Quotes out of Context, or are they?

Sachin Tendulkar

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.

--BBC Sports, on Sachin Tendulkar.

His life seems to be a stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a God...

--Mathew Hayden, Australian Cricketer on Sachin Tendulkar.

[Embarrassed laugh] I am a normal person who plays cricket. [...] I am nothing more than that.

--Sachin Tendulkar, on being told of above quote.

I know now that it is mental discipline that sets people apart, the ability to think differently and to generate energy in the right direction.

--Sachin Tendulkar.

The Present

"Suppose your Aunt Dahlia read in the paper that you were going to be shot at sunrise."
"I couldn't be. I'm never up so early."

--P.G.Wodehouse, How Right You Are, Jeeves.

"What, pray, would you do if faced by a charging rhinoceros, Mr. Mulliner?"
"I am not likely," said Cyril, "to move in the same social circles as charging rhinoceri."

--P.G.Wodehouse, Strychnine in the Soup.

Shooting skeet eight hours a month was excellent training for them. It trained them to shoot skeet.

--Joseph Heller, Catch-22.

And if that was'nt funny, there were lots of things that were'nt even funnier.

--Joseph Heller, Catch-22.

The Prediction

Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

--C. S. Lewis

If not now, when?
If not me, who?

--From the Motion Picture, Freedom Song.

Yet one shall be born to face the Shadow, born once more as he was born before and shall be born again, time without end. The Dragon shall be Reborn, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth at his rebirth. In sackcloth and ashes shall he clothe the people and he shall break the world again at his coming, tearing apart all ties that bind. Like the unfettered dawn shall he blind us, and burn us, yet shall the Dragon Reborn confront the Shadow at the Last Battle, and his blood shall give us Light. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation.

--Robert Jordan, The Great Hunt(The Wheel of Time).

The Future

"Shall we speak of profit? You will see it fiftyfold, I guarantee it. Shall we tell of Kings? Look into the glass, you will find the measure of one. Shall we dream of empires? We need not dream. Only reach out, Sir. Reach out and close your fingers."

--Howard Korder, The Hollow Lands.


bawa@cs.stanford.edu
11-17-1999