Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,602
edits
Glory Road (novel)/Quotes: Difference between revisions
m
replace redirect with direct link
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Added crossreferences, a second quote) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (replace redirect with direct link) |
||
| (5 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
{{quote|'' There was '''no''' security in this world and only damn fools and mice thought there could be.
'' Somewhere back in the jungle I had shucked off all ambition of that sort. I had been shot at too many times and had lost interest in supermarkets and exurban subdivisions and tonight is the PTA supper don’t forget dear you promised.
'' Oh, I wasn’t about to hole up in a monastery. I still wanted—
'' What '''did''' I want?
'' I wanted a [[Aladdin (novel)|Roc's egg]]. I wanted [[Arabian Nights|a harem loaded with lovely odalisques]] less than the dust beneath [[Ben-Hur|my chariot wheels]], the rust that never stained my sword. I wanted [[Gold Rush (TV series)|raw red gold in nuggets the size of your fist]] and feed that lousy claim jumper to the huskies! I wanted to get up feeling brisk and [[King Arthur|go out and break some lances]], then pick a likely wench for my '''[[
'' I wanted [[John Carter of Mars|the hurtling moons of Barsoom]]. I wanted [[wikipedia:James Branch Cabell#The Biography of Manuel|Storisende]] and [[wikipedia:Poictesme|Poictesme]], and [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, "The game's afoot!"]] I wanted to [[
'' I wanted [[wikipedia:Prester John|Prester John]], and [[Le Morte d'Arthur|Excalibur held by a moon-white arm out of a silent lake]]. I wanted to sail with [[The Odyssey|Ulysses]] and with [[wikipedia:Tros of Samothrace|Tros of Samothrace]] and [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174631 eat the lotus in a land that seemed always afternoon]. I wanted [[Here There Were Dragons|the feeling of romance and the sense of wonder]] [[Nostalgia Filter|I had known as a kid]]. I wanted the world to be [[Sugar Bowl|what they promised me it was going to be]] -- instead of [[Crapsack World|the tawdry, lousy, fouled-up mess it is]].''}}
{{quote|'' Regardless of T.O., all military bureaucracies consist of a Surprise Party Department, a Practical Joke Department, and a Fairy Godmother Department. The first two process most matters as the third is very small; the Fairy Godmother Department is one elderly female GS-5 clerk usually out on sick leave.
'' But when she is at her desk, she sometimes puts down her knitting and picks a name passing across her desk and does something nice. You have seen how I was whipsawed by the Surprise Party and Practical Joke Departments; this time the Fairy Godmother Department picked Pfc. Gordon.''}}
| |||