Rural Quotes

“...but these backwaters of existence sometimes breed, in their sluggish depths, strange acuities of emotion... ("Afterward")”
― Edith Wharton, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps

“A farm is an irregular patch of nettles bounded by short-term notes, containing a fool and his wife who didn’t know enough to stay in the city.”
― S.J. Perelman

“I am talking of a place in India, at least a third of the country, a fertile place, full of rice fields and wheat fields and ponds in the middle of those fields choked with lotuses and water lilies, and water buffaloes wading through the ponds and chewing on the lotuses and lilies. Those who live in this place call it the Darkness. Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness. The ocean brings light to my country. Every place on the map of India near the ocean is well off. But the river brings darkness to India—the black river.”
― Aravind Adiga

“… in these new days and in these new pages a philosophical tradition of the spontaneity of speculation kind has been rekindled on the sacred isle of Éire, regardless of its creative custodian never having been taught how to freely speculate, how to profoundly question, and how to playfully define.

Spontaneity of speculation being synonymous with the philosophical-poetic, the philosophical-poetic with the rural philosopher-poet, and by roundelay the rural philosopher-poet thee with the spontaneity of speculation be.

And by the way of the rural what may we say?
A philosopher-poet of illimitable space we say.

Iohannes Scottus Ériugena the metaphor of old salutes you; salutes your lyrical ear and your skilful strumming of the rippling harp.

(Source: Hearing in the Write, Canto 19, Ivy-muffled)”
― Richard Mc Sweeney, Hearing in the Write

“One of the solutions to increasing the resilience of the rural economy is the automation of the rural economy in a sustainable manner. The adoption of a sustainable and inclusive approach to automating the rural economy can enhance efficiency and speed at each stage of the supply chain.”
― Siddhartha Paul Tiwari

“A significant impact of the pandemic is being felt on Asia's rural economy sector. It is unprecedented. As well as slowing progress, the pandemic could also reverse the progress achieved in the past few years.”
― Siddhartha Paul Tiwari

“Automation technologies have proved useful with regard to pandemic preparedness and response, but they can also be useful in building resilience against future shocks. Moving the automation agenda forward will be critical to creating more robust and resilient societies and achieving the sustainable development goals.”
― Siddhartha Paul Tiwari

“What was stolen by the city, nature restores.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“It was always something in Dixie County. A storm knocked out your power. A squirrel. A blown fuse. The reasons would vary. It made no difference. You were still sitting at home in the dark.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“My great-grandfather Delmar Thomas is buried beside his wife Lula now. Mount Horeb Cemetery near Bell, FL. As a kid I fell into a fire ant mound. Delmar rescued me. I cried. Covered in bites. He just laughed. Told me that is how you learn. This is what I learned.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“There is a bottle tree in Cross City, FL. Covered in locally bottled items. Seems Dixie County had a soda in the day. Ghosts keeping the ghosts away.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“A kid burned down the Scout Hut. That old log cabin in the Cross City park. When asked why he just said he was bored. All I knew could relate. Small town boredom. Rural gloom.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“On a walk down a remote 13th street I discovered a group of young teens with bell, book, and candle engaged in some manner of witchery. As I approached they fell silent. Apparently the possibility of a successful summoning was more terrifying than the reality of being a bored teen in rural Florida.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“Mythologist Joseph Campbell once spent 5 years living in a shack in rural New York where he read 9 hours a day. I did something similar as I was in middle school but I suspect Campbell read much better books. Most of my books were acquired at the flea market in Chiefland, FL where a hoarse voiced lady sold musty paperbacks 5 for $1.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“When I was a kid an older guy sat out front of a gas station in Old Town, FL. His favorite story involved roughing up a couple of guys because "you could tell they weren't from around here." The gruesome details were implied as he'd pull out a straight razor and a plastic bag containing Red Devil lye. "Deliverance", the end of "Easy Rider", and every "wrong turn" horror movie would later make more sense because of those childhood stops for gas and a Yoo-hoo.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“I grew up in a swamp. All who visit see the savage beauty of the place. Those who stay see more. A deep connection. Roots that have grown together for generations. Once as a teen I went with family to a fish fry and sing at Scrub Creek Baptist Church off County Road 351. There a teen girl was very friendly until told to stop. We were cousins. She stomped away – "Is everyone here my DAMN cousin?!" Yes, and we are blessed.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“Southern is a design element these days. A large craft market exists for this Decorative Southernness. Framed art and throw pillows saying – "I Love You Like Biscuits and Gravy" and "Bless Your Heart!" But I've yet to see a "You Don't Look Like You're From Around Here" dish towel. This was the phrase I heard most growing up in small town Florida.”
― Damon Thomas, Some Books Are Not For Sale

“The quaint side of rural Southern narrative ignores that you'll grow old there and be killing rattlesnakes with your crutches.”
― Damon Thomas, Southern Gothic Children's Book: A Rural Gloom Graphic Novel

“When I felt better, I tried to remember what had been beautiful in my life. I did not think about love or how I had wandered all over the world. I did not think about night flights across the ocean or how I played Canadian hockey in Prague. I remembered walking along the brooks, rivers, ponds, and dams to fish. I realized that these were the most beautiful experiences in my life.”
― Ota Pavel, How I Came to Know Fish

“Most of his fellow TRU deputies were white country boys of a type Carl knew well. The majority were ten to fifteen years older than he, and some were over fifty. In a town with high unemployment, men didn't give up jobs with benefits unless they were pushed out usually after an election. But despite the age and background of the men, there was an attitude of benign tolerance toward black officers in the unit. Prejudice still existed, but it was an amorphous thing, difficult to point at and impossible to prove, except in a few cases. Even the hardcore, Southern-rock NASCAR types accepted that civil rights reforms were here to stay, and they tried to make the best of it.”
― Greg Iles, Third Degree

“When you live in a rural area, your 911 call is to your neighbors.”
― Steven Magee

“Heard from whom? I always hated this small-town-grapevine nonsense. That's something I love about the city. The anonymity. No one knows who you are, and no one gives a shit about your business. It's a beautiful thing.”
― Rachel Harrison

“In the countryside in the middle of nowhere, no one can hear your screams!”
― Steven Magee

“In the middle of nowhere, no one can hear your calls for help!”
― Steven Magee

“I spent a lot of time on the banks of the Suwannee growing up. Cookouts and swimming at Purvis Landing. There was a rope swing on an old cypress tree. Swing out into the dark brown water. The bank was lined with cypress knees. You learned to let go. We went fishing up near Log Landing Road. A remote area. More snakes than people. One Saturday we were joined by a boat. A new doctor in town. He raced up and down a short stretch of river. Blaring ZZ Top "Legs." The boat's wake crashed against the shore. Scared all the fish away. Changed our dinner plans. It ended with a crash. His boat raced into a log floating slowly downstream. He screamed for help over AC/DC "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution." Not help for himself. Help for his boat. It sank into the Suwannee. And the fishing improved.”
― Damon Thomas, More Snakes Than People: A Rural Gloom Graphic Novel

“Once I went to buy a turtle at the Chiefland flea market. They said turtles were only legal to buy for "educational purposes." Before I could buy I was asked to write "For Education" on a piece of paper. With the official paperwork completed we headed behind the booth to get the turtle. There was a capybara snoozing in a kid's wading pool. The capybara was not for sale.”
― Damon Thomas, More Snakes Than People: A Rural Gloom Graphic Novel

“English: "Laws designed for the big city destroy the rural areas."

Česky: „Zákony navržené pro velkoměsto likvidují venkov.”
― Sebastián Wortys

“Remote rural areas have always been the best places to live during war.”
― Steven Magee

“If a Lumbee worldview exists, it radiates from Robeson.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“They lived in rural Michigan in the pre-automobile age, and for the most part they had never been fifty miles away from the farm or the dusty village streets; yet once, ages ago, they had been everywhere and had seen everything, and nothing that happened to them thereafter meant anything much. All that was real had taken place when they were young; everything after that had simply been a process of waiting for death, which did not frighten them much -- they had seen it inflicted in the worst possible way on boys who had not bargained for it, and they had enough of the old-fashioned religion to believe without any question that when they passed over they would simply be rejoining men and ways of living which they had known long ago.”
― Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army