Site uses cookies to provide basic functionality.

OK
Query
Tags
Author
Link Quote Stars Tags Author
806f5b2 It's terrible sometimes, inside," he said, "that's what's the trouble. You walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and there's not really a living ass to talk to, and there's nothing shaking, and there's no way of getting it out- that storm inside. You can't talk it and you can't make love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you realize nobody's listening. So you've got to listen. You got to find a way to lis.. James Baldwin
2030089 We stared at each other across a narrow space that was full of danger, that almost seemed to roar, like flame. 'Come,' he said. James Baldwin
43faa1b People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster. --JAMES BALDWIN Chris Hedges
3cdb8ea There appears to be a vast amount of confusion on this point, but I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be "accepted" by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don't wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet." race-relations James Baldwin
945ce13 Years ago, when he was around fourteen, he'd been all hipped on the idea of going to India. He read books about people sitting on rocks, naked, in all kinds of weather, but mostly bad, naturally, and walking barefoot through hot coals and arriving at wisdom. I used to say that it sounded to me as though they were getting away from wisdom as fast as they could. I think he sort of looked down on me for that. James Baldwin
8a605a4 Beneath the face of anyone you ever loved for true - anyone you love, you will always love, love is not at the mercy of time and it does not recognize death, they are strangers to each other - beneath the face of the beloved, however ancient, ruined, and scarred, is the face of the baby your love once was, and will always be, for you. Love serves, then, if memory doesn't, and passion James Baldwin
40e2ce4 It doesn't do to look too hard into this mystery, which is as far from being simple as it is from being safe. We don't know enough about ourselves. I think it's better to know that you don't know, that way you can grow with the mystery as the mystery grows in you. But, these days, of course, everybody knows everything, that's why so many people are so lost. James Baldwin
dfdae9e If one is continually surviving the worst that life can bring, one eventually ceases to be controlled by a fear of what life can bring; whatever it bring must be borne. And at this level of experience one's bitterness begins to be palatable, and hatred becomes too heavy a sack to carry. James Baldwin
1859762 The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new black man, it has created a new white man, too. No road whatever will lead Americans back to the simplicity of this European village where white men still have the luxury of looking on me as a stranger. I am not, really, a stranger any longer for any American alive. One of the things that distinguishes Americans from other .. american-history blackness history race race-relations stranger-in-the-village whiteness whites James Baldwin
bc691e0 She was in a terrible state, for she found that she could neither take her eyes off him nor look at him. James Baldwin
080f3e9 To accept one's past - one's history - is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. knowing-others sense-of-self James Baldwin
72b9cd7 I was just as black as I had been the day that I was born. Therefore, when I faced a congregation, it began to take all the strength I had not to stammer, not to curse, not to tell them to throw away their Bibles and get off their knees and go home and organize, for example, a rent strike. When I watched all the children, their copper, brown, and beige faces staring up at me as I taught Sunday school, I felt that I was committing a crime in.. resignation social-justice James Baldwin
2528974 In the realm of power, Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty--necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who have discovered the true faith the spiritual duty of liberating the infidels. This particular true faith, moreover, is more deeply concerned about the soul than it is about the body, to which fact the flesh (and the corpses) of countless infidels bears witness. hypocrisy war James Baldwin
33ac459 Confession is an act of violence against the unoffending. violence Tom Stoppard
8ba2cc1 That's what Archie did - built a house nobody could anticipate a need for, except himself, a house that was invisible to everyone else. Robert Cormier
c27d3c4 But what a feeling can come over a man just from seeing the things he believes in and hopes for symbolized in the concrete form of a man. In something that gives a focus to all the other things he knows to be real. Something that makes unseen things manifest and allows him to come to his hopes and dreams through his outer eye and through the touch and feel of his natural hand. dreams hero hopes reality symbol truth Ralph Ellison
f23cc62 I'd been so fascinated by the notion, that I'd forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth. I'd been asleep, dreaming. Ralph Ellison
ad96b02 Once I saw a prizefighter boxing a yokel. The fighter was swift and amazingly scientific. His body was one violent flow of rapid rhythmic action. He hit the yokel a hundred times while the yokel held up his arms in stunned surprise. But suddenly the yokel, rolling about in the gale of boxing gloves, struck one blow and knocked science, speed and footwork as cold as a Well-digger's posterior. The smart money hit the canvas. The long sho.. Ralph Ellison
7858189 What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? What a waste, what a senseless waste! But what of those things which you actually didn't like, not because you were not supposed to like them, not because to dislike them was considered a mark of refinement and education -- but because you actually found them distasteful? The very idea annoyed me. How could you know? It invol.. Ralph Ellison
b8d05bb It's all about getting the hand of things. Easy does it; take it easy. You'll figure everything out in time. But for right now, just keep trying. Pay attention and avoid the temptation to go further than you're ready. Talk less. And listen more. Kate Jacobs
b54fa18 And failure, if you want to know, Dakota, is just another opportunity to try again. Kate Jacobs
07b4a70 Of course, I am interested, but I would not dare to talk about them. In talking about the impact of ideas in one field on ideas in another field, one is always apt to make a fool of oneself. In these days of specialization there are too few people who have such a deep understanding of two departments of our knowledge that they do not make fools of themselves in one or the other. learning self-awareness specialization thought-provoking Richard P. Feynman
41c584c There were a lot of fools at that conference--pompous fools--and pompous fools drive me up the wall. Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. Richard P. Feynman
db9d6c6 Things on a very small scale behave like nothing that you have any direct experience about. Richard P. Feynman
6de52a8 psychoanalysis is not a science: it is at best a medical process, and perhaps even more like witch-doctoring. Richard P. Feynman
ef69e2c So now you know that, as dark as the depths of the sea may be, as dark as the night gets without a moon, it is not really true darkness. It's just waiting for light to return. There are places that are truly dark in this world, Ven, but this place here, this open stretch of sea where you are floating, is not one of them. It's not really dark here - it's just night. If you hang on and stay awake, in a short while the edges of the sky will st.. hope light survival Elizabeth Haydon
cfebd57 It's possible to like bad people, but liking them doesn't make them good. Elizabeth Moon
acd8dd4 I thought Marilla Cuthburt was an old fool when I heard she'd adopted a girl out of an orphan asylum," she said to herself, "but I guess she didn't make much of a mistake after all. If I'd a child like Anne in the house all the time I'd be a better and happier woman." l. m. Montgomery
0921dcb Then Diana puts too many murders into [her stories]. She says most of the time she doesn't know what to do with the people so she kills them off to get rid of them. L.M. Montgomery
9407785 There are so many unpleasant things in the world already that there is no use in imagining more. L.M. Montgomery
d6b5756 Why should one hate you when you were so small? Could you be worth hating? l-m-montgomery L.M. Montgomery
7c94f1f I would like to turn the Kaiser into a good man - a very good man - all at once if I could. That is what I would do. Don't you think, Mrs. Blythe, that would be the very worstest punishment of all?" "Bless the child," said Susan, "how do you make out that would be any kind of a punishment for that wicked fiend?" "Don't you see," said Bruce, looking levelly at Susan, out of his blackly blue eyes, "if he was turned into a good man he would un.. L.M. Montgomery
a642b89 I'm glad and I'm sorry. I'm always sorry when pleasant things end. Something still more pleasant may come after, but you can never be sure. And it's so often the case that it isn't more pleasant. L.M. Montgomery
8c75943 he world looks like something God had just imagined for His own pleasure. This isn't poetry but it makes me feel the same way as poetry does. L.M. Montgomery
db58252 He makes up the most remarkable yarns - and then his mother shuts him up in the closet for telling stories. And he sits down and makes up another one, and has it ready to relate to her when she lets him out. He had one for me when he came down tonight. 'Uncle Jim,' says he, solemn as a tombstone, 'I had a 'venture in the Glen today.' 'Yes, what was it?' says I, expecting something quite startling, but no-wise prepared for what I really got... L.M. Montgomery
b903e28 An hour ago on the sand-shore he has been looking at her as if she were the only being of any importance in the world. And now she was a nobody. L.M. Montgomery
181806e It doesn't seem FAIR, said Anne rebelliously. Babies are born and live where they are not wanted-where they will be neglected-where they have no chance. I would have loved my baby so-and cared for it tenderly-and tried to give her every chance for good. And yet I wasn't allowed to keep her. heartbreaking loss-of-a-baby L.M. Montgomery
38d705c The trouble with you, Anne, is that you're thinking too much about yourself. You should just think of Mrs. Allan and what would be nicest and most agreeable to her," said Marilla, hitting for once in her life on a very sound and pithy piece of advice. Anne instantly realized this." L.M. Montgomery
4be3bc9 Some people are naturally good, you know, and others are not. I'm one of the others. goodness people self-realization L.M. Montgomery
fc5dc67 The dead will only be dead if you stop remembering them. L.M. Montgomery
671a5da Spring had come once more to Green Gables-the beautiful, capricious Canadian spring, lingering along through April and may in a succession of sweet, fresh, chilly days, with pink sunsets and miracles of resurrection and growth. The maples in Lover's Lane were red-budded and little curly ferns pushed up around the Dryad's Bubble. Away in the barrens, behind Mr. Silas Sloane's place, the mayflowers blossomed out, pink and white stars of sweet.. L.M. Montgomery
05d666b It does people good to have to do things they don't like...in moderation. L.M. Montgomery
1b5088c Oh, Mr. Cuthbert," she whispered, that place we came through--that white place--what was it?" "Well now, you must mean the Avenue," said Matthew after a few moments' profound reflection. "It is a kind of pretty place." "Pretty? Oh, PRETTY doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful--wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. It just .. nature L.M. Montgomery
e31be52 Thanksgiving should be celebrated in the spring...I think it would be ever so much better than having it in November when everything is dead or asleep. Then you have to remember to be thankful; but in May one simply can't help being thankful...that they are alive, if for nothing else. L.M. Montgomery