Being Erica

Dr. Tom:
"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

Dr. Tom:
Albert Einstein.

Erica:
Isn't that a lot of pressure for you?

Dr. Tom:
"Pressure makes diamonds."

Dr. Tom:
General George S. Patton.

Dr. Tom:
"Curiosity...

Dr. Tom:
does no less than devotion, pilgrims make."

Dr. Tom:
Abraham Cowley.

Dr. Tom:
"The life which is unexamined, is not worth living". That's Plato.

Erica:
I wanted help.

Dr. Tom:
And I'm giving you what you need. I'm giving you what you asked for.

Dr. Tom:
"We learn by doing, there is no other way."

Dr. Tom:
John Holt.

Dr. Tom:
"Do not weep. Do not wax indignant. Understand."

Dr. Tom:
Baruch Spinoza.

Dr. Tom:
"If life's journey be endless,where is its goal? The answer is... it's everywhere."

Dr. Tom:
Rabindranath Tagore.

Dr. Tom:
God! I like him.

Dr. Tom:
I never expected you to stop caring, Erica. I just wanted you to stop letting that get in your way.

Dr. Tom:
You didn't fail, Erica.

Dr. Tom:
With your parents' opinions, and your, and your friends' opinions,

Dr. Tom:
Yeah, of course, they're always gonna matter...

Dr. Tom:
they just don't matter as much as your own.

Antigone:
I just hired this bright young thing, right out of her masters.

Erica:
Let me guess, Literati?

Antigone:
Well, we are... the sum of our decisions, aren't we?

Erica:
Yeah.

Antigone:
As long as you're happy, that's all that matters.

Dr. Tom:
Samuel Johnson said:

Dr. Tom:
"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them, as they are."

Antigone:
The truth will set you free.

Dr. Tom:
The egg. Perfection, both in function and in form. It has a double arch, top and bottom. It's what makes an egg so incredibly strong.

Dr. Tom:
But the minute that we begin to chip away at its integrity, the egg collapses in on itself until, in the end, we're left with only... breakfast.

Dr. Tom:
It's still an egg, but it's not the same.

Dr. Tom:
Our lives are like a house of cards. You know, some of the cards are... cosmetic.

Dr. Tom:
While others are load bearing walls. You remove one of those cards and the whole thing comes tumbling down.

Erica:
Like the egg.

Dr. Tom:
Like the egg. Chip away at what makes you "you" and you become something else.

Dr. Tom:
"Sarcasm: The last refuge of modest people when the privacy of their soul is intrusively invaded."

Dr. Tom:
Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Dr. Tom:
"Let your net always be cast. And in the pool which you least expect...

Erica:
there will be a fish."

Erica:
Ovid.

Erica:
...so easy now that I realized that, just 'cause one guy hurt me, it doesn't mean they all will.

Dr. Tom:
Well, I can't argue with that.

Erica:
Yeah.

Dr. Tom:
But don't forget, you know, it's never easy.

Dr. Tom:
You know, "there is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path."

Erica:
Isn't that from "The Matrix"?

Dr. Tom:
Morpheus.

Dr. Tom:
Lawrence Fishburne. Man, that's a stellar performance.

Dr. Tom:
It's not a question of whether you can or whether you can't 'cause that's just more...

Dr. Tom:
Taking a risk is like, uh... jumping off a cliff. It's a leap into the unknown with absolutely no guarantees.

Dr. Tom:
Ultimately, Erica, you just have to decide. You have to choose how are you going to be.

Dr. Tom:
I mean, you could spend the rest of your life caught up, in that fear. Okay. Or, you could face it. Take the leap. See what comes.

Dr. Tom:
Your ice cream's melting.

Brent:
Julianne's mantra is: "Keep your enemies close and...those who can get your job, even closer."

Dr. Tom:
"You don't miss your water, till your well runs dry."

Dr. Tom:
William Bell.

Dr. Tom:
"We are postponing, life speeds by."

Dr. Tom:
Seneca.

Dr. Tom:
"Defeatism is the wretchedest of policies."

Dr. Tom:
George Bernard Shaw.

Erica:
I've read you tons of poems. Why did you remember that one?

Ethan:
Because this one... this one was special.

Erica:
It's goofy.

Ethan:
No, it's not. Look, I'm no expert; the kind of poetry I like is usually about gangsters. But this one you wrote? It was just you.

Erica:
Well, no wonder Lozar hated it so much.

Ethan:
Screw him. This is who you are. You don't need his approval.

Erica:
If only life were that simple.

Ethan:
It is.

Erica:
It is, isn't it?