive way to other versions of truth; and he gets carried away by his own exaggeration, as his distinctive image is built on it.
- Ernest Becker, "The Denial of Death"

The very term "self-preservation" implies an effort against some force of disintegration; the affective aspect of this is fear, fear of death...If this fear were as constantly conscious, we should be unable to function normally. It must be properly repressed to keep us living with any modicum of comfort. We know very well that to repress means more than to put away and to forget that which was put away and the place where we put it. It means also to maintain a constant psychological effort to keep the lid on and inwardly never relax our watchfulness...Therefore in normal times we move about actually without ever believing in our own death, as if we fully believed in our own corporeal immortality.
- Ernest Becker, "The Denial of Death"

Even when you aren't trying to seduce, you behave like a seducer
- and then you're genuinely astonished and furious afterwards, when the harm is done. You're so extraordinarily lacking in conceit! Perhaps that's what causes the trouble.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

In other words, what he means by happiness is the method he has chosen, or, more probably, has had imposed on him, of killing time. And even this is not enough; when men kill time in too easy and pleasant a way they grow sick of it.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

His vanity as a male, on the other hand, ran to extremes. His first impulse was to assume that no woman he desired would refuse to give herself to him. But whenever one of them fell into his arms, at the same time surrendering something of her heart, he was taken aback, and repeated to himself the remark of Louis XV: 'I find it hard to understand why they love me so much.'
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

Nothing can alter the fact that I am by nature clear-sighted - and clear-sighted always...And moreover nothing can possibly make me want not to be. My clear-sightedness frightens people, but it never frightens me. I'm amused by it; it is a monster I've tamed. But why "a monster"? Call it rather my tutelary spirit.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: The Girls"

What I feel towards you is, on the one hand, affection tinged with tenderneess, together with esteem, and on the other hand, desire. But all this does not constitute love, thank God.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

And that's how I want you to be. A loving girl, not a girl in love. I don't want you to get worked up about me. You would be bound to suffer, and it would be absurd for you to suffer on my account when all I want is your happiness.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

'You've lived because you could not do otherwise,' said Costals impatiently. 'Nearly all men's lives are corrupted by the need to justify their existence. Women are less subject to this infirmity.'
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Girls: Pity for Women"

for we repent only those things which we are not in the habit of doing.
- Marquis de Sade, "The Misfortunes of Virtue"

Now, in society, which is to say in that press of human beings brought together by boredom and made duller still by collective stupidity, it is very amusing to chat away for a couple of hours without actually saying anything, so utterly delicious to shine at the expense of others and raise with due censoriousness the issue of a vice that is quite foreign to one's own nautre - and this of course amounts to a kind of indirect signing of one's own praises."
- Marquis de Sade, "Augustine de Villeblanche"

Already he found it necessary to make believe in front of her, thereby showing himself aware of the emptiness of his life.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Bachelors"

If he had eaten a lot his feeling during the hours that followed would have been different. If he had had a few drinks, they would have been different still. Which shows how little importance feelings had; chance made them what they were; all feelings are like that.
- Henri de Montherlant, "The Bachelors"