Quotes by Mark Helprin

“Marxists are people whose insides are torn up day after day because they want to rule the world and no one will even publish their letter to the editor.”

“Ive imagined great victories, and Ive imagined great races. The races are better.”

“And there was no reason for them to be dancing the Peter Lake could see, except that it was an exceptionally beautiful night.”

“Because there were all kinds of hell - some were black and dirty, and some were silvery and high.”

“The arts community is generally dominated by liberals because if you are concerned mainly with painting or sculpture, you dont have time to study how the world works. And if you have no understanding of economics, strategy, history and politics, then naturally you would be a liberal.”

“Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.”

“Of course, you would have to be insane to hope your child grows up to be a playwright or poet. Given the odds, you would have to be quite cavalier about your childrens future.”

“If it wasnt for music, I would think that love is mortal.”

“The greatest fight is when you are fighting in the smoke and cannot see with your eyes.”

If it werent for music, I would think that love is mortal.

As long as you have life and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you have stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe. Never give up, never despair, let no mystery confound you into the conclusion that mystery cannot be yours.

He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.

The beauty of truth is that it need not be proclaimed or believed. It skips from soul to soul, changing form each time it touches, but it is what it is, I have seen it, and someday you will, too.

Reason excludes faith, Alessandro responded, watching the blood-red mite as it made a dash for the rim. Its deliberately limited. It wont function with the materials of religion. You can come close to proving the existence of God by reason, but you cant do it absolutely. Thats because you cant do anything absolutely by reason. Thats because reason depends on postulates. Postulates defy proof and yet they are essential to reason. God is a postulate. I dont think God is interested in the verification of His existence, and, therefore, neither am I. Anyway, I have professional reasons to believe. Nature and art pivot faithfully around God. Even dogs know that.

I read. The more you read, the more the world opens up to you... and the happier you are and more comforted you feel. Its up to you. No you is educated who cannot educate himself.

[When] hes here, hes always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think hes crazy...Dont tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dances by himself, or with a broom sometimes.

But you won’t abdicate.Of course not. It’s my duty to go on, to maintain the line. I can’t possibly fail in that. It’s as if you and I were throwing a ball back and forth to establish a record, and had been doing so for a millennium. You cannot drop a ball that has remained airborne through good effort for most of a thousand years. You cannot stop an unlikely heart that has been beating for so long. I would rather die than betray continuity, for its own sake if for nothing else. And Britain needs a king, just as it needs motormen and cooks and a prime minister. Just as it needs soldiers who will die for it if they must. It’s my job, or it will be, but you should know that I’ve never wanted it. I was only born to it, as if with a deformity, to which I hope I can respond with grace.Fredericka had been running her finger over the carpet, tracing a pattern in the way children do when they have learnt something overwhelming and are moved, but cannot say so. Freddy expected her to look up, with tears, and that in this moment she might have begun the long and arduous process of becoming a queen. She was so beautiful. To embrace her now, with high emotion flowing from her physical majesty, was all he wanted in the world. Her finger stopped moving, and she turned her eyes to him.Freddy?Yes? he answered.What’s raw egg? I read a recipe in She that called for a cup of raw egg. What is that?After a long silence, Freddy asked, Which part of the formulation escapes you? Egg? Raw? The link between the two?The two what?Fredericka?Yes, Freddy?Would you like to go dancing?Oh, yes Freddy!Come then. We will.

No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile. I didnt bring you up only to move across sure ground. I didnt teach you to think that everything must be within our control or understanding. Did I? For, if I did, I was wrong. I fyou wont take a chance, then the powers you refuse because you cannot explain them, will, as they say, make a monkey out of you.

The shelf was filled with books that were hard to read, that could devastate and remake ones soul, and that, when they were finished, had a kick like a mule.

When faced with something I fear, I tend to eat spaghetti.