Larry Wall Quotes

There's nothing wrong with being shallow as long as you're insightful about it.

What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth.

I used to be called a post-modern clown. But now, post-modernism is a quaint notion, too.

I want to put any number of assorted 'ists' - such as relativists, deconstructionists, destructivists, postmodernists, the more maudlin kind of pacifists and feminists - firmly in their place.

Post-Modernism was a reaction against Modernism. It came quite early to music and literature, and a little later to architecture. And I think it's still coming to computer science.

Irony is the hygiene of the mind.

Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism taken out.

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone's advice.

Postmodernism surely requires an even greater grasp of symbolism, as it's increasingly an art of gesture alone.

Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It's an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work.

There are no countries in the world less known by the British than those selfsame British Islands.

I think I know it all, relatively speaking.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

We live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.

I love creating mysteries, but I am terrible at solving them.

irony is an indispensable ingredient of the critical vision; it is the safest antidote to sentimental decay.

Irony differentiates. Cynicism never does.

Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm. Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, few doubtingly of scepticism.

You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.

I've often noticed" Fiona said, "that when people say, 'This can't happen in this day and age', they say it because it is happening.

I'm a deep thinker when it comes to shallow no brainers.

A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush, but remember also that a bird in the hand is a positive embarrassment to one not in the poultry business.

I never thought of that before! It's my opinion that you never think at all.

I find that forgiving one's enemies is a most curious morbid pleasure; perhaps I should check it.