Foucault's Pendulum

Some gems from Foucault's Pendulum :-

Belbo to Casaubon :-

There are four kinds of people in this world : cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics [...] A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components [...] Cretins dont even talk; they sort of slobber and stumble. You know, the guy who presses the ice cream cone against his forehead, or enters a revolving door the wrong way [...] a fool is more complicated [...] He's the guy who puts his foot in his mouth. For example, he says how's your lovely wife to someone whose wife has just left him. Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation. In their positive form, they become diplomats...

Lia (Casaubon's wife) to Casaubon :-

... Synarchy is God [...] Mankind can't endure the thought that the world was born by chance, by mistake, just because four brainless atoms bumped into one another on a slippery highway. So a cosmic plot has to be found - God, angels, devils. Synarchy performs the same function on a lesser scale ...

Lia to Casaubon :-

... All cultures worship menhirs, monoliths, pyramids, columns, but nobody bows down to balconies and railings. Did you ever hear of an archaic cult of the sacred banister? You see? And another point: if you worship a vertical stone, even if there are a lot of you, you can all see it; but if you worship, instead, a horizontal stone, only those in the front row can see it, and the others start pushing, me too, me too, which is not a fitting sight for a magical ceremony ...

Tags : A Bookworm's Diet

Posted by Rajat @ 12:13 AM