Clerks Quotes
More Clerks Quotes
Much has been written about Generation X and the films about it. Clerks is so utterly authentic that its heroes have never heard of their generation. When they think of "X," it's on the way to the video store.
roger ebert— Review of Clerks (November 4, 1994)
Here enter not attorneys, barristers, Nor bridle-champing law-practitioners: Clerks, commissaries, scribes, nor pharisees, Wilful disturbers of the people's ease: Judges, destroyers, with an unjust breath, Of honest men, like dogs, even unto death. Your salary is at the gibbet-foot: Go drink there! for we do not here fly out On those excessive courses, which may draw A waiting on your courts by suits in law.
françois rabelais— Chapter 54 : The inscription set upon the great gate of Theleme
For years I have told my students that I been trying to train executives rather than Clerks. The distinction between the two is parallel to the distinction previously made between understanding and knowledge. It is a mighty low executive who cannot hire several people with command of more knowledge than he has himself.
carroll quigley— Conclusion, p. 420
The distribution of tasks among the various employees follows a simple rule, which is that the duty of the members of each category is to do as much work as they possibly can, so that only a small part of that work need be passed to the category above. This means that the Clerks are obliged to work without cease from morning to night, whereas the senior Clerks do so only now and then, the deputies very rarely, and the Registrar almost never.
josé saramago— All the Names (1997, p. 2)
When reproached for spending too much time with books and Clerks, Charles answered, “As long as knowledge is honored in this country, so long will it prosper.”
barbara tuchman— p. 239 (A Distant Mirror (1978))
...blathering store Clerks who can't stop saying "Have a nice day"...
paul dilascia— on annoying behaviour, 1994/5
Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of Clerks have realized their expectations; most computer users have found that they now need more, and more expensive Clerks, even though they call them "operators" or "programmers.
Peter Drucker— Drucker cited in: William White (1981) Library journal. Volume 106, Nr 1-12. p.1048
The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of Clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.
Guy de Maupassant— Variant translation:
She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished; and she let them make a match for her with a little clerk in the Department of Education.
He never went very far astray in his official business, because he always obeyed the Clerks and followed precedents.
Anthony Trollope— Ch. 20 (The Prime Minister (1876))
He was an open confuter of both Pope and King, the corrector of monks, the director of priests, the instructor of Clerks, the supporter of scholars, a preacher to the people, a persecutor of the incontinent, the unwearied student of the Scriptures, a hammer and despiser of the Romans. At the table of bodily refreshment he was hospitable, eloquent, courteous, pleasant, and affable; at the spiritual table devout, tearful, and contrite. In the episcopal office he was sedulous , dignified, and indefatigable .
— Matthew Paris, Hist. Maj. v.407; see also Chronica Majora
Clerk me no Clerks.
— Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (1819), chapter xx.
Prolonged contact with the computer turns mathematicians into Clerks and vice versa.
— Alan Perlis, "Epigrams on Programming"
Clerks in downtown hotels were said to be asking guests whether they wished the room for sleeping or jumping. Two men jumped hand-in-hand from a high window in the Ritz. They had a joint account.
john kenneth galbraith— Chapter VII, Things Become More Serious, Section VIII, p. 131-132
