Polishing Turds

All over America, in fact, people were up and out of their beds today in a continuing effort to polish turds. Sure, for the sake of survival, but more immediately, for the sake of some sadistic manager or shit-brained client whose small imagination and numbingly dumb ideas were bleaching the world of all relevancy and hope. And meanwhile, that mad-bearded fellow there with his crossed legs could hardly life his grease-caked hands to make it a little easier for someone to flip him a quarter.
-Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End, 237

Wasting wasted time.

We told him to get on with it. We liked wasting time, but almost nothing was more annoying than having our wasted time wasted on something not worth wasting it on.
- Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End, 53

All men have sublime thoughts..

For all our penny-wisdom, for all our soul-destroying slavery to habit, it is not to be doubted that all men have sublime thoughts.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

We were fractious and overpaid...

We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked has something to look forward to at ten-fifteen. Most of us like most everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything. Those who loved everyone were unanimously reviled. We loved free bagels in the morning. They happened all too infrequently. Our benefits were astonishing in comprehensiveness and quality of care. Sometimes we questioned whether they were worth it. We thought moving to India might be better, or going back to nursing school. Doing something with the handicapped or working with our hands. No one ever acted on these impulses, despite their daily, sometimes hourly contractions. Instead we met in conference rooms to discuss the issues of the day.
-Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End, 3