Heinlein and Eliot Quote Time

Mostly because I'm cleaning off my desk and removing paper scraps rather than doing actual schoolwork. Shocking huh?

Jake: Johann, sometimes I can't make up my mind whether you are a silly young girl or senile
Joan Eunice: The last time you called me "Johann" you acquired some scar tissue. Dear, has it occurred to you that I might be both? A senile silly young girl?
-I Will Fear No Evil (1971)
by Robert Heinlein
Chapter 25, page 351


It's just that I've never been able to see life as anything but a vast, complicated practical joke, and it's better to laugh than cry.
-Joan Eunice
I Will Fear No Evil (1971)
by Robert Heinlein
Chapter 25, page 358


'I thought you liked him dear', said Mrs. Davilow, timidly
'So I do, mamma, as liking goes. There is less to dislike about him than about most men. He is quite and distingué.' Gwendolen so far spoke with a pouting sort of gravity; but suddenly she recovered some of her mischievousness, and her face broke into a smile as she added - 'Indeed he has all the qualities that would make a husband tolerable - battlement, veranda, stables, &c, no grins and no glass in his eye'
-Daniel Deronda (1874-77)
by George Eliot
Chapter 13, page 114(1996 Wordsworth ed)


For my part, said Deronda, people who do anything finely always inspirit me to try. I don't mean that they make me believe I can do it as well. But they make the thing, whatever it may be, seem worthy to be done. I can bear to think my own music not good for much, but the world would be more dismal if I thought music itself not good for much. Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world
-Daniel Deronda (to Gwendolen Harleth)
Daniel Deronda (1874-77)
by George Eliot
Chapter 36, page 362(1996 Wordsworth ed)

Erasure House for Sale

Unfortunately it's not on-line, so I'm just going to have to type it up. This is mainly because it caught my eye, and I thought it was funny. For those who don't know, each week the Independent on Sunday runs this property column where they show a bunch of very pricey houses on a theme. This week's theme was round houses.

from the Independent on Sunday Review magazine
5 January 2003
pg 33
"Property: All round to my place"

Ammonite
St. Anne's Hill Surrey
Details: A very special circular house, named after it's spiral shape, built 11 years ago by architect John Newton and being sold now by Vince Clark of Erasure. A mile from Chertsey and 10 miles from Heathrow, the house sits in more than five acres of grounds and is accessed through a stainless-steel sliding entrance gate leading into a drive, which leads in turn to an electric sliding front door. Taking no chance with any funny fans then...
The house has an open-plan room comprising study, games area, bar, dining-room and kitchen-breakfast-room, plus master bedroom suite and two guest suites, indoor pool and, of course, a recording studio.
Ups An over-used term, but tis truly is a stunning property.
Downs Possibly of limited appeal...except to another rich pop star.
Price £2.5m, Knight Frank, 020 7629 8171