John Kennedy Toole Quotes

Quotes about:

• you can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Government, Space, People

  A Confederacy of Dunces (published 1980), ch.9, pt.1.

  72 Copy quote

• I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Food, Writing, Cheesy

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.9, LSU Press

  40 Copy quote

• Having once been so high, humanity fell so low. What had once been dedicated to the soul was now dedicated to the sale.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Soul, Humanity, Lows

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.41, LSU Press

  44 Copy quote

• A firm rule must be imposed upon our nation before it destroys itself. The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss.

  John Kennedy Toole

  United States, Needs, Taste

  John Kennedy Toole (1980). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.23, Dubois Publishing

  30 Copy quote

• I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which my still sluggish senses and body make every chore a penance. I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Good Morning, Quality, Arriving

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.149, LSU Press

  33 Copy quote

• You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.

  John Kennedy Toole

  School, Long, Gone

  John Kennedy Toole (1987). “A Confederacy of Dunces”

  34 Copy quote

• I mingle with my peers or no one, and since I have no peers, I mingle with no one.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Peers

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.185, LSU Press

  9 Copy quote

• Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,' Ignatius belched, 'Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Crush, Divinity, Wheels

  John Kennedy Toole (2007). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.30, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  31 Copy quote

• I refuse to "look up." Optimism nauseates me. It is perverse. Since man's fall, his proper position in the universe has been one of misery.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Fall, Men, Optimism

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.89, LSU Press

  24 Copy quote

• ...I doubt very seriously whether anyone will hire me.' What do you mean, babe? You a fine boy with a good education.' Employers sense in me a denial of their values.' He rolled over onto his back. 'They fear me. I suspect that they can see that I am forced to function in a century I loathe. This was true even when I worked for the New Orleans Public Library.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Work, Mean, Boys

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.76, LSU Press

  45 Copy quote

• Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Work, Today, Employers

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.237, LSU Press

  30 Copy quote

• Between notes, he had contemplated means of destroying Myrna Minkoff but had reached no satisfactory conclusion. His most promising scheme had involved getting a book on munitions from the library, constructing a bomb, and mailing it in plain paper to Myrna. Then he remembered that his library card had been revoked.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Book, Mean, Library

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.322, LSU Press

  9 Copy quote

• with the breakdown of the medieval system, the gods of chaos, lunacy, and bad taste gained ascendancy.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Taste, Chaos, Medieval

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.41, LSU Press

  29 Copy quote

• Stop!' I cried imploringly to my god-like mind.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Mind, Tears, Cry

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.411, LSU Press

  25 Copy quote

• It smells terrible in here.' Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Meaningful, Lying, Writing

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.70, LSU Press

  27 Copy quote

• So we see that even when Fortuna spins us downward, the wheel sometimes halts for a moment and we find ourselves in a good, small cycle within a larger bad cycle. The universe, of course, is based upon the principle of the circle within the circle. At the moment, I am in an inner circle. Of course, smaller circles within this circle are also possible.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Circles, Principles, Wheels

  John Kennedy Toole (2007). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.76, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  10 Copy quote

• The heart is important at any age, I'm afraid.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Heart, Important, Age

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.11, LSU Press

  4 Copy quote

• The only excursion of my life outside of New Orleans took me through the vortex to the whirlpool of despair: Baton Rouge. . . . New Orleans is, on the other hand, a comfortable metropolis which has a certain apathy and stagnation which I find inoffensive.

  John Kennedy Toole

  New Orleans, Hands, Despair

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.181, LSU Press

  24 Copy quote

• The only problem that those people have anyway is that they don't like new cars and hair sprays. That's why they are put away. They make the other members of the society fearful. Every asylum in this nation is filled with poor souls who simply cannot stand lanolin, cellophane, plastic, television, and subdivisions.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Hair, People, Car

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.469, LSU Press

  19 Copy quote

• The human desire for food and sex is relatively equal. If there are armed rapes, why should there not be armed hot dog thefts?

  John Kennedy Toole

  Dog, Sex, Desire

  A Confederacy of Dunces (published 1980), ch.7, pt.1.

  24 Copy quote

• When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Brain, Cheese, Dip

  "A Confederacy of Dunces".

  16 Copy quote

• It's not your fate to be well treated," Ignatius cried. "You're an overt masochist. Nice treatment will confuse and destroy you.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Nice, Fate, Treatment

  John Kennedy Toole (2004). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.558, LSU Press

  5 Copy quote

• employers sense in me a denial of their values...they fear me. i suspect that they can see that i am forced to function in a century which i loathe.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Denial, Century, Function

  19 Copy quote

• Is my paranoia getting completely out of hand, or are you mongoloids really talking about me?

  John Kennedy Toole

  Attitude, Hands, Talking

  John Kennedy Toole (1980). “A Confederacy of Dunces”, p.89, Dubois Publishing

  11 Copy quote

• The day before me is fraught with God knows what horrors.

  John Kennedy Toole

  Fear, Horror, God Knows

  18 Copy quote

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