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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| d955bc1 | Rope-skipping, hopscotch. That old woman in black who sat down next to me on my bench, on my rack of joy (a nymphet was groping under me for a lost marble), and asked if I had stomachache, the insolent hag. Ah, leave me alone in my pubescent park, in my mossy garden. Let them play around me forever. Never grow up. | lolita | Vladimir Nabokov | |
| 40e7b9b | What chatty Madam Shpolyanski mentioned had conjured up Mira's image with unusual force. This was disturbing. Only in the detachment of an incurable complaint, in the sanity of near death, could one cope with this for a moment. In order to exist rationally, Pnin had taught himself...never to remember Mira Belochkin - not because...the evocation of a youthful love affair, banal and brief, threatened his peace of mind...but because, if one we.. | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| 4854038 | Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. And I shall tell you why. When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stan.. | art reader reading | Vladimir Nabokov | |
| 0664430 | The mind writes with a pen, the heart, with a pencil. | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| a5a8c90 | When you laugh, I want to transform the entire world so it will mirror you. | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| 33066b3 | A warm flow of pain was gradually replacing the ice and wood of the anaesthetic in his thawing, still half-dead, abominably martyred mouth. After that, during a few days he was in mourning for an intimate part of himself. It surprised him to realize how fond he had been of his teeth. His tongue, a fat sleek seal, used to flop and slide so happily among the familiar rocks, checking the contours of a battered but still secure kingdom, plungin.. | vladimir | Vladimir Nabokov | |
| 25b9e3e | They are beautiful, heart-rendingly beautiful, those wilds, with a quality of wide-eyed, unsung, innocent surrender that my lacquered, toy-bright Swiss villages and exhaustively lauded Alps no longer possess. Innumerable lovers have clipped and kissed on the trim turf of old-world mountainsides, on the innerspring moss, by a handy, hygienic rill, on rustic benches under the initialed oaks, and in so many cabanes in so so many beech forests... | lolita nabokov wilderness | Vladimir Nabokov | |
| 965224c | No Leslie, I'm not dead. I have finished building a world, and this is my Sabbath rest. | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| ed16541 | What are these hopes, and who is this savior?" "Imagination," replied Cincinnatus." | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| 1a8a243 | Nothing on earth really matters, there is nothing to fear, and death is but a question of style, a mere literary device, a musical resolution. | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| 7a45955 | It may look as though I do not know how to start. Funny sight, the elderly gentleman who comes lumbering by, jowl flesh flopping, in a valiant dash for the last bus, which he eventually overtakes but is afraid to board in motion and so, with a sheepish smile, drops back, still going at a trot. Is it that I dare not make the leap? It roars, gathers speed, will presently vanish irrevocably around the corner, the bus, the motorbus, the mighty .. | Vladimir Nabokov | ||
| 77a317d | Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, but fear too, is not barren of ingenious suggestions." "Nice little saloon, isn't it" I said, as if noticing it for the first time. "At noon I gave no orders for change of course, and the mates whiskers grew much concerned and seemed to be offering themselves to my unduly notice." | Joseph Conrad | ||
| 62c3728 | It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. | Joseph Conrad | ||
| c0b629b | I have been very happy--very fortunate--very proud,' she went on. 'Too fortunate. Too happy for a little while. And now I am unhappy for--for life. | Joseph Conrad | ||
| 22bf920 | Oh the glamour of youth! Oh the fire of it, more dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea--and like the flames of the burning ship surrounded by an impenetrable night. | voyages | Joseph Conrad | |
| 0b21892 | She was engaged in the task of defending her position in life," said Heyst. "It's a very respectable task." | Joseph Conrad | ||
| c6371fa | An appeal to me in this fiendish row - is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced. | Joseph Conrad | ||
| a68f48b | The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to... | imperialism injustice politics tyranny western-society | Joseph Conrad | |
| a977fee | There is a weird power in a spoken word. | power words | Joseph Conrad | |
| 4d1578e | Often far away there I thought of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant. Not many of those she looked at ever saw her again--not half, by a long way. | Joseph Conrad | ||
| 0883066 | The NELLIE, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide. The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space .. | Joseph Conrad | ||
| b235650 | He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a featherhat, walking on his hind legs. | racism | Joseph Conrad | |
| 37df82a | A certain simplicity of thought is common to serene souls at both ends of the social scale. | simplicity | Joseph Conrad | |
| 386561c | They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - a.. | Joseph Conrad | ||
| 66ac204 | Throwing a tantrum feels good because you think you are ruining everyone's good time when you feel your very worst. But the truth is, you're not ruining their good time, you're just giving them another good story. | Mindy Kaling | ||
| 4773983 | I do not think stress is a legitimate topic of conversation, in public anyway. No one ever wants to hear how stressed anyone else is, because most of the time everyone is stressed out. Going on and on in detail about how stressed I am isn't conversation. It'll never lead anywhere. | Mindy Kaling | ||
| e34f412 | Another old saying is that revenge is a dish best served cold. But it feels best served piping hot, straight out of the oven of outrage. My opinion? Take care of revenge right away. Push, shove, scratch that person while they're still within arm's reach. Don't let them get away! Who knows when you'll get this opportunity again? | Mindy Kaling | ||
| bcb146c | As you can see, when I write, I like to look like I'm recovering from tuberculosis. | Mindy Kaling | ||
| e02ab1d | It's just that, the truth is, I have never, ever, ever met a highly confident and successful person who is not what a movie would call a "workaholic." We can't have it both ways, and children should know that. Because confidence is like respect; you have to earn it." | working-hard | Mindy Kaling | |
| 90bd6c5 | There was just Mavis and me, but it never seemed lonely because we never stopped talking. I could have an argument, in earnest, about who was the best "Kid" in the Hall, without having to explain who they were. One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about. We never needed best friend gear because I guess with real friends you don't have to make it official. It just is.. | Mindy Kaling | ||
| 4620ae3 | A honeymoon is, after all, a sex vacation you're giving yourself after a massive party in your honor. | Mindy Kaling | ||
| a0f435b | You can't possibly judge your ability to control something until you've experienced the extremes of its capabilities. Do you understand? | extremes | Richard Russo | |
| d7ed81d | Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly; In my own way, and with my full consent. Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely Went to their deaths more proud than this one went. Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping I will confess; but that's permitted me; Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free. If I had loved you less or played you slyly I might have held you for a summer more, B.. | Nancy Milford | ||
| 985f42a | To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all the myriad things. | Ruth Ozeki | ||
| c3a1f57 | In Japan if you say "the war," people know you mean World War II, because that was the last one that Japan fought in. In America it's different. America is constantly fighting wars all over the place, so you have to be more specific." | Ruth Ozeki | ||
| 53cbb9f | At one point in my life, I learned how to think. I used to know how to feel. In war, these are lessons best forgotten. | Ruth Ozeki | ||
| d500b43 | aware, as always, that the truth isn't much of substitute for a good answer. | Richard Russo | ||
| 0acd710 | The world is a more engaging and less dramatic place than writers ever give it credit for being | Richard Ford | ||
| cfa92b8 | And since that is not how it has been for a long time, you want, this time, to make it last, this glistening one moment, this cool air, this new living, so that you can preserve a feeling of it, inasmuch as when it comes again it may just be too late. You may just be too old. And in truth, of course, this may be the last time that you will ever feel this way again. | Richard Ford | ||
| f29f78e | But to anyone reasonable, my life will seem more or less normal-under-the-microscope, full of contingencies and incongruities none of us escapes and which do little harm in an existence that otherwise goes unnoticed. | Richard Ford | ||
| 6de3096 | Though possibly it-the answer-is simple: it is just low-life, some coldness in us all, some helplessness that causes us to misunderstand life when it is pure and plain, makes our existence seem like a border between two nothings, and makes us no more or less than animals who meet on the road-watchful, unforgiving, without patience or desire. | Richard Ford | ||
| b9b081e | My greatest human flaw and strength, not surprisingly, is that I can always imagine anything--a marriage, a conversation, a government--as being different from how it is, a trait that might make one a top-notch trial lawyer or novelist or realtor, but that also seems to produce a somewhat less than reliable and morally feasible human being.) | Richard Ford | ||
| 2975c5b | Stop searching. Face the earth where you can. Literally speaking, it's all you have to go on. | Richard Ford | ||
| 1390b99 | there's no right way to plan a life and no right way to live one--only plenty of wrong ways. | Richard Ford |