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77aa610 How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! life new-era reading Henry David Thoreau
cc5d0e3 The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? empathy human-nature life miracle stars walden walden-pond Henry David Thoreau
9218da6 When I was in my teens, I made an appraisal of how comfortable my life could turn out when I became the age I am now. Because of a mechanical failure, the prediction was inexact. expectations life Arthur Nersesian
42617fd On his thirteenth birthday he had seen a film in which the central character was a painter who, unable to sell his work, grew cold and hungry as he went from one unsuccessful interview to the next; eventually he had become a vagrant, sleeping in the streets of the city where once he had walked in hope. Hawksmoor left the cinema in a mood of profound, terrified apprehension and, from that time, he was filled with a sense of time passing and with the fear that he might be left discarded on its banks. The fear had not left him, although now he could no longer remember from where it came: he looked back on his earlier life without curiosity, since it seemed to lack intrinsic interest, and when he looked forward he saw the same steady attainment of goals without any joy in their attainment. For him, the state of happiness was simply the state of not suffering and, if he cared for anything, it was for oblivion. anxiety goals life oblivion time Peter Ackroyd
e9e2b24 I don't want to reject my life. I want to change my life without changing my life. life Gretchen Rubin
cd30614 I have always said that the way to deal with the pain of other's is by sympathy, which is suffering with, and that the way to deal with one's own pain is to put one foot after the other. Yet I was never willing to suffer with others, and when my own pain hit me, I crawled into hole. Sympathy I have failed in, stoicism I have barely passed. But I have made straight A's in irony- that curse, that evasion, that armor, that way of staying safe while seeming wise. One thing I have learned hard, if indeed I have learned it now: it is a reduction of our humanity to hide from pain, our own or other's. to hide from anything. That was Marian's text. Be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless. Skinless? Dance around in your bones. humanity life pain suffering Wallace Stegner
554a8b0 One should continue (of course with dignity) to develop, however old one may be. She had nothing against developing, against further ripeness, because as long as one was alive one was not dead -obviously, decided Mrs. Fisher, and development, change, ripening, were life. life Elizabeth von Arnim
e433ec3 Isn't it a mercy that we never get cured of being expectant? It makes life so bearable. However regularly we are disappointed and nothing whatever happens, after the first blow has fallen, after the first catch of the breath, the first gulp of misery, we turn our eyes with all their old eagerness to a point a little further along the road. expectation hope hoping life life-and-living Elizabeth von Arnim
95355b7 She had refused to draw the monster. She feared to give him form. christina-dodd fear life monster suspense thriller virtue-falls Christina Dodd
1f6bdbc He sometimes asked himself a question about life. Which are truer, the happy memories, or the unhappy ones? He decided, eventually, that the question was unanswerable. julian-barnes life memories memory the-only-story truth unanswerable unhappy-memories Julian Barnes
46e2e79 ...it had probably been a long enough life. Yet suddenly it all seemed like an illusion, a dream that had happened to someone else. What an odd thing existence was. illusion life life-is-a-dream reflection Kate Atkinson
38dfe1d In fact, I can't think of much I'd like better than for him to step into the room right now, glasses fogged and smelling of damp wool, shaking the rain from his hair like an old dog and saying: 'Dickie, my boy, what you got for a thirsty old man to drink tonight? donna-tartt the-secret-history horror humor life ocd Donna Tartt
e7996dc Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God? Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few finite years of life? death god hell life religion Rob Bell
6a8a9eb When one grows older one learns that happiness--complete and unadulterated happiness--comes only in moments, and must be recognized and savored to the full, for even in the happiest life, the complete joy is not always present. joy life Victoria Holt
7e66bde See what's inside a drop of water. The whole seed of the universe. Come, come. See what's inside a drop of blood. The composition of life. It's all there. Hate as well. We approach the mystery of life, but it's impossible to understand the mystery of hate. The kind of hate that causes people not only to kill, but to want to erase you from the census of births. I have to concentrate on that mystery. Read everything there is. It has to be in a drop of blood. It has to have its chemistry. life war Manuel Rivas
acf503e "The ties that bind us to life are tougher than you imagine, or anyone can who has not felt how roughly they may be pulled without breaking. You might be miserable without a home, but even you could live; and not so miserably as you suppose. The human heart is like india-rubber; a little swells it, but a great deal will not burst it. If "little more than nothing will disturb it, little less than all things will suffice" to break it. As in the outer members of our frame, there is a vital power inherent in itself that strengthens it against external violence. Every blow that shakes it will serve to harden it against a future stroke; as constant labor thickens the skin of the hand, and strengthens its muscles instead of wasting them away: so that a day of arduous toil, that might excoriate a lady's palm, would make no sensible impression on that of a hardy ploughman." life Anne Brontë
ca1bd59 "Oh, Youth may listen patiently, While sad Experience tells her tale, But Doubt sits smiling in his eye, For ardent Hope will still prevail! He hears how feeble Pleasure dies, By guilt destroyed, and pain and woe; He turns to Hope--and she replies, "Believe it not-it is not so!" hope life poetry Anne Brontë
08cf036 I don't want to have these burdens. But I can't bear to turn them over to anyone else, either. Because, despite all the work, I like being in control of my own life. control life Robin Hobb
9d74e3a One day, I will look up and all the people I know will be dead or abroad. life memories Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
28c76d4 "Nothing expresses Kafka's innermost sense of self more profoundly than his lapidary definition of "writing as a form of prayer": he was a writer. Not a man who wrote, but one to whom writing was the only form of being, the only means of defying death in life." -- kafka life writers writing Ernst Pawel
01ef7bc All of one's life is a struggle towards that; the narrow path between freedom and belonging. I have sometimes sacrificed freedom in order to belong, but more often I have given up all hope of belonging. freedom life Jeanette Winterson
8677916 Part fact part fiction is what life is. And it is always a cover story. I wrote my way out. life writers Jeanette Winterson
3ec0d1c Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. life perspective truths Jeanette Winterson
5eb9e81 Pursuing happiness, and I did, and I still do, is not at all the saem as being happy - which I think is fleeting, dependent on circumstances, and a bit bovine. If the sun is shining, stand in it - yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass - they have to - because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centred. What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life. life Jeanette Winterson
738e2b8 "She glanced around at the tombstones. "You're surrounded by death here. Way too depressing. You really might want to think about getting another job." "You see death and sadness in these sunken patches of dirt, I see lives lived fully and the good deeds of past generations influencing the future ones." caretaker death good-deeds graveyard inspiration life tombstones David Baldacci
68e78ff But the lost one is with you. Her tenderness strengthens you, Her gaiety uplifts you, Her honor purifies you. More than memory, The lost one is found. life memory Gail Carson Levine
8b99f5c He began to see the truth, that Ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life's sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark. In the Creation of Ea, which is the oldest song, it is said, 'Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky. coming-of-age death evil fear good-and-evil life manhood self-knowledge Ursula K. Le Guin
7a2a722 Y lo que, por el contrario, me sucede a mi en las raras horas de placer, lo que para mi es delicia, suceso, elevacion y extasis, eso no lo conoce, ni lo ama, ni lo busca el mundo mas que si acaso en las novelas; en la vida, lo considera una locura. Y en efecto, si el mundo tiene razon, si esta musica de los cafes, estas diversiones en masa, estos hombres americanos contentos con tan poco tienen razon, entonces soy yo el que no la tiene, entonces es verdad que estoy loco, entonces soy efectivamente el lobo estepario que tantas veces me he llamado, la bestia descarriada en un mundo que le es extrano e incomprensible, que ya no encuentra ni su hogar, ni su ambiente, ni su alimento. existencialismo existentialism hesse life lobo lobo-estepario modern-life vida-moderna Hermann Hesse
9a6b936 Now, he thought, since all these most easily perishing things have slipped from me again, now I'm standing here under the sun again just as I have been standing here a little child, nothing is mine, I have no abilities, there is nothing I could bring about, I have learned nothing. How wondrous is this! Now, that I'm no longer young, that my hair is already half gray, that my strength is fading, now I'm starting again at the beginning and as a child! Again, he had to smile. Yes, his fate had been strange! Things were going downhill with him, and now he was again facing the world void and naked and stupid. But he could not feel sad about this, no, he even felt a great urge to laugh, to laugh about himself, to laugh about this strange, foolish world. life Hermann Hesse
3ca0c81 Art is long and life is short. gay life writers Christopher Bram
640d6f6 Not all men are handsome and strong. There are some who are cowards from birth. There are some who are weak by nature. There are even some who cry easily. But for such a man, a man both weak and cowardly, to bear the burden of his weakness and struggle valiantly to live a beautiful life-- that's what I call great. The reason I'm so fond of Gaston is not because he has a strong will or a good head. Rather it's because, weakling and coward that he is, he keeps on fighting in his own way. inspirational life strength weakness Shūsaku Endō
f4279bf When a boy's first romantic interlude is with Pheobe the Dog-Faced Girl, he feels a need to get out into the world and find a new life. circus dating funny girls humor life life-experience love teenagers Annette Curtis Klause
d2f8c65 I know at least what I am,' he simply went on; 'the other side of the medal's clear enough. I've not been edifying--I believe I'm thought in a hundred quarters to have been barely decent. I've followed strange paths and worshipped strange gods; it must have come to you again and again--in fact you've admitted to me as much--that I was leading, at any time these thirty years, a selfish frivolous scandalous life. And you see what it has made of me. life Henry James
dc8e6ee Pardon me, but my father says that it is a lie that Americans have everything. You have no sheep, no goats, no trees, no oil, no vines, no wine, not even chickens. He asks, 'What kind of life is that?' He says, 'No wonder you don't sing or dance or recite poetry very often. culture life meaningfulness Robert Fulghum
77b66db And that fear I'd felt, the disembodying confusion, seemed to be a drug I was now addicted to, because moving through the ordinary world- watching CNN, reading the Times, walking to Sant Ambroeus to have a coffee at the bar- made me feel exhausted, even depressed. Perhaps I was suffering from the same problem as the man who'd sailed around the world and now on land, facing his farmhouse, his wife and kids, understood that the constancy of home stretching out before him like a dry flat field was infinitely more terrifying than any violent squall with thirty-foot swells. fear life settling Marisha Pessl
c439d48 "Perhaps this is what Henry James meant when he talked about the "irresponsibility" of characters. Characters are irresponsible, art is irresponsible when compared to life, because it is first and foremost important that a character be real, and as readers or watchers we tend to applaud any effort made towards the construction of that reality. We do not, of course, indulge actual people in the world this way at all. In real life, the fact that something seems real to someone is not enough to interest us, or to convince us that that reality is interesting. But the self-reality of fictional characters is deeply engrossing, which is why villains are lovable in literature in ways that they are not in life." fiction-writing life morality James Wood
99503b3 Things didn't turn out the way they were suppsed to, but qhat can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it. life Yann Martel
cfbea94 Of all the women he knew, she had meant the most; and was the one person in his life he felt he had missed, in some ways. felt he-knew his-life life love love-of-his-life meant-the-most missed one-person only-love women Larry McMurtry
488deab Indoors herself, partaking of tea with old Mrs Butterworth, she reflected that it is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life. A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience, an irruption of the audience onto the stage, and all our carefully planned gestures mean nothing, or mean too much. em-forster forster life E.M. Forster
d3d1af4 Did they want what I wanted? Did they want to understand, to unlock it? To decode it? To glean, to touch, to learn, to get something, to proceed, to get somewhere, to graduate, to work, to thrive; to someday, sometime, finally earn the luxury, the permission to ... stop, to stop all of this, to relax, and forget? life work Chip Kidd
6f2c7fb He'll have to do without me, Jamie thought, not looking back. And then clearly, as if he'd been told, he knew Grenville /could/ do without him. There was somewhere else he had to go now, somewhere else he had to be. dark death emotional life light mental-hospital sailor vampire S.E. Hinton
e5db13b If we rub a fabric too often, it will quickly grow threadbare; and Nobu's words had rasped against me so much, I could no longer maintain that finely lacquered surface Mameha had always counseled me to hide behind. hurt life words Arthur Golden
356d30f He sat down and collected his thoughts. They were quite easy to collect, because there weren't very many of them, and they all concerned the same subject--what a burden his life was. life thinking thoughts troubles Philip Pullman
7a0c003 "... he was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. "Damn it," he sighed. "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" life suffering Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
69be5de Ya me sobrara tiempo para descansar cuando me muera, pero esta eventualidad no esta todavia en mis proyectos. death-and-dying life Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
669f082 Dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors, cats dogs life loyalty traitor Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
270c760 I was beginning to understand something I couldn't articulate. It was a jazzy feeling in my chest, a fluttering, a kind of buzzing in my brain. Warmth. Life. The circulation of blood. Sanguinity. I don't know. I understood the enormous risk of telling the truth, how the telling could result in every level of hell reigning down on you, your skin scorched to the bone and then bone to ash and then nothing but a lingering odour of shame and decomposition, but now I was also beginning to understand the new and alien feeling of taking the risk and having the person on the other end of the telling, the listener, say: Bad shit at home? You guys are running away? Yeah, I said. I understand, said, Noehmi. feeling irma-voth life literature miriam-toews novel Miriam Toews
07830f5 If we had directions, it wouldn't be life. It would be an assignment. Grunt work. life life-and-living James Patterson
9ddb79d Not always getting what you want, but sometimes getting what you need. christmas first-kiss holiday life love my-true-love-gave-to-me winter Stephanie Perkins
1ee3893 Things are not always how they seem. christmas first-kiss holiday life love my-true-love-gave-to-me winter Stephanie Perkins
38c9be7 If you like someone, you should have to make an effort. christmas first-kiss holiday life love my-true-love-gave-to-me winter Stephanie Perkins
8f1ca73 The faith in an afterlife, however much our reason ridicules it, very modestly extends our faith that each moment of our consciousness will be followed by another - that a coherent matrix has been prepared for this precious self of ours. The guarantee that our self enjoys an intended relation to the outer world is most, if not all, of what we ask from religion. God is the self projected onto reality by our natural and necessary optimism. He is the not-me personified. faith god life self-consciousness John Updike
9932dd4 What's supposed to be and what is, are two very different things. dreams inspirational life philosophy supposed Rebecca McNutt
b8e2ac6 "An acre of poppies and a forest of spruce boggle no one's mind. Even ten square miles of wheat gladdens the hearts of most . . . No, in the plant world, and especially among the flowering plants, fecundity is not an assault on human values. Plants are not our competitors; they are our prey and our nesting materials. We are no more distressed at their proliferation than an owl is at a population explosion among field mice . . . but in the animal world things are different, and human feelings are different . . . Fecundity is anathema only in the animal. "Acres and acres of rats" has a suitably chilling ring to it that is decidedly lacking if I say, instead, "acres and acres of tulips"." gross human life nature page-164 perspective plants Annie Dillard
7d70fe1 Do you think I lie to you? No. But you think I might lie to you about dying. Yes. Okay. I might. But we're not dying. Okay. lies life Cormac McCarthy
fb668e9 All sorts of strange people were around, people who looked more at home than she was, even the homeless ones who spoke no English, more at home maybe because they were younger, and when she went out it seemed to her that she too had migrated, that everyone migrates, even if we stay in the same houses our whole lives, because we can't help it. We are all migrants through time. home house life migrants migration people time Mohsin Hamid
f9aa364 For we die every day; oblivion thrives Not on dry thighbones but on blood-ripe lives, And our best yesterdays are now foul piles Of crumpled names, phone numbers and foxed files. life time Vladimir Nabokov
abfe21b People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life. life life-lessons Sue Monk Kidd
0aa81e7 It's amazing what the gene pool will do to perpetuate itself. life perpetuation procreation Mohsin Hamid
91ff8bc It is a mere cowardice to seek safety in negations. No character becomes strong in that way. You will be thrown into the world some day and then every rational satisfaction your nature that you deny now will assault like a savage appetite. decisions emotions fear inconfidence life rationalism safety weakness George Eliot
fc86fd4 God doesn't mock us. He never gives us a goal that we cannot accomplish in His strength. I want to assure you, you can glorify God, you MUST glorify God. But you have to determine deep within your heart that you're going to do it His way. god life strength Charles R. Swindoll
fc5c3f4 Perhaps everyone had their own way of preparing to die. Life got you ready. life Lorrie Moore
9dc0d97 Living did not mean one joy piled upon another. It was merely the hope for less pain... life Lorrie Moore
667c577 But it would be like going to Heaven and not finding any of your friends there. Her life would go all beatific and empty in the eyes. home life living where-you-live Lorrie Moore
fd0b93e Fear doesn't stop a warrior. It pushes you further. life Chloe Neill
caefadc Every breath we draw wards off the death that constantly impinges on us.... Ultimately death must triumph, for by birth it has already become our lot and it plays with its prey only for a short while before swallowing it up. However, we continue our life with great interest and much solicitude as long as possible, just as we blow out a soap-bubble as long and as large as possible, although with the perfect certainty that it will burst. life Irvin D. Yalom
8217104 The Word frees us from smallness of mind (1 Kings 4:29) and from threatening confinements (Psalm 18:19). life living open-mindedness word John Piper
da63284 A relationship is like a garden. To create a condition that will cause your plants to thrive and produce abundantly, you must weed, water, fertilize, and care for the plants in your garden. You must also know about the special needs of the plants you're caring for. Some need more or less light than others, some need more or less water than others, and some need special fertilizers. inspiration life love relationships the-laws-of-love Chris Prentiss
1a2f2fe "Your actions create an "energy vortex" that draws in the necessary ingredients for your venture." happiness inspirational-quotes life philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
2a61589 It takes practice, feeling happy about the ever enfolding events of life, and, because of all the conditioning we have undergone before this, it may be very difficult to make the change, but if we take the saying to heart and practice it, as the days unfold we will find ourselves living ever happier lives, smiling more, and finally, laughing more. happiness happy health i-ching life smile wisdom wu-wei Wu Wei
2f261df You can be happy if you are willing to let go of your past and leave yourself unencumbered so you can fly freely. happiness life philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
b17dd81 You have chosen to exist, and more than just exist-- you've been chosen to share in the Universal consciousness. chris-prentiss inspiration life passages-malibu passages-ventura universe Chris Prentiss
513a4a4 I mean, what is this life of ours supposed to be for? Are we to spend it identifying each other with catalogues, like tourists in an art gallery? Or are we to try to exchange some kind of a signal, however garbled, before it's too late? chrisopher-isherwood life Christopher Isherwood
627c7b3 Every day in my consultancy, I meet men and women who are out of their minds. That is, they have not the slightest idea who they really are or what it is that matters to them. The question 'How shall I live?' is not one I can answer on prescription. life literature Jeanette Winterson
3b692b9 What a lucky girl you are to have this opportunity to live in one of the world's great cities at this most fascinating point in its long, rich history, they had said. Little Becky had known enough not to ask if there was going to be a Banana Republic or a Gap there, or a Tower Records or a Starbucks or a Tweeters or a Blockbuster or a Super CVS or a Saks. Her mother only mentioned museums and concert halls and churches and architecture, so Little Becky was quite sure there was no room left in Prague for anything good to be built. life Nancy Clark
db16a6c I'm not like other people, my life just doesn't work, it never has. difference iris-murdoch lament life outsider the-black-prince unlucky Iris Murdoch
2bc15ca Growth and change were viewed as reactions to conditions met growth life Gregory Maguire
65d4f15 "An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. He has to tell, because nobody else in the world artists emotion growth life revelation spirituality writers writing James Baldwin
e7f0b04 Where do you live?' is ultimately a sacred question. focus life Diana Butler Bass
82b8ced 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. instinct life life-force meaning-of-life nature purpose reasoning suicide survival survive thought Richard Matheson
f927859 I'm not against anyone fastening their life to an event of some significance and that way making themselves significant. God knows, we need what footholds we can find on the glass mountain of our existence. Trouble is, you climb and climb, and around middle age, you discover you have spent all the time in the same spot. You thought you were going to be somebody until you slip down into the nobody that you are. I'm telling you because I know. existence insignificance life middle-age significance Jeanette Winterson
23ce622 Kazu pronadi svrhu u zivotu i ostvari je. Ali katkad, tek nakon sto ga prozivis, uvidis da je zivot imao svrhu, lako moguce onu o kojoj nisi nikad ni razmisljao. life purpose život životna-svrha Khaled Hosseini
3031989 Every moment God gives you is precious. Never take the life and moments He has given you for granted life prayer precious-moments quotes Stormie Omartian
0254fe2 "Fill me in on the details of your life." "I thought you didn't give a shit." "It'll give me something to do while I wait for you to stab me to death." christina-dodd humor life suspense thriller virtue-falls Christina Dodd
a846c92 I can't go back to being who I used to be!' Hadley looked down at him sympathetically. 'None of us can, kid.' he said. 'That's the point. You get what you get. Life changes you. Time travel or no, you always have to build on what you live through. life life-changing Margaret Peterson Haddix
ea13bd0 The priest's work, the priest's service, was understood as an act of worship. This was God's desire at Sinai - that everybody would understand their roles as priests. Thst everybody would worship God by serving each other. humanity inspirational jesus life serving-god serving-others Rob Bell
a2111b5 bqytu l'r~. l'r~ kyf yktsH lmwt ldhbba tdryjyWan , w kdh l'`rf mn 'yn ynb`th hdh lmwt. mn lkhrj , mn kthf@ ljdr , 'm mn l'rD. mn 'y lylin y'ty , mn lbsyT@ 'm mn lsm , mn lGbt lqryb@ , 'm mn `dmin l sma lh , qryb jdWan rbm , l`lWh atin mnWy 'n lty tHwl 'n t`thr `l~ lmmrWt lty stslkh ldhbb@ lt`br l~ l'zl eternity life الأبد الأبدية الأزل الحياة الموت Marguerite Duras
8a2c8de And she wondered now how she could go on existing through the successive moments of her life. iris-murdoch life unbearable Iris Murdoch
e6e5fb2 It could be that God has absconded but spread, as our vision and understanding of the universe have spread, to a fabric of spirit and sense so grand and subtle, so powerful in a new way, that we can only feel blindly of its hem. believe god life understanding universe Annie Dillard
b127edb He put his life on hold as he waited for his life to begin. life living Keith Donohue
fb9aca6 Lord, today I ask for a renewed sense of purpose in my smaller daily choices, knowing that how I spend each moment is how I live my life. Every choice matters. daily life prayer purpose Stormie Omartian
6bea6d2 So we gave the afternoon some sanity after all and I wonder, Uncle Andrew, is life sane, as we tried to make it? Or is it insanity, as it was yesterday on the Gerard plantation? And why don't more people try to make it sane? Or if it is full of sanity for them, why do they try to rip that sanity to pieces and impose their form of insanity? Can you help me understand? life sanity Ann Rinaldi
7a63a1b I am already living, but something is telling me with unchallengeable authority: you are not living properly. The numinous authority of form enjoys the prerogative of being able to tell me 'You must'. It is the authority of a different life in this life. This authority touches on a subtle insufficiency within me that is older and freer than sin; it is my innermost not-yet. In my most conscious moment, I am affected by the absolute objection to my status quo: my change is the one thing that is necessary. If you do indeed subsequently change your life, what you are doing is no different from what you desire with your whole will as soon as you feel how a vertical tension that is valid for you unhinges your life. life not-yet status-quo will Peter Sloterdijk
63d07f7 By the time it was over, we knew the dead were the lucky ones. christina-dodd death life suspense thriller virtue-falls Christina Dodd
b6441cb May your Valentine's Day be filled with adoration, pampering, and a pair of gorgeous, tiny-heeled Jimmy Choo sandals that are completely useless in this weather. Just remember: You are totally worth it. life valentines-day worth Cecily Von Ziegesar
505ac4f She thought about this. She had analyzed it in depth. When you live alone, travel alone, exist solely on the outskirts of other people's lives, you do have time to wonder why what you want most in life is out of reach. You also have the time to tell yourself that you don't want it at all, though whether you can ever be completely convinced is something else. life lost self-awareness self-realization struggle Barbara Delinsky
7aa17fc But that I should have ended up in a place like this seems too custom-made a nightmare to be the work of mere ill fortune. ill-fortune life Zoë Heller
7c349f6 "You are familiar, no doubt, with Sebastiano del Piombo's huge painting "The Raising of Lazarus", which hangs in the National Gallery in London, having been purchased in the last century from the Angerstein collection. Against a background of water, arched bridges, and a hot blue sky, a crowd of people -- presumably the neighbours -- cluster about the risen man. Lazarus has turned rather yellow in death, but he is a muscular, well-set-up type. Hid grave-clothes are draped like a towel over his head, and people lean towards him solicitously, and seem to confer; what he most resembles is a boxer in his corner. The expressions of those around are puzzled, mildly censorious. Here -- in the very act of extricating his right leg from a knot of the shroud --one feels his troubles are about to begin again. A woman -- Mary, or maybe Martha -- is whispering behind her hand. Christ points to the revenant, and holds up his other hand, fingers outstretched: so many round down, five to go." life life-after-death Hilary Mantel
943d776 It is not so important, what happens to the body. I have led in some ways a blessed life. God has been good and not tested me. Now he does I cannot fail him. I have been vigilant over my heart, and I have not always liked what I have found there. If it comes into the hands of the hangman at the last, so be it. It will be in God's hands soon enough. life Hilary Mantel
9ffe5c8 But why, everybody asks, am I not blessed by fortune (or at least not as blessed as I would like to be)? Why have I not been favored like others who are less deserving? No one believes their misfortunes are attributable to any shortcomings of their own; that is why they must find a culprit. fortune life misery Umberto Eco
64b33ca Why was he in this state? Or perhaps the question was why had he not always been in this state? Why had he not always found life so disturbing and so poignant? feelings life poignancy Edward St. Aubyn
74b9070 What is there, in the mention of Time To Come, that is so quick to wrench at the heart, to inflict a pain in the senses that is like the run of a sword, I wonder. Perhaps we feel our youngness taken from us without the soothe of sliding years, and the pains of age that come to stand unseen beside us and grow more solid as the minutes pass, are with us solid on the instant, and we sense them, but when we try to assess them, they are back again in their places down in Time To Come, ready to meet us coming. Or does the mention of it, I wonder, drive a wedge under that tight-shut door, just enough to let in a thin smell of the steamings we shall live through before those who know us can go about with long faces to say we are dead. Sad, sad is the thought that we are in for a hiding in every round, and no chance to hit back, no hope of a win, fighting blind against a champion of champions, who plays with you on the end of a poking left, and in the last round puts you down with a right cross to kill. There is something of sickness in the thought that you shall make up your mind to enjoy your hiding, and the consolation is only that you will never know the tasting of defeat. For while they are taking your clay from the ring, you are up and starting your fight somewhere else. life Richard Llewellyn
e195cdf Ask Jesus to live in you & fill you with His Holy Spirit, & thank Him that you're now God's child holy-spirit life prayer thankful woman Stormie Omartian
48e9ec1 But it is only since I have ceased to live that I think of these things and the other things. It is in the tranquillity of decomposition that I remember the long confused emotion which was my life, and that I judge it, as it is said that God will judge me, and with no less impertinence. To decompose is to live too, I know, I know, don't torment me, but one sometimes forgets. life Samuel Beckett
233a9e8 Old age had distilled her down to her essence. elderly essence humanity life life-lessons old-age old-people wisdom womanhood J. Courtney Sullivan
164316f It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true- big things are often just small things that are noticed. life Ned Vizzini
51fe3e5 Nothing had just happened to her, she had made a choice, and then she had made another and another after that. Taken together, the small choices anyone made added up to a life. big-picture choice choices choices-and-consequences decisions life life-lessons maturation wisdom J. Courtney Sullivan
5cc3ad9 Welcome to the future, she thought, surveying all this wordage and tat. All our tragedies and triumphs, our lives and deaths, our shames and joys are just stuffing for your emptiness. future life tragedies triumphs Iain M. Banks
3cf9a17 "All we can do about this nightmare we live in is to create, if we are very lucky, a few islands of love and trust to sustain us and help us forget. But love dies while the lovers go on living, and Woolrich excels at making us watch while relationships corrode. He knew the horrors that both love and lovelessness can breed, yet he created very few irredeemably evil characters; for with whoever loves or needs love, Woolrich identifies, all of that person's dark side notwithstanding. ("Introduction")" crime-fiction life noir noir-fiction Francis M. Nevins
114f533 I needed to make choices for me, whoever I was. I'd say I needed to find myself, if that didn't sound like I was heading into the Himalayas, taking only a backpack stuffed with angst and clean underwear life sarcastic Kelley Armstrong
f355345 Sometimes I think that just as trains and carriages are means of locomotion to get us from one place to another on this earth, so typhoid and consumption are means of locomotion to get us from one world to another. life locomotion van-gogh Irving Stone
e754977 As he went about to the other workrooms he realised that every painting was a self-portrait even when it was a still life or a scene over the roofs of Paris; for no man ever pictured anything but himself, his core, the things that he was basically. With every brush stroke the artist was mercilessly exposed: he could not conceal nothing, he could pretend to be another person, to believe in other values, but in the end he would fool no one. life Irving Stone
80d5ac8 But we artists have to be selfish you know, after all, with each painting, we die a little. artists death life selfish Irving Stone
356c430 New life, new hope, new joy will start when this is given from the heart. hope joy life Melody Carlson
b168da8 When you get everything you wanted, I think maybe you do have to be a little grateful for the people who got you there.. whether or not they thought they were doing you any favors at the time. big-girls-don-t-cry life novel writer Jennifer Weiner
859d16e "Minigolf," she said with stone seriousness, "is a metaphor for life." lessons life metaphor Emily Giffin All We Ever Wanted
c97585c L'amore per un figlio non puo essere libero: sin dai primi segni di movimento nell'utero germoglia in noi una devozione tanto potente quanto viscerale, irresistibile come l'atto stesso della nascita. Ma, per quanto potente esso sia, si tratta pur sempre di un amore fatto di controllo; si diventa guardiani, protettori, custodi: c'e tantissima passione in questo, certo, ma mai abbandono. Avevo sempre, sempre dovuto bilanciare la compassione con la saggezza, l'amore con il giudizio, l'umanita con l'inflessibilita. Solo a Jamie avevo dato tutto cio che possedevo, rischiando tutto. Avevo gettato al vento cautela, giudizio e saggezza, insieme ai piaceri e alle limitazioni di una carriera duramente conquistata. Gli avevo portato in dono nient'altro che me stessa, non ero stata altro che me stessa con lui, donandomi anima e corpo, e avevo lasciato che mi vedesse nuda, confidando che mi avrebbe amata tutta intera, comprese le mie fragilita, perche un tempo era stato cosi. jamie-fraser life love Diana Gabaldon
ef3691f "...ask yourself, "Who's getting the glory in this ministry?" You see, if we do ministry OUR way, it won't be for His glory, because our ways are not His ways." glorifying-god god life wake-up Charles R. Swindoll
2ff55b9 "Marian's eyes absolutely blaze. To meet them is to have a shock of contact as if they were electrically charged. "Now you see? You wondered what was in whale's milk. Don't you know now? The same thing that's in a mushroom spore so small you need a microscope to see it, or in gophers, or poison oak, or anything else we try to pave under or grub out, or poison. There isn't good life and bad life, there's only life. Think of the force down there, just telling things to get born!" biology birth humanity life nature Wallace Stegner
abe1b96 Don Ricardo wanted a successor worthy of himself. Jorge would always be cocooned in the privileges of his class, hiding from his mediocrity in creature comforts. Penelope, the beautiful Penelope, was a woman, and therefore a treasure, not a treasurer. Julian, who had the soul of a poet, and therefore the soul of a murderer, fulfilled all the requirements. It was only a question of time. life poetic Carlos Ruiz Zafón
d6d4a75 Creativity is the result of renunciation on the journey of spiritual enlightenment, not of a thirst for glory or personal pride. creativity enlightenment glory life pride renunciation spirituality Ray Mancini
7897d5d "In quel preciso momento, Karla e entrata nella stanza. Ha spento la televisione, ha guardato Todd fisso negli occhi e ha detto: "Todd, tu esisti non soltanto come membro di una famiglia o di una compagnia o di una nazione, ma come membro di una ... sei un essere umano. Sei parte dell' . Attualmente la nostra specie ha problemi profondi e stiamo cercando di sognare un modo per uscirne e stiamo usando i computer per cavarcela. La costruzione di hardware e software e il campo in cui la specie ha deciso di investire energie per la sua sopravvivenza e questa costruzione richiede zone di pace, bambini nati dalla pace, e l'assenza di distrazioni che interferiscano col codice. Non possiamo acquisire conoscenza attraverso l'informatica, ma a usarla per tenerci fuori dalla merda. Quello che tu percepisci come un vuoto e un paradiso terrestre: alla lettera, linea per linea, la liberta di impedire all'umanita di diventare non lineare". Si e seduta sul divano e c'era il rumore della pioggia che tamburellava sul soffitto e mi sono reso conto del fatto che non c'era abbastanza luce nella stanza e che noi eravamo tutti in silenzio. Karla ha detto: "Abbiamo avuto una vita discreta. Nessuno di noi, a quanto mi risulta, e mai stato maltrattato. Non abbiamo mai desiderato niente, ne abbiamo mai voluto possedere qualcosa. I nostri genitori sono tutti ancora insieme, a parte quelli di Susan. Ci hanno trattato bene, ma la moralita, qui. Todd consiste nel sapere se le loro mani sono state sprecate in vite non creative, o se queste mani sono utilizzate per portare avanti il sogno dell'umanita". Continuava a piovere. "Non e una coincidenza che come specie abbiamo inventato la classe media. Senza la classe media, non avremmo potuto avere quel particolare tipo di configurazione mentale che contribuisce in misura consistente a sputar fuori i sistemi informatici e la nostra specie non avrebbe mai potuto farcela ad arrivare allo stadio evolutivo successivo, qualunque esso sia. Ci sono buone probabilita che la classe media non rientri neanche nella prossima fase evolutiva. Ma non e ne qui ne la. Che piaccia o no, Todd, tu, io, Dan, Abe, Bug, e Susan... tutti noi siamo fabbricanti del prossimo ciclo Rem del sogno umano. Tutti gli altri ne saranno attratti. Non metterli in discussione, Todd, e non crogiolartici dentro, ma non permettere mai a te stesso di "." life Douglas Coupland
e2270bb Fracture lines etch the surface of the glass box as if a body fell from the sky and landed on it. He doesn't hear the impact, can't smell the blood. life metaphor poetic poetic-prose reassurance recovery wintergirls Laurie Halse Anderson
2a9367e What happiness there had been in those days! What freedom! What hope! What an abundance of illusions! She had none left now. Each new venture had cost her some of them, each of her successive conditions: as virgin, wife and mistress; she had lost them all along the course of her life, like a traveler who leaves some of his wealth at every inn along the road. illusions life romaticism Gustave Flaubert
1be7914 Lord I submit my body to You. Help me to be disciplined in the way I care for it. Help me to choose health-filled and life-giving foods and be able to resist eating what I should not have. Enable me to make the right choices with regard to what I eat. commitement god healthy life powerful-prayer Stormie Omartian
56857cf I would recommend a solo flight to all prospective suicides. It tends to make clear the issue of whether one enjoys being alive or not. flying life suicide T.H. White
851c9f3 ...Mrs. Warren allowed her book to fall closed upon her lap, and her attractive face awakened to an expression of agreeable expectation, in itself denoting the existence of interesting and desirable qualities in the husband at the moment inserting his latch-key in the front door preparatory to mounting the stairs and joining her. The man who, after twenty-five years of marriage, can call, by his return to her side, this expression to the countenance of an intelligent woman is, without question or argument, an individual whose life and occupations are as interesting as his character and points of view. commitment enjoyment faithfulness interesting life love marriage partners Frances Hodgson Burnett
f9646d5 Night eyes had risen and stretched stiffly. Now he came to lie down beside me. He set his head on my knee. 'I don't understand. You are ill?' 'No. Just stupid.' 'Ah. Nothing new there. Well, you haven't died from that so far. life relationships Robin Hobb
7f6804e Shiro died. There was nothing pretty about it. There was no dignity to it. He'd been brutalized and savagely murdered - and he'd allowed it to happen to him in my place. But when he died, there was a small, contended smile on his face. Maybe the smile of someone who had run his course without wavering from it. Someone who had served something greater than himself. Who had given up his life willingly, if not gladly. faith life Jim Butcher
5bf9af4 Finally I reached into my pocket and flipped a quarter. Heads was Phlox, tails was Arthur. It came up heads. I called Arthur. life love Michael Chabon
7d40504 Who'll hold families together, if everybody has to live? Living is a compromise, between doing what you want and doing what other people want. life living John Updike
997ab6e We spent today sending men to hell. What's more natural than to pass the night dreaming of procreating a few more to take their place? life sex war A.J. Hartley and David Hewson
0ef26c6 Life is a balance. We tend to forget that as we go blithely from day to day. We eat and drink and sleep and assume we will always rise up the next day, that meals and rest will always replenish us. Injuries we expect to heal, and pain to lessen as time goes by. Even when we are faced with wounds that heal more slowly, with pain that lessens by day only to return in full force at nightfall, even when sleep does not leave us rested, we still expect that somehow tomorrow will all come back into balance and that we will go on. At some point, the exquisite balance has tipped, and despite all our flailing efforts, we begin the slow fall from the body that maintains itself to the body that struggles, nails clawing, to cling to what it used to be. balance belief believe body death decline effort fight health life pain reality strive struggle time tomorrow truth Robin Hobb
0d35c60 john was smart, but he was also a young male with a usually empty belly. sometimes it was simple as that human-society humanity life the-finisher David Baldacci
e3c4a23 The dead live in our memories. ghosts life live memories reality Pete Hautman
0d896f6 Solve problems, make art, think deeply. introversion life life-philosophy make-art solve-problems think-deeply thinking Susan Cain
5b4fe09 Life is all about chances. It's all about these little moments that add up to greatness. And there are times when you have to grab greatness by the balls and say, 'Hey! Greatness! I've got your nuts and you can't do a single godsdamn thing about it! life taking-chances T.J. Klune
9a6b996 You bring joy and pain in equal measure- come aboard if your destination is oblivion. It should be our next stop. We can sit together. You can have the window seat, if you want. But it's a sad view. life Yann Martel
4a4a799 Is there a notion of hope (and of our responsibility to the future) that could be shared by believers and nonbelievers? What can it be based on now? Does an idea of the end, one that does not imply disinterest in the future but rather a constant examination of the errors of the past, have a critical function? If not, it would be perfectly all right to accept the approach of the end, even without thinking about it, sitting in front of our TV screens (in the shelter of our electronic fortifications), waiting for someone to while meantime things go however they go. And to hell with what will come. end-of-the-world end-of-time entertainment future history hope life past religion responsibility Umberto Eco
a42f98c A vse, chto eshche predstoit perezhit', uvidet' glazami, trogat' rukami, poka nakonets ne nastupit smert', razve ETO budet iz drugogo materiala, razve ETO budet chto-to drugoe? Net, vsia eta prekrasnaia i zhestokaia, voskhititel'naia i beznadezhnaia igra zhizni, s ee zhguchimi naslazhdeniiami i ee zhguchei bol'iu, - tol'ko igra i obman, tol'ko vidimost', tol'ko maiia. life Hermann Hesse
5ab8465 Quien no lleva dentro un lobo no tiene por eso que ser feliz tampoco. hermann hesse life lobo lone loner soledad vida wolf Hermann Hesse
fb8daad "Time says "Let there be" every moment and instantly there is space and the radiance of each bright galaxy. And eyes beholding radiance. And the gnats' flickering dance. death life love time Ursula K. Le Guin
99dd266 One keeps oneself neat out of mere decency mere sanity, awareness of other people. And finally even that goes, and one dribbles unashamed. life serenity Ursula K. Le Guin
fcc4d9d Life rises out of death, death rises out of life, in being opposite they yearn to each other, they give birth to each other and are forever reborn. And with them all is reborn, the flower of the apple tree, the light of the stars. death life Ursula K. Le Guin
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