{"author":"Richard Matheson","author_id":"Richard+Matheson","total_quotes":54,"quotes":[{"text":"But now, in the final hours, even hope had vanished. Yet he could smile. At a point without hope he had found contentment. He knew he had tried and there was nothing to be sorry for. And this was complete victory, because it was a victory over himself.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["contentment","hope","victory"],"id":6319,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"But it was hard to keep his hands still. He could almost feel them twitching emphatically with his strong desire to reach out and stroke the dog's head. He had such a terrible yearning to love something again, and the dog was such a beautiful ugly dog.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["friendship","love"],"id":16629,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"No, by God, he had no intention of going on like a blind man, plodding down a path of brainless, fruitless existence until old age or accident took him. Either he found the answer or he ditched the whole mess, life included.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["curiosity"],"id":26892,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"What would a Mohammedan vampire do if faced with a cross?","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["humor","vampire"],"id":29329,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"What condemnation could possibly be more harsh than one’s own, when self-pretense is no longer possible?","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["judgement"],"id":40099,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"There seemed no answer. He wasn't resigned to anything, he hadn't accepted or adjusted to the life he'd been forced into. Yet here he was, eight months after the plague's last victim, nine since he's spoken to another human being, ten since Virginia had died. Here he was with no future and a virtually hopeless present. Still plodding on.Instinct? Or was he just stupid? Too unimaginative to destroy himself? Why hadn't he done it in the beginning when he was in the very depths? What had impelled him to enclose the house, install a freezer, a generator, an electric stove, a water tank, build a hothouse, a workbench, burn down the houses on each side of his, collect records and books and mountains of canned supplies, even - it was fantastic when you thought about it - even put a fancy mural on the wall?Was the life force something more than words, a tangible, mind-controlling potency? Was nature somehow, in him, maintaining its spark against its own encroachments?He closed his eyes. Why think, why reason? There was no answer. His continuance was an accident and an attendant bovinity. He was just too dumb to end it all, and that was about the size of it.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["death","instinct","life","life-force","meaning-of-life","nature","purpose","reasoning","suicide","survival","survive","thought"],"id":46083,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"That's what was wrong with drinking too much. You became immune to drunken delights. There was no solace in liquor. Before you got happy, you collapsed.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["alcohol"],"id":81813,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"The foraging for food and water, the struggle for life in a world without masters, housed in a body that man had made dependent on himself.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["independence","survival"],"id":86612,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"As her analyst had told her: the deeper buried the distress, the further into the body it went. The digestive system was about as far as it could go to hide.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["stress"],"id":93682,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"After a while, though, even the deepest sorrow faltered, even the most penetrating despair lost its scalpel edge.","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["sadness"],"id":102982,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":54,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}