dennis scharnberg

They do not fear the past as such.  They fear being shown to be mediocrities.

Sloane Daniels,  The Ways of Undoing.

Many people are guilty of talking too much.  Some flagrantly.  But Ellen’s vice was that of listening too much.

Gwenda Reid, Murder in Retrospect.

“Hatchet Sales On The Rise.”  Harry saw the headline, but he had no idea what to make of it.

Charles Jeffrey Yett, Writing in Miniature—Vol. Three.

In a soft—a reasonable—voice, the aphorism tells the reader:  You have been stupid.

Trevor Albertus, Malevolent Asymmetry.

Economics is all about waiting to find out what the present is like.

Titus Musgrave, The Mystery of Sleep.

Having bad daydreams.  That’s what Larry dreaded.  Sleep presented no threat to him at all.

Sebastian Sleeve, The Random Walk and Other Tales.

“We must remember that psychology is not uniformly awful.  There are degrees of awfulness involved.”

Timothy Swofford, The Corpse and the Candle.

“All the best liars actually believe their lies.”

Ellery Close, The Erasmus Homicides.

Victor wants to do what he wants.  But can he come up with anything worth wanting?  That, wise reader, is our situation.

Jeremy Malking, The Anechoic Chamber: More Stories.

We can point to language only from within language.

Amanda Willcoxen, ed., The Literary and Philosophical Fragments of Gregory James Sallust.