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Between "just desserts" and "tragic irony" we are given quite a large scope for our particular talent. Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get.

— Tom Stoppard

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Philosophy

More quotes by Tom Stoppard

An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality.

Travesties (1974)

Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering; the capacity for self-indulgence changes hands.

Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966)

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

An essentially private man who wished his total indifference to public notice to be universally recognized.

Travesties (1974)

It is a defect of God's humour that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.

Arcadia (1993)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tom Stoppard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.