The only authority I respect is the one that causes butterflies to fly south in fall and north in springtime. Tom Robbins More Quotes by Tom Robbins More Quotes From Tom Robbins The oyster was an animal worthy of New Orleans, as mysterious and private and beautiful as the city itself. If one could accept that oysters build their houses out of their lives, one could imagine the same of New Orleans, whose houses were similarly and resolutely shuttered against an outside world that could never be trusted to show proper sensitivity toward the oozing delicacies within. Tom Robbins new-orleans animal beautiful Should one be shallow enough to view existence as a system of rewards and punishments, one soon learns that we pay as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Tom Robbins punishment rewards views Death is impatient and thoughtless. It barges into your room when you are right in the middle of something, and it doesn't bother to wipe its boots. Tom Robbins wipe boots rooms Birth and death were easy. It was life that was hard. Tom Robbins birth life funny Western civilization was declining too fast for comfort, but too slowly to be very exciting. Tom Robbins exciting comfort civilization Unfortunately, little darlings, there is no such thing as a simple love story.The most transitory puppy crush is complex to the extent of lying beyond the far reaches of the brain's understanding. Tom Robbins crush simple lying Not naive,' Conch shell had corrected him. 'He simply has not been taught to fear the things you fear. Tom Robbins shells naive taught The universe does not have laws. It has habits. And habits can be broken. Tom Robbins broken law doe O tequila, savage water of sorcery, what confusion and mischief your sly, rebellious drops do generate Tom Robbins sorcery confusion water The principal difference between an adventurer and a suicide is that the adventurer leaves himself a margin of escape (the narrower the margin the greater the adventure), a margin whose width and length may be determined by unknown factors but whose navigation is determined by the measure of the adventurer's nerve and wits. It is exhilarating to live by one's nerves or toward the summit of one's wits. Tom Robbins differences suicide adventure The only question is how to make love stay. Tom Robbins making-love And what would our ideas of God, of religion, be like if they had come to us through the minds of women? Ever think of that? Tom Robbins mind ideas thinking I rather like the smell of absurdity in the morning. Tom Robbins absurdity smell morning …he glanced over his shoulder at her, regarding her, as he often did before they made love, as if she were a lost continent about to be rediscovered. Tom Robbins shoulders made lost To an artist a metaphor is as real as a dollar. Tom Robbins dollars artist real And it rained a fever. And it rained a silence. And it rained a sacrifice. And it rained a miracle. And it rained sorceries and saturnine eyes of the totem. Tom Robbins sacrifice silence eye And it rained a screaming. And it rained a rawness. And it rained a plasma. And it rained a disorder. Tom Robbins plasma rawness disorder A sneeze travels at a peak velocity of two hundred miles per hour. A burp, more slowly; a fart, slower yet. But a kiss thrown by fingers- its departure is sudden, its arrival ambiguous, and there is no source that can state with authority what speeds are reached in its flight. Tom Robbins departure kissing two It was autumn, the springtime of death. Tom Robbins springtime autumn What we have here is an unexpected touchdown on the runway of the heart. Tom Robbins still-life-with-woodpecker unexpected heart
