Player Piano Quotes
"It was the miracle that won the war - production with almost no manpower."
"His principle concern just then was that the black cat be contented in its new surroundings."
"The only protection the controls needed was from dust, cockroaches, and mice."
"Where men had once howled and hacked at one another, now, over bones and rotten palings, machines hummed."
"This was the climax, or close to it, of generations of Bud Calhouns."
"It's just a hell of a time to be alive, is all - just this goddamn messy business of people having to get used to new ideas."
"He realized he couldn't face another session up there. And then I looked around me and found out I couldn't face anything about the system any more."
"And dope addiction, alcoholism, and suicide went up proportionately."
"I'm doctor of cowshit, pigshit, and chickenshit," he said. "When you doctors figure out what you want, you'll find me out in the barn shoveling my thesis."
"It's the world, Wan - me and the world. I'm no good to anybody, not in this world."
"Nothing but a Reek and Wreck, and that's all my kids'll be, and a guy's got to have kicks or he doesn't want to live."
"Nobody needs me. You or even little old Delores could run the house and all, it's so easy."
"You've got to be in shape if the Blue Team's going to win."
"I love you more than anybody on earth. Good God but I'm sorry about what we said to each other."
"I solemnly swear by the voice in the pines, by the lapping of the great blue water, by the whir of the eagle wing."
"We're here because somebody wants to kill us, wreck the plants, and take over the country."
"Every minute of the day we should be pointing out how beautiful it is, and why it is beautiful."
"If I can't give you what you want, I'm through. We're all through, and down comes the star."
"There's never been a more brilliant, beautiful star!"
"Civilization has reached the dizziest heights of all time!"
"It depends on - You! And You! And You!"
"Give a name to something, and you think you've got it. But you haven't got it. All you've got's the name."
"Nobody's so damn well educated that you can't learn ninety per cent of what he knows in six weeks. The other ten per cent is decoration."
"Show me a specialist, and I'll show you a man who's so scared he's dug a hole for himself to hide in."
"If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind."
"Everybody's shaking in his boots, so don't be bluffed."
"Almost nobody's competent, Paul. It's enough to make you cry to see how bad most people are at their jobs."
"Want to be rich, Paul? All right. I got rich, and I told you ninety per cent of what I know about it. The rest is decoration."
"Anybody that competes with slaves becomes a slave."
"The machines do it. They do that with anybody who's got more'n four years of college and no job."
"What distinguishes man from the rest of the animals is his ability to do artificial things. To his greater glory, I say."
"The most beautiful peonies I ever saw were grown in almost pure cat excrement."
"The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings, not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems."
"Revolutions aren't my main line of business. I'm a minister, Doctor, remember? First and last, I'm an enemy of the Devil, a man of God!"
"What the hate does, I think, is to make me not only believe, but want to do something about the system."
"It doesn't matter if we win or lose, Doctor. The important thing is that we tried. For the record, we tried!"
"Smile, Doctor Proteus - you're somebody now, like your old man was."
"To all good Indians, past, present, and future. Or, more to the point - to the record."
"This isn't the end, you know. Nothing ever is, nothing ever will be - not even Judgment Day."
"The problems of peace are altogether more subtle."