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To Rise Again at a Decent Hour QUOTES

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour QUOTES

41 " dentist is only half the doctor he claims to be. That he’s also half mortician is the secret he keeps to himself. The ailing bits he tries to turn healthy again. The dead bits he just tries to make presentable. He bores a hole, clears the rot, fills the pit, and seals the hatch. He yanks the teeth, pours the mold, fits the fakes, and paints to match. Open cavities are the eye stones of skulls, and lone molars stand erect as tombstones. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

42 " Without monstrous distortions, I was slowly learning, without lies and hypocrisy, one cannot have the idealized American life I so longed for. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

43 " In the meantime, nothing sufficed, nothing was equal to the question, Why am I here? "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

44 " Oh, come back, you people lost to darkness! Come back, you ghosts. The day is hard enough. Don't leave me alone with the night. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

45 " I despised the wet sensation that refused to subside even after all the lotion had been rubbed in and could be rubbed in no farther. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

46 " My relationship with the Internet was like the one I had with the :). I hated the :) and hated to be the object of other people’s :), their :-) and their :>. I hated :-)) the most because it reminded me of my double chin. Then there was :( and :-( and ;-) as well as ;) and *-), which I didn’t even understand, although it was not as mystifying as D:< or >:O or :-&. These simplifications of speech, designed by idiots, resulted in hieroglyphics of such compounded complexity that they flew far above my intelligence. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

47 " Every night was a night of limitless possibility expired, of a life forfeited, of a foreclosed opportunity to expand, explore, risk, hope, and live. These were my thoughts as I tried falling back asleep. Inside my head, where I lived, wars were breaking out, valleys flooding, forests catching fire, oceans breaching the land, and storms dragging it all to the bottom of the sea, with only a few days or weeks remaining before the entire world and everything sweet and surprising we'd done with it went against the vast backdrop of the universe. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

48 " Ersatz Israel "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

49 " out. I was sure not only that everything worth doing had already been done while I was asleep but also that, now that I was awake, there was no longer anything worth doing. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

50 " Where does this idea of greater connection come from? I’ve never in my life felt more disconnected. It’s like how the rich get richer. The connected get more connected while the disconnected get more disconnected. No thanks, man, I can’t do it. The world was a sufficient trial, Betsy, before Facebook. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

51 " Sure, the Roman Catholic Church is an abomination to man and a disgrace to God, but it comes with a highly structured Mass, several sacred pilgrimages, the oldest songs, the most impressive architecture, and a whole bunch of things to do whenever you enter the church. Taken all together, they make you one with your brother. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

52 " The Pottery Barn and Rubber Soul had gotten old, but my ability to order more than the chicken fingers with honey mustard from T.G.I. Friday’s would always provide me with a sense of accomplishment. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

53 " So for the sake of your identity,” she said, “you avoided using your real name, which effectively allowed someone else to use your real name and steal your identity. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

54 " After Connie and I broke up, I played a little game with myself out on the streets of Manhattan. It was called Things Could Be Worse. Things could be worse, I said to myself, I could be that guy. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

55 " Things Could Be Worse And Things Could Be So Much Better—that became the game, my running commentary on the streets of Manhattan, and I played it as well as the other slobs just trying to get by. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

56 " I would really like that, Betsy, to cheer and jeer and hoot and root alongside a band of brothers. I would love that. But do you have any idea how much attention you have to pay to a Red Sox game? Even a regular-season Red Sox game? "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

57 " don’t think I don’t worry about what I’m missing out on. Don’t think I’m not haunted knowing that I might be missing out on things that I’d much prefer not to be missing out on. I am haunted, Betsy. You think I alienate myself from society? Of course I alienate myself from society. It’s the only way I know of not being constantly reminded of all the ways I’m alienated from society. That doesn’t mean I have anything against other people. Envy them? Of course. Marvel at them? Constantly. Secretly study them? Every day. I just don’t get any closer to understanding them. And liking something you don’t understand, estranged from it without reason, longing to commune with it—who’d ask for it? "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

58 " Under "Activities and Interests," it was written "Boston Red Sox." The Boston Red Sox, an activity and an interest. Not a devotion to be suffered. Not a solemn vow in the off-season. Not a memorial to a dead man. Not a calling beyond reason. Just an interest. I take an interest in when they play, whether home or away, whether they win or lose--things like that. Maybe read about it in the paper the next morning. Millions of others just like me, taking an interest. Not "Coronaries and Rehabilitations." Not "Dedications and Forfeitures." Not "Life and Death." "Activities and Interests." This was how it was presented, in terrifying simplicity. What it was all reduced to, the thirty years, and the stupid tears, and every extra inning. An activity and an interest. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

59 " Ha, ha —Job 39:25 "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

60 " The most unfortunate thing about being an atheist wasn’t the loss of God and all the comfort and reassurance of God—no small things—but the loss of a vital human vocabulary. Grace, charity, transcendence: I felt them as surely as any believer, even if we differed on the ultimate cause, and yet I had no right words for them. "

― Joshua Ferris , To Rise Again at a Decent Hour