List of Thomas M. Disch Quotes

But Before Any Of The Small Appliances Who May Be Listening To This Tale Should Begin To Think That They Might Do The Same Thing, Let Them Be Warned: Electricity Is Very Dangerous. Never Play With Old Batteries! Never Put Your Plug In A Strange Socket! And If You Are In Any Doubt About The Voltage Of The Current Where You Are Living, Ask A Major Appliance.

Laughter Is Just A Slowed Down Scream Of Terror.

It Considered Trying To Explain Their Error To Them, But What Would Be The Use? They Would Only Go Away With Hurt Feelings. You Can't Always Expect People, Or Squirrels, To Be Rational.

But The Toaster Was Quite Satisfied With Itself, Thank You. Though It Knew From Magazines That There Were Toasters Who Could Toast Four Slices At A Time, It Didn't Think That The Master, Who Lived Alone And Seemed To Have Few Friends, Would Have Wanted A Toaster Of Such Institutional Proportions. With Toast, It's Quality That Matters, Not Quantity.

The Forest Stretched On Seemingly Forever With The Most Monotonous Predictability, Each Tree Just Like The Next - Trunk, Branches, Leaves; Trunk, Branches, Leaves. Of Course A Tree Would Have Taken A Different View Of The Matter. We All Tend To See The Way Others Are Alike And How We Differ, And It's Probably Just As Well We Do, Since That Prevents A Great Deal Of Confusion. But Perhaps We Should Remind Ourselves From Time To Time That Ours Is A Very Partial View, And That The World Is Full Of A Great Deal More Variety Than We Ever Manage To Take In.

Genius Is An Infinite Capacity For Pain.

Here Was A Flower (the Daisy Reflected) Strangely Like Itself And Yet Utterly Unlike Itself Too. Such A Paradox Has Often Been The Basis For The Most Impassioned Love.

Writers Tend To Consider Distinction And Originality As Virtues, But They Are Anathema To Publishers.

Knowledge Is Devalued When It Becomes Too Generally Known

For A Lot Of People, Poetry Tends To Be Dull. It's Not Read Much. It Takes A Special Kind Of Training And A Lot Of Practice To Read Poetry With Pleasure. It's Like Learning To Like Asparagus.

So, Without Saying Anything To The Others, It Made Its Way To The Farthest Corner Of The Meadow And Began To Toast An Imaginary Muffin. That Was Always The Best Way To Unwind When Things Got To Be Too Much For It.

Science Fiction Is A Branch Of Children's Literature.