1
2
3
5
8
12
20
33
52
83
133
213
340
543
867
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1384
2208
3346
3522
5443
5619
6757
7581
8098
8422
8625
8752
8832
8882
8913
8932
8945
8953
8957
8960
8962
8963
8964
8965
▲
▼
| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 1674c33 | Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most difficult deception. The tricks that work on others count for nothing in that very well-lit back alley where one keeps assignation with oneself: no winning smiles will do here, no prettily drawn lists of good intentions. One shuffles flashily but in vain through one's marked cards- the kindness done for the wrong reason, the apparent triumph which involved no real effor.. | Joan Didion | ||
| 06428c3 | It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. The city burning is Los Angeles's deepest image of itself; Nathanael West perceived that, in The Day of the Locust; and at the time of the 1965 Watts riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it.. | Joan Didion | ||
| 7b4def8 | There." She tossed her hair back while he stared at her. "The sky did not fall, the world did not end, neither of us was struck by lightning or beamed straight to hell. I'm not your damn sister, Delaney. That ought to make it clear." | Nora Roberts | ||
| 8309a9f | Just think it, and chances are it will happen. | Paul Auster | ||
| 2aefbeb | Jonathan Safran Foer's 10 Rules for Writing: 1.Tragedies make great literature; unfathomable catastrophes (the Holocaust, 9/11) are even better - try to construct your books around them for added gravitas but, since those big issues are such bummers, make sure you do it in a way that still focuses on a quirky central character that's somewhat like Jonathan Safran Foer. 2. You can also name your character Jonathan Safran Foer. 3. If you're w.. | Jonathan Safran Foer | ||
| 2a600cd | It's June second, he told himself. Try to remember that. This is New York, and tomorrow will be June third. If all goes well, the following day will be the fourth. But nothing is certain. | Paul Auster | ||
| e91cdba | Wounds are an essential part of life, and until you are wounded in some way, you cannot become a man. | Paul Auster | ||
| 90390e5 | Just because you wander in the desert, it does not mean there is a promised land. | Paul Auster | ||
| 632f89b | You'll get back to where you came from. | William Golding | ||
| e6d75ed | Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom.This is Zen. This is my motorcycle maintenance. | Robert M. Pirsig | ||
| 814724e | Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. | motorcycle zen | Robert M. Pirsig | |
| a6cfee2 | A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race - and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin. | Ayn Rand | ||
| c8cc4a4 | She was incapable of love for any object not of her own choice and she resented anyone's demand for it. | Ayn Rand | ||
| 3d2eb30 | No! I don't want to speak of that! But I'm going to. I want you to hear. I want you to know what's in store for you. There will be days when you'll look at your hands and you'll want to take something and smash every bone in them, because they'll be taunting you with what they could do, if you found a chance for them to do it, and you can't find that chance, and you can't bear your living body because it has failed those hands somewhere. Th.. | objectivism perception purpose | Ayn Rand | |
| fb75056 | And questions give us no rest. We know not why our curse makes us seek we know not what, ever and ever. But we cannot resist it. It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that we can know them if we try, and that we must know them. We ask, why must we know, but it has no answer to give us. We must know that we may know. | Ayn Rand | ||
| 456bb1c | The Death of Allegory I am wondering what became of all those tall abstractions that used to pose, robed and statuesque, in paintings and parade about on the pages of the Renaissance displaying their capital letters like license plates. Truth cantering on a powerful horse, Chastity, eyes downcast, fluttering with veils. Each one was marble come to life, a thought in a coat, Courtesy bowing with one hand always extended, Villainy sh.. | Billy Collins | ||
| 4f4c479 | Houses need humans," Red said. "You all should know that. Oh, sure, humans cause wear and tear--scuffed floors and stopped-up toilets and such--but that's nothing compared to what happens when a house is left on its own. It's like the heart goes out of it. It sags, it slumps, it starts to lean toward the ground." | Anne Tyler | ||
| 897a915 | For every man in the world functions to the best of his ability, and no one does less than his best, no matter what he may think about it. | John Steinbeck | ||
| 96b21df | There's an awful lot of inactive kindness which is nothing but laziness, not wanting any trouble, confusion, or effort. | John Steinbeck | ||
| aca6102 | Lord, how the day passes! It's like a life - so quickly when we don't watch it and so slowly when we do. | John Steinbeck | ||
| 9a1ae1f | In March the soft rains continued, and each storm waited courteously until its predecessor sunk beneath the ground. | rain storm | John Steinbeck | |
| 4cee863 | Before I knowed it, I was saying out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say. | John Steinbeck | ||
| cc09345 | There are certain bad habits we've groomed our whole life -- from personality flaws to fashion faux pas. And it has been the role of parents and friends, outside of some minor tweaking, to reinforce the belief that we're okay just as we are. But it's not enough to just be yourself. You have to be your best self. And that's a tall order if you haven't found your best self yet. | Neil Strauss | ||
| 513f358 | Lying is about controlling someone else's reality, hoping that what they don't know won't hurt you. | Neil Strauss | ||
| 961a470 | All at once I felt so vain, like a girl posturing for the crowds as she walks along, only to discover the street is empty. | Arthur Golden | ||
| cf468a4 | His face was very heavily creased, and into each crease he had tucked some worry or other, so that it wasn't really his face any longer, but more like a tree that had nests of birds in all of the branches. He had to struggle constantly to manage it and always looked worn out from the effort. | Arthur Golden | ||
| 53d62d5 | The laws of physics is the canvas God laid down on which to paint his masterpiece | dan-brown physics religion | Dan Brown | |
| bd82beb | The Last Supper is supposed to be thirteen men. Who is this woman? "Everyone misses it, our preconceived notions of this scene are so powerful that our mind blocks out the incongruity and overrides our eyes." | dan-brown the-da-vinci-code | Dan Brown | |
| bddee75 | You can't jump for the stars if your feet hurt. | Dan Brown | ||
| b87cd59 | She saved my life...and I've ruined hers. They sat in silence for a full minute, the air between them growing heavy, as if they both wanted to speak, and yet had nothing to say. They were strangers, after all, on a brief and bizarre journey that had just reached a fork in the road, each of them now needing to find seperate paths. | Dan Brown | ||
| a0588f7 | You are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body. One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear. The other is motivated by and responds to the impulse of faith. Will you be guided by faith or will you allow fear to overtake you? | fear | Napoleon Hill | |
| fbc589e | Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. | Rick Warren | ||
| c0ce2d4 | You were born by his purpose and for his purpose. | Rick Warren | ||
| 6d5acbe | My heart breaks. Also not the first time. I long to go after him. To find him and hold him and kiss him in the loveliest of gardens. | Lisa Schroeder | ||
| bcdb270 | sometimes, love is loud. sometimes, love is quiet. Always, love is my mom. | Lisa Schroeder | ||
| 24f72d7 | You are always looking at people like this." And then she made a face, one he couldn't possibly begin to describe. "If I ever look like that," he said dryly, "precisely like that, to be more precise, I give you leave to shoot me." | romance | Julia Quinn | |
| b4f9acf | Every unmarried man is looking for a wife. They just don't always know it. | Julia Quinn | ||
| 329b87d | I don't like your tone," was Violet's standard answer when one of her children was winning an argument." | tone winning-an-argument | Julia Quinn | |
| cf2d51d | Part of me could do it. Run off and get married. But another part... Another part of me wondered if I could really trust anyone. If all relationships were all doomed. | Sarah Mlynowski | ||
| 13b75f9 | Reading Plato should be easy; understanding Plato can be difficult. | reading understanding | Robin Waterfield | |
| 29a3b4d | I often think of death. True. Suicide is a reasonable option. True. My sins are unpardonable. I stare at the question. My sins are unpardonable. I stare at the question. My sins are unpardonable. I leave it blank. | guilt hopelessness suicide | James Frey | |
| 8f44f49 | I meet a third man he's an old man he trips in the street he falls and I help him up, walk him to the curb. He shakes my hand says keep the faith, young man. I ask him what he means, he says keep running and don't let them catch you. | James Frey | ||
| 9fe49ca | Ma was heavy, but not fat; thick with child-bearing and work. She wore a loose Mother Hubbard of gray cloth in which there had once been colored flowers, but the color was washed out now, so that the small flowered pattern was only a little lighter gray than the background. The dress came down to her ankles, and he strong, broad, bare feet moved quickly and deftly over the floor. Her thin, steel-gray hair was gathered in a sparse wispy knot.. | fear grace mothers | John Steinbeck | |
| a2b8c38 | lny@ lHsn@ ltkfy.... n lwqw` fy lHb shy sHry dy'man....tsh`r k'nh 'bdy wk'nh sydwm l'bd...nn n`tqd bsdhj@ 'nn mstthnwn mn lmshklt lty wjhh aby'n w'mhtn wlywjd ldyn Htm b'n lHb qd ymwt wmTmy'nwn l~ 'nh wjd lybq~ w'nh mqdr ln 'n n`ysh s`d l~ l'bd ...!!! wlkn lsHr ytqhqr wtkwn lGlb@ llHy@ lywmy@..!!! wyZhr ll`yn 'n lrjl ytwq`wn mn lns 'n yfkrn w'n tkwn rdwd 'f`lhn mthl lrjl wlns ytwq`n 'n ysh`r lrjl wytSrfnwn mthl lns wdwn w`y SryH bkhtlftn fn.. | John Gray |