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c2e6809 And sometimes then he sat with us for an hour or so, sharing our limbo, listening while I read. Books from any shelf, opened at any page, in which I would start and finish anywhere, mid-sentence sometimes. Wuthering Heights ran into Emma, which gave way to The Eustace Diamonds, which faded into Hard Times, which ceded to The Woman in White. Fragments. It didn't matter. Art, its completeness, its formedness, its finishedness, had no power to.. Diane Setterfield
a9c34f3 You live that long, things start happening to you. You get too impressed with yourself. Ends up, you think you're God. Suddenly the little people, thirty, maybe forty years old, well, they don't really matter anymore. You've seen whole societies rise and fall, and you start to feel you're standing outside it all, and none of it really matters to you. And maybe you'll start snuffing those little people, just like picking daisies, if they get.. Richard K. Morgan
5ab10e9 And suddenly Vincent clearly realised what his subconsciousness had known for a long time. All the talks about God are just childish elusion, just a lie that calms a scared and lonely ordinary mortal in a dark and neverending night. There is no God. Sure as fate - there is no God. There is only chaos - dismal, painful, cruel, agonizing, blind, endless chaos. Irving Stone
0c9efcf An artist without ideas is a mendicant; barren, he goes begging among the hours. artist creative-process creativity ideas inspiration Irving Stone
057502a A person may paint or talk about painting but he cannot do both at the same time. Irving Stone
4c3f2aa Why is it, I wonder, that people suffer, when there is so little need, when an effort of will and some hard work would bring them from their misery into peace and contentment. life struggle Richard Llewellyn
38c81c1 But believing something to be true has nothing to do with whether it is true. Marcus J. Borg
37f96ca When we read Paul, we are reading somebody else's mail--and unless we know the situation being addressed, his letters can be quite opaque...It is wise to remember that when we are reading letters never intended for us, any problems of understanding are ours and not theirs. Marcus J. Borg
a095d03 It was the American middle class. No one's house cost more than two or three year's salary, and I doubt the spread in annual wages (except for the osteopath) exceeded more than five thousand dollars. And other than the doctor (who made house calls), the store managers, the minister, the salesman, and the banker, everyone belonged to a union. That meant they worked a forty-hour week, had the entire weekend off (plus two to four weeks' paid v.. crime economics economy housing income quality-of-life wages Michael Francis Moore
16a022a In the tired hand of a dying man, Theodore Senior had written: "The 'Machine politicians' have shown their colors... I feel sorry for the country however as it shows the power of partisan politicians who think of nothing higher than their own interests, and I feel for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time." government partisanship political-machine politicans politics theodore-roosevelt-senior Edmund Morris
bfd9dbb Yes - I've learned from my mistakes, and I'm sure I could repeat them perfectly. Jonathan Coe
02c2690 Objectivity is just male subjectivity. Jonathan Coe
5efb539 Men of dreams, the lovers and the poets, are better in most things than the men of my sort; the men of intellect. You take your being from your mothers. You live to the full: it is given you to love with your whole strength, to know and taste the whole of life. We thinkers, though often we seem to rule you, cannot live with half your joy and full reality. Ours is a thin and arid life, but the fullness of being is yours; yours the sap of the.. men-of-dreams narziss poets thinkers Hermann Hesse
5f01047 Well, what do you expect? The Comedian is dead. Alan Moore
43f5a3f Was it the case that colours dimmed as the eye grew elderly? Or was it rather that in youth your excitement about the world transferred itself onto everything you saw and made it brighter? ageing colour excitement perspective youth Julian Barnes
7f0029f In an ideal world, a young man should not be an ironical person. At that age, irony prevents growth, stunts the imagination. It is best to start life in a cheerful and open state of mind, believing in others, being optimistic, being frank with everyone about everything. And then, as one comes to understand things and people better, to develop a sense of irony. The natural progression of human life is from optimism to pessimism; and a sense .. Julian Barnes
666e155 Anyway... she's asleep, turned away from me on her side. The usual stratagems and repositionings have failed to induce narcosis in me, so I decide to settle myself against the soft zigzag of her body. As I move and start to nestle my shin against a calf whose muscles are loosened by sleep, she sense what I'm doing, and without waking reaches up with her left hand and pulls the hair off her shoulders on the top of her head, leaving me her ba.. Julian Barnes
f476d90 He always thought that Touie's long illness would somehow prepare him for her death. He always imagined that grief anf guilt, if they followed, would be more clear-edged, more defined, more finite. Instead they seem like weather, like clouds constantly re-forming into new shapes, blown by nameless, unidentifiable winds. death death-and-dying death-of-a-loved-one illness love marriage Julian Barnes
07dce47 I told you I didn't have a heart. I do have one. I just didn't know it until I met you. You are my light. My soul craves you, and I love you with every ounce of the heart you've awakened in me. I...I could live without you but I wouldn't want to. Will you marry me, Evelyn Marie? Suzanne Enoch
50384e1 Never interrupt a lady when she is speaking to you, as if what you have to say is more important. Suzanne Enoch
be9de27 For a long moment the butler sat in silence, his jaw hanging open. "I . . . my lord, I simply don't feel qualified to advise you about such matters." "Don't tell me that," Saint protested. "Tell me whether you can imagine me as a married man or not." To his surprise, the butler set aside his brandy snifter and sat forward. "My lord, I do not wish to overstep my bounds, but I have noticed a change in your demeanor of late. The question of wh.. marriage Suzanne Enoch
eef7592 Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets & eyes, while I walk on the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village. downtown Manhattan, clear winter noon, and I've been up all night, talking, talking, reading the Kaddish aloud, listening to Ray Charles blues shout blind on the phonograph Allen Ginsberg
186d577 The king eats, they say, and the Hand takes the shit. George R.R. Martin
039ea27 It's not," Mormont told him. "Gods save us, boy, you're not blind and you're not stupid. When dead men come hunting in the night, do you think it matters who sits the Iron Throne?" George R.R. Martin
591bdae Nor was he Aemon Targaryen. Three times the old man had chosen, and three times he had chosen honor, but that was him. Even now, Jon could not decide whether the maester had stayed because he was weak and craven, or because he was strong and true. George R.R. Martin
7494306 Let them see that their words can cut you and you'll never be free of the mockery. George R.R. Martin
3fa3e64 The dwarf has played her like a set of pipes, and she is too deaf to hear the tune. tyrion-lannister George R.R. Martin
8799fca Jon, did you ever wonder why the men of the Night's Watch take no wives and father no children?'' Maester Aemon asked. Jon shrugged. ''No.'' He scattered more meat. The fingers of his left hand were slimy with blood and his right throbbed from the weight of the bucket. ''So they will not love'' the old man answered ''for love is the bane of honor, the death of duty George R.R. Martin
2c12863 Tell Robb that I'm going to command the Night's Watch and keep him safe, so he might as well take up needlework with the girls and have Mikken melt down his sword for horseshoes. - Jon Snow George R.R. Martin
d8d351f Ser Cleos looked like a weasel, fought like a goose, and had the courage of an especially brave ewe. George R.R. Martin
cc72c06 Our maester chuckled at me and told us that Prince Rhaegar was certain to defeat this rebel. That was when Stark said, 'In this world only winter is certain. We may lose our heads, it's true . . . but what if we should prevail?' My father sent him on his way with his head still on his shoulders. 'If you lose,' he told Lord Eddard, 'you were never here.'" "No more than I was," said Davos Seaworth." a-dance-with-dragons davos-seaworth eddard-stark parallels robert-s-rebellion George R.R. Martin
e9cace6 Tyrion Lannister sniggered. That was when Catelyn knew he was hers. "This man came a guest into my house, and there conspired to murder my son, a boy of seven," she proclaimed to the room at large, pointing. Ser Rodrik moved to her side, his sword in hand. "In the name of King Robert and the good lords you serve, I call upon you to seize him and help me return him to Winterfell to await the king's justice." She did not know what was more sa.. tyrion-lannister George R.R. Martin
8a69577 My mother raised me to be bold. If I do not go, I will spend the rest of my life wondering what might have happened if I had." "If you do go, the rest of your life may be too short for wondering. - Asha & Rodrick" -- George R.R. Martin
5528088 all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned. George R.R. Martin
c8f3633 They will not love me, you say? When have they ever loved me? How can I lose something I have never owned? - Stannis George R.R. Martin
b1f46f4 Harsh justice is still justice. justice-system justification reality George R.R. Martin
f2eb2c3 She had killed him with a whisper, and she would kill two more before she was through. I'm the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate. George R.R. Martin
b63c875 At Highgarden we have many spiders amongst the flowers. So long as they keep to themselves we let them spin their little webs, but if they get underfoot we step on them. George R.R. Martin
e2e2870 Is it all lies, forever and ever, everyone and everything?" - Sansa" George R.R. Martin
9ef8451 Truly, sister, you were born to be a widow. (Tyrion to Cersei) George R.R. Martin
55aec06 Tarly, when I was a lad half your age, my lady mother told me that if I stood about with my mouth open, a weasel was like to mistake it for his lair and run down my throat. If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise, beware of weasels. samwell-tarly weasel George R.R. Martin
458bd41 The Iron Throne is mine by rights. All those who deny that are my foes." "The whole of the realm denies it, brother," said Renley. "Old men deny it with their death rattle, and unborn children deny it in their mothers' wombs. They deny it in Dorne and they deny it on the Wall. No one wants you for their king. Sorry." George R.R. Martin
3044118 No man should live longer than his teeth. George R.R. Martin
aed2f2e There's a funny fool. I have a riddle for you, Shagwell. Why do you care if she screams? Oh, wait, I know." He shouted "SAPPHIRES," as loudly as he could. Cursing, Rorge kicked at his stump again. Jaime howled. I never knew there was such agony in the world, was the last thing he remembered thinking. It was hard to say how long he was gone, but when the pain spit him out, Urswyck was there, and Vargo Hoat himself. "Thee'th not to be touched.. George R.R. Martin