Pipistrello's Commonplace Book

We, in the servants' hall, began this happy anniversary, as usual, by offering our little presents to Miss Rachel, with the regular speech delivered annually by me as the chief. I follow the plan adopted by the Queen in opening Parliament - namely, the plan of saying much the same thing regularly every year. Before it is delivered, my speech (like the Queen's) is looked for as eagerly as if nothing of the kind had ever been heard before. When it is delivered, and turns out not to be the novelty anticipated, though they grumble a little, they look forward hopefully to something newer next year. An easy people to govern, in the Parliament and in the Kitchen - that's the moral of it. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone , 1868

It was red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and faun and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve  and cream and crimson and silver and rose  and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orange and blue. The colours of Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dream-Coat still haunting since circa 1976

"Why are you looking like that?" asked Kyril. "I was wondering why people put ferrets in their trousers," said Aunt Irene. " Thanatos, " said Kyril. "An illustration of the death wish." "What I wish," said Aunt Irene, "is that you'd never read Freud. It's had a very leaden effect on your conversation." Alice Thomas Ellis, The 27th Kingdom , 1999

Diana's breast, the cheeks of Flora, Are charming, friends, I do agree, But somehow what enchant me more are The small feet of Terpsichore. Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin , 1833

"Everyone is the same in the sight of God," Nora said severely. "That must make things terribly boring for him." "Louise, if you are going to be flippant about something as serious as this, I shall never speak to you again!" "I won't be. I have a great many sides to my nature - it goes with being a serious actress - and you can't expect them all to be acceptable." ~ Teenage Philosophy: On God. And Acting ~ Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Light Years , 1990