Ignorant Historian

Here’s what I’ve found interesting this week:

“I thought: if I could just make a good family, if I could just learn to be to other children their whole lives, what Andrew was coming so late into ours, then that would mean more in the long run, it would be a finer accomplishment than anything I could ever do with my mind or my hands.” – Xenocide by Orson Scott Card, p. 298

“If it is really true that it is hard for us, as adult Christians, to comprehend even a chapter of the Old Testament in sequence, then this can only fill us with profound shame; what kind of testimony is that to our knowledge of the Scriptures and all our previous reading of them? ” – Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 51

“You’re doing it for no better reason than because you think you’re right….That’s the conceit I’m talking about–the idea that it matters who’s right or wrong.  It’s the most insufferable form of vanity, this insistence on always doing right.  How do you know what’s right?  How can anyone ever know it?  It’s nothing but a delusion to flatter your own ego and to hurt other people by flaunting your superiority over them.” – Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, p. 429

“I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
         And in His word do I hope. 
    My soul waits for the Lord
         More than the watchmen for the morning;
         Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning. 
    O Israel, hope in the LORD;
         For with the LORD there is lovingkindness,
         And with Him is abundant redemption. 
    And He will redeem Israel
         From all his iniquities. ”
- Psalm 130:5-8, NASU
 

“The danger of labeling things ‘Christian’ is that it can lead to our blindly consuming things we have been told are safe and acceptable.  When we turn off this discernment radar, dangerous things can happen.” – Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, p. 86

“People compare Saddam’s megalomania and terror to that of Hitler and Stalin, which I think he would like, since I know he kept their books on a rollaway trolley he sometimes had a servant bring out so he could read after dinner.” – Between Two Worlds by Zainab Salbi

 I know this isn’t technically from something I’m reading, but I had to quote it anyway, as I was watching my boys the other day (Ocean’s…11 this time). This my all-time favorite scene from the trilogy (and possibly any movie…it’s hard to top verbal banter between two of my favorite actors in my favorite roles):

Tess (Julia Roberts): “You’re 30 seconds late. I was about to send out a search…”
Danny (George Clooney): “Hello, Tess.”
T: “What are you doing here?”
D: “I’m out.”
T: “You’re out?”
D: “Of prison. You remember the day I went out for cigarettes and didn’t come back?”
T: “I don’t smoke. Don’t sit.”
D: “Now they tell me that I paid my debt to society.”
T: “Funny, I never got a check.”
D: “You’re not wearing your ring.”
T: “I sold it. I don’t have a husband, or didn’t you get the papers?”
D: “My last day inside.”
T: “I told you I’d write. Danny, go now before…”
D: “What? Benedict?” (to waiter) “How you doing? Whiskey and a whiskey.”
T: “Danny.”
D: “Tess, you’re doing a great job curating the museum. The Vermeer is quite good. Simple. Vibrant, but his work definitely fell off as he got older.”
T: “Remind you of anyone?”
D: “And I always confuse Money and Manet. Now which one married his mistress?”
T: “Monet.”
D: “Right. And then Manet had syphilis.”
T: “They also painted occassionally.”
D: “All right. I’ll make this quick. I want to move on with my life, and I want to take you with me.”
T: “You’re a thief and a liar.”
D: “I only lied about being a thief. I don’t do that any more.”
T: “Steal?”
D: “Lie.”
T: “I’m with someone now who doesn’t have to make that kind of distinction.”
D: “No, he’s very clear on both.”
T: “You know what your problem is?”
D: “I only have one?”
T: “You’ve met too many people like you. I’m with Terry now.”
D: “Does he make you laugh?”
T: “He doesn’t make me cry.”