Finger Quotes (3)
The puritanical potentialities of science have never been forecast. If it evolves a body of organized rites, and is established as a religion, hierarchically organized, things more than anything else will be done in the name of 'decency.' The coarse fumes of tobacco and liquors, the consequent tainting of the breath and staining of white fingers and teeth, which is so offensive to many women, will be the first things attended to.
Wyndham Lewis: an Anthology of his Prose (1969), 170.
See also: | Breath (7) | Establish (4) | Evolution (237) | First (4) | Hierarchy (2) | Organization (12) | Potential (4) | Puritan (2) | Religion (69) | Stain (3) | Teeth (5) | Tobacco (3) | Woman (18)
The truth is that the scientific value of Polar exploration is greatly exaggerated. The thing that takes men on such hazardous trips is really not any thirst for knowledge, but simply a yearning for adventure. ... A Polar explorer always talks grandly of sacrificing his fingers and toes to science. It is an amiable pretention, but there is no need to take it seriously.
'Penguin's Eggs'. From the American Mercury (Sep 1930), 123-24. Reprinted in A Second Mencken Chrestomathy: A New Selection from the Writings of America's Legendary Editor, Critic, and Wit (2006), 166.
Thinking is the activity I love best, and writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers. I can write up to 18 hours a day. Typing 90 words a minute, I've done better than 50 pages a day. Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up—well, maybe once.
In Joseph Barbato, Writing for a Good Cause (2000), 151. Attribution uncertain. If you know an original print citation, please contact Webmaster.
See also: | Activity (11) | Concentration (3) | Interfere (3) | Look (5) | Love (30) | Office (2) | Thinking (58) | Word (31) | Writing (6)
