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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 2390eb0 | Irene gasped. "Have you taken leave of your senses, Stuart?" she hissed. "Have you?" Stuart closed his eyes. "No," he said. "Au contraire." It was strong language for the Edinburgh New Town, but he had to say it. "Don't au contraire me," said Irene. But it was too late. He had." | arguments bertie french funny nagging strong-language | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| eae205e | There were times when an apology was best, she thought, even when one really had nothing to apologise for. If only people would say sorry sooner rather than later, Mma Ramotswe believed, much discord and unhappiness could be avoided. But that was not the way people were. So often pride stood in the way of apology, and then, when somebody was ready to say sorry, it was already too late. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 46e034a | The difficulty, of course, with standing up to women was that it appeared to make little difference. At the end of the day,a man was no match for a woman.... The only thing to do was to try to avoid situations where women might corner you. And that was difficult, because women had a way of ensuring that you were neatly boxed in, which was exactly what had happened to him. He should have been more careful. He should have been on his guard wh.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 0fb2466 | They passed the rest of the journey in silence, not because of any awkwardness, but because neither wished conversation to break the spell that the unfolding Highland landscape was weaving about them. And what remarks were needed here? If one listens to the talk of people looking at scenes of great natural beauty, their words are often revealing. "Isn't it beautiful?" is what is most frequently said; to which the reply, 'Yes, beautiful," ad.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| fec03cf | You simply could not help everybody; but you could at least help those who came into your life. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| c6ba3c0 | Distant wrongs, she thought: an interesting issue in moral philosophy. Do past wrongs seem less wrong to us simply because they are less vivid? | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 7c6a059 | Mma Ramotswe reflected on how easy it was to find oneself committed to a course of action simply because one lacked the courage to say no. | courage no | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 60ae1c8 | We act out our lives to a soundtrack, thought Isabel, the music that becomes, for a spell, out favourite and is listened to again and again until it stands for the time itself. But that was about all the scripting that we achieved; the rest, for most of us, was extemporising. | music | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| e00abce | Mma Ramotswe found it difficult to imagine what it would be like to have no people. There were, she knew, those who had no others in this life, who had no uncles, or aunts, or distant cousins of any degree; people who were just themselves. Many white people were like that, for some unfathomable reason; they did not seem to want to have people and were happy to be just themselves. How lonely they must be -- like spacemen deep in space, float.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 8d7a700 | But he'll never be fully recognised, because Scots literature these days is all about complaining and moaning and being injured in one's soul. | literature scotland | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 50f53c2 | Protestations of happiness could sound almost boasting to those whose happiness is incomplete. One did not boast of perfect skin to one affected by dermatitis; for the same reason, perhaps, one should take care in proclaiming one's happiness. | happiness unhappiness | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 459a729 | Well, that's the important thing, isn't it, Mma? To feel happiness, and then to remember it. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 060dc8f | It just did not make sense; unless, of course, as she had suggested, we all have a weak point, an area of intellectual or emotional vulnerability that may be quite out of keeping with out character. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 3a2f8f8 | Perhaps if you don't know there's a gap, you don't worry about it. If you were a millipede, a , crawling along the ground would you look at the birds and worry about not having wings? Probably not. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 5225a9a | Dear friends, he began, there is no timetable for happiness; it moves, I think, according to rules of its own. When I was a boy I thought I'd be happy tomorrow, as a young man I thought it would be next week; last month I thought it would be never. Today, I know it is now. Each of us, I suppose has at least one person who thinks that our manifest faults are worth ignoring; I have found mine, and am content. When we are far from home we thin.. | friendship love scotland | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 2f7ad56 | you have taken part in the only really majestic choice we get to make in life, which is to continue it. | Adam Gopnik | ||
| b88d73b | I have a secret. And everyone knows it but me. | sprouts | Dale Peck | |
| 824c63b | Perche non rilassarsi un po'? Magari una passeggiata in macchina fino al Golden Gate Park, con lo zoo e i pesci? Fare una visita dove le cose che non possono pensare provano comunque gioia. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| 8fc8052 | The inanity of her remark infuriated him. 'Good grief don't you understand Janet? At this point I'm thoroughly delusional. I'm as mentally ill as it's possible to be. It's incredible that I can communicate with you at all. It's a credit to my ego-strength that I'm not at this point totally autistic. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| b81af89 | We must content ourselves with the mystery, the absurdity, the contradictions, the hostility, but also the generosity that our environment offers us. It's not much, but it's always better than the deadly, defeatist certainty of the paranoid. | reality reconciliation uncertainty uncertainty-in-life | Philip K. Dick | |
| 1f65da8 | Ruth said, "Love isn't just wanting another person the way you want to own an object you see in a store. That's just desire. You want to have it around, take it home and set it up somewhere in the apartment like a lamp. Love is"-she paused, reflecting-"like a father saving his children from a burning house, getting them out and dying himself. When you love you cease to live for yourself; you live for another person." | Philip K. Dick | ||
| 7e99f02 | Another fantasy film rolled suddenly into his head, without his consent: | Philip K. Dick | ||
| d5669d1 | The Public School, he had long ago decided, was neurotic. It wanted a world in which nothing new came about, in which there were no surprises. And that was the world of the compulsive-obsessive neurotic; it was not a healthy world at all. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| 006e423 | Joe Chip said, 'I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| c681378 | One of these days," Joe said wrathfully, "people like me will rise up and overthrow you, and the end of tyranny by the homeostatic machine will have arrived. The day of human values and compassion and simple warmth will return, and when that happens someone like myself who has gone through an ordeal and who genuinely needs hot coffee to pick him up and keep him functioning when he has to function will get the hot coffee whether he happens t.. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| fd3aa00 | Before they came here I could stand it, being alone in the building. But now it's changed... You can't go from people to nonpeople. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| 0414ad4 | Nobody named Cheerful Charley is tuned in on my wavelength | Philip K. Dick | ||
| bb94153 | He felt the pressure of her love as she squeezed his fingers, and then there was nothing. Except the pain. But nothing else, no Heather, no hospital, no staff men, no light. And no sound. It was an eternal moment and it absorbed him completely. | Philip K. Dick | ||
| 37daa76 | So many people, he thought, don't listen to the content of what you say but only to the noises you make. | Tracy Kidder | ||
| fd3716f | lkbr mrD,wln tsh`r bh Tlm tdG`h bHsn lslwk,hnlk shbn fwq lstyn,lmhm 'n nfhm Hytn. | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| c49fb61 | ltshdd fy l`qwb@ 'shl mn yjd lHl | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| 0d1ad62 | It's not surprising that truly humanitarian manifestos originate frequently in minority circles or with people whose consciences are troubled by the problems of minorities. | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| d91a344 | An anxious heart is like a string that's out of tune. | simile | Naguib Mahfouz | |
| c8b059b | mr@ s'l lshykh sy'l mn lmrydyn: nrk wjyh f~ mnZrk , bd~ lSH@ w l`fy@, tHb l'kl w lshrb, w lst klshywkh lzhdyn? fql lshykh bSwt sm`h ljmy`: nHn qwm n`ml lnrtzq w l ntswl, nqbl `l~ dny llh w l n`rD `nh, qr@ '`ynn f~ l`shq w lskr, w syHtn llyly@ mn lt'ml w ldhkr. | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| 508e1bf | 'tSd~ lkl shy dwn jdw~, llGz@ wlwHsh@ wlkab@, wlldhkryt lHlw@ 'yDan, w 'l`n ldhkr@ wlkhyl | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| bdc66c3 | Sf@ tjtH r'sy, 'Hdth tTrdny fl td` ly frS@ ln`m lnZr, mn 'sfl ylH nd w mn '`l~ ylH nd, w 'n mmzq lqlb, k'ny mTlb btnZym lwjwd w 'n mHSr fy rkn Dyq yhddny lmwt. | عاصفة موت تعب | Naguib Mahfouz | |
| aa3b21b | hkdh l'lm wlHy@ tw'mn, lst lan l 'lm khlS fy thyb rjl | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| 4ced622 | br@ fy lqry@ wTny@ fy lmdyn@ thwr@ fy lZlm krsy ysh` qw@ Gyr mHdwd@ `yn sHry@ t`ry lHqy'q | Naguib Mahfouz الكرنك | ||
| b047119 | There is no alternative to action, and that requires faith. The issue is how we are to mold for ourselves a belief system that is worthy of life. | belief-systems life | Naguib Mahfouz | |
| da7c9de | His lover appeared to have boarded the train at Auguste Comte and passed by the station of theology, where the password was 'Yes, Mother.' This train was now traversing the realm of metaphysics, where the password was 'Certainly not, Mother.' In the distance, visible through a telescope, was the mountain of reality on which was inscribed its password, 'Open your eyes and be courageous. | Naguib Mahfouz | ||
| f440d8a | Although he's slight, he has that wiry strength that seems to come more from will than muscle. | Frances Mayes | ||
| 28709c2 | Roosevelt fought hard for the United States to host the opening session [of the United Nations]; it seemed a magnanimous gesture to most of the delegates. But the real reason was to better enable the United States to eavesdrop on its guests. Coded messages between the foreign delegations and their distant capitals passed through U.S. telegraph lines in San Francisco. With wartime censorship laws still in effect, Western Union and the other .. | san-francisco spying surveillance u-s-army united-nations | James Bamford | |
| 5e6c4f8 | To return to the general analysis of the Rosicrucian outlook. Magic was a dominating factor, working as a mathematics-mechanics in the lower world, as celestial mathematics in the celestial world, and as angelic conjuration in the supercelestial world. One cannot leave out the angels in this world view, however much it may have been advancing towards the scientific revolution. The religious outlook is bound up with the idea that penetration.. | john-dee mathematics occultism | Frances A. Yates | |
| cdea560 | Growing up in Fitzgerald, I lived in an intense microcosm, where your neighbor knows what you're going to do even before you do, where you can recognize a family gene pool by the lift of an eyebrow, or the length of a neck, or a way of walking. What is said, what is left to the imagination, what is denied, withheld, exaggerated-all these secretive, inverted things informed my childhood. Writing the stories that I found in the box, I remembe.. | frances-mayes georgia south southerners | Frances Mayes |