William Gaddis

I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.

Merry Christmas! the man threatened.

How real is any of the past, being every moment revalued to make the present possible.

The function of this school is custodial. It’s here to keep these kids off the streets until the girls are big enough to get pregnant and the boys are old enough to go out and hold up a gas station.

There was the cell where Fr. Eulalio, a thriving lunatic of eighty-six who was castigating himself for unchristian pride at having all the vowels in his name, and greatly revered for his continuous weeping, went blind in an ecstasy of such howling proportions that his canonization was assured.

What is it they want from a man that they didn’t get from his work? What do they expect? What is there left of him when he’s done his work? What’s any artist, but the dregs of his work? the human shambles that follows it around. What’s left of the man when the work’s done but a shambles of apology.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man’s crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

Labor diligently to increase your property.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Only trust theyself, and another shall noet betray thee

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.

However small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.

The way to do well is to do well.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.