It is not merely the truth of science that makes it beautiful, but its simplicity. Walker Percy More Quotes by Walker Percy More Quotes From Walker Percy One of the peculiar ironies of being a human self in the Cosmos: A stranger approaching you in the street will in a second's glance see you whole, size you up, place you in a way in which you cannot and never will, even though you have spent a lifetime with yourself, live in the Century of the Self, and therefore ought to know yourself best of all. Walker Percy cosmospeculiarself Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and help other men. Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man’s destruction. Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be published before the destruction takes place. Walker Percy helping-othersbrainmen Whenever I feel bad, I go to the library and read controversial periodicals. Though I do not know whether I am a liberal or a conservative, I am nevertheless enlivened by the hatred which one bears the other. In fact, this hatred strikes me as one of the few signs of life remaining in the world. Walker Percy libraryhatredworld Nothing remains but desire, and desire comes howling down Elysian Fields like a mistral. Walker Percy remainsfieldsdesire A good title should be like a good metaphor. It should intrigue without being too baffling or too obvious. Walker Percy titlesmetaphorwriting Maybe there are times when an honest hatred serves us better than love corrupted by sentimentality, meretriciousness, sententiousness, cuteness. Walker Percy honesthatehatred Small disconnected facts, if you take note of them, have a way of becoming connected. Walker Percy becomingfactsway Being uneducated is no guarantee against being obnoxious. Walker Percy uneducatedobnoxiousguarantees Losing hope is not so bad. There's something worse: losing hope and hiding it from yourself. Walker Percy losing-hopehidinglosing Nobody but a Southerner knows the wrenching rinsing sadness of the cities of the North. Walker Percy sadnesscitiesknows I don't like to be described as a Southern writer. The danger is, if you're described as a Southern writer, you might be thought of as someone who writes about a picturesque local scene like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone With the Wind, something like that. Walker Percy uncleswritingwind The so-called sexual revolution is not, as advertised, a liberation of sexual behavior but rather its reversal. In former days, even under Victoria, sexual intercourse was the natural end and culmination of heterosexual relations. Now one begins with genital overtures instead of a handshake, then waits to see what will turn up (e.g., might become friends later). Like dogs greeting each other nose to tail and tail to nose. Walker Percy dogwaitingtails It makes people nervous for one to step out of one's role. Walker Percy rolesstepspeople If I had the choice of knowing the truth or searching for the truth, I'd take the search. Walker Percy knowing-the-truthchoicesknowing Children notice things first, people later. Walker Percy childrenpeoplefirsts What nuns don't realize is that they look better in nun clothes than J.C. Penney pantsuits. Walker Percy superstitionsclotheslooks Like many young men in the South, he had trouble ruling out the possible. They are not like an immigrant's son in Passaic who desires to become a dentist and that is that. Southerners have trouble ruling out the possible. What happens to a... man to whom all things seem possible and every course of action open? Nothing of course. Walker Percy desiremenson Peace is only better than war when it's not hell too. War being hell makes sense. Walker Percy hellpoliticswar [In art] you are telling the reader or the listener or the viewer something he already knows but which he doesn't quite know that he knows, so that in the action of communication he experiences a recognition, a feeling that he has been there before, a shock of recognition. Walker Percy communicationfeelingsart As for hobbies, people with stimulating hobbies suffer from the most noxious of despairs since they are tranquilized in their despair. Walker Percy despairsufferingpeople
