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1 " Charlie Black: Fourierism was tried in the late nineteenth century… and it failed. Wasn’t Brook Farm Fourierist? It failed. Tom Townsend: That’s debatable. Charlie Black: Whether Brook Farm failed? Tom Townsend: That it ceased to exist, I’ll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said. Charlie Black: Well, for me, ceasing to exist is — is failure. I mean, that’s pretty definitive. Tom Townsend: Well, everyone ceases to exist. Doesn’t mean everyone’s a failure. "
― Whit Stillman , Barcelona and Metropolitan: Tales of Two Cities (2 Screenplays)
2 " Even at a young age one sometimes recognizes that there are behavior patterns that would simply be a waste of time for everyone concerned, which leads you to put them out of your mind or avoid them until you reach a certain stage of inebriation, whereupon everything is reconsidered again. "
― Whit Stillman , The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterward
3 " We bring these delightful creatures into the world—eagerly, happily—and then before long they are spying upon and judging us, rarely favourably. Having children is our fondest wish but, in doing so, we breed our acutest critics. It is a preposterous situation—but entirely of our own making. "
― Whit Stillman , Love & Friendship: In Which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon Is Entirely Vindicated
4 " a favourite master, Mr. Grove, liked to say that if we learned to master the semi-colon we could expect to be successful in whatever path we chose in life. One "
5 " A man so easily influenced is to be treasured.” “As "
6 " Disco will... never be over. Disco will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big and this important and this great, will never die. "
7 " Characteristic of the overall difference between Boston and New York, the population at the Acropolis was far less forlorn. Its customers were just those who, for whatever reason, wanted to eat coffee-shop food at very strange hours. "
8 " If he held me in true regard he would not believe such insinuations in my disfavour. A worthy lover should assume one has unanswerable motives for all one does!” “Certainly— "
9 " That’s the parent’s lot! We bring these delightful creatures into the world—eagerly, happily—and then before long they are spying upon and judging us, rarely favourably. Having children is our fondest wish but, in doing so, we breed our acutest critics. It is a preposterous situation—but entirely of our own making.” Susan "
10 " Here you seem to have won your aunt’s affection; I think I served you well there, for I believe she would do anything to spite me. "
11 " their spinster amanuensis, the "
12 " has sadly deprived our language of many of the fertile and resonant words which the Englishman of prior centuries had at his disposal. “Argufy” is one such; the dictionary defines it as “to argue or quarrel, typically about something trivial.” Certainly we have all seen occasions where innocuous subjects are “argufied”; an "
13 " A goblet filled to its edge might well spill, causing harm, staining clothing or furnishings, as well as waste; at the minimum it would require careful sipping and could not be easily handed to a friend for sharing. A so-called “half-filled” goblet can, on the other hand, be moved about freely without spilling; it can be taken on a walk or journey. In fact, even the half that is seen as “empty” is not truly so; it is filled to the brim with healthful, life-giving “air.” If "
