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f5c16f5 Charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all. G.K. Chesterton
88d5d60 At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, "Life is not worth living." We regard it as we regard the statement that it is a fine day; nobody thinks that it can possibly have any serious effect on the man or on the world. And yet if that utterance were really believed, the world would stand on its head. Murderers would be given medals for saving men from life; firemen would be denounced for keeping men from death; poisons would .. G.K. Chesterton
aace754 The weak point in the whole of Carlyle's case for aristocracy lies, indeed, in his most celebrated phrase. Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men. But the essential point of it is merely this, that whatever primary and far-reachin.. G.K. Chesterton
a3e40a3 There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place; and I tried to trace such a journey in a story I once wrote. G.K. Chesterton
e30ba34 Christianity is always out of fashion because it is always sane; and all fashions are mild insanities. When Italy is mad on art the Church seems too Puritanical; when England is mad on Puritanism the Church seems too artistic. When you quarrel with us now you class us with kingship and despotism; but when you quarrelled with us first it was because we would not accept the divine despotism of Henry VIII. The Church always seems to be behind .. G.K. Chesterton
174d037 As it has been well expressed in the paradox of Poe, wisdom should reckon on the unforeseen. G.K. Chesterton
8354efb People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are. Life may sometimes legitimately appear as a book of science. Life may sometimes appear, and with a much greater legitimacy, as a book of metaphysics. But life is always a novel. Our existence may cease to be a so.. G.K. Chesterton
611d86d My best friends are all either bottomless skeptics or quite uncontrollable believers . . . . G.K. Chesterton
5dde935 What we all dread most is a maze with no centre. dread maze G.K. Chesterton
0ce5e12 I strongly object to wrong arguments on the right side. I think I object to them more than to the wrong arguments on the wrong side. debating honesty integrity G.K. Chesterton
b2d5e14 The modern mind is forced towards the future by a certain sense of fatigue, not unmixed with terror, with which it regards the past. It is propelled towards the coming time; it is, in the exact words of the popular phrase, knocked into the middle of next week. And the goad which drives it on thus eagerly is not an affectation for futurity Futurity does not exist, because it is still future. Rather it is a fear of the past; a fear not merely.. ease enthusiasm fatigue fear future heroism ideals imaginary past variety G.K. Chesterton
b66b1e9 You have to work. Did you think you could snap your fingers, and have it as a gift? What is worth having is worth working for. Philip Pullman
03a4ff7 There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children's book. The reason for that is that in adult literary fiction, stories are there on sufferance. Other things are felt to be more important: technique, style, literary knowingness. Adult writers who deal in straightforward stories find themselves sidelined into a genre such as crime or science fiction, where no one expects .. stories Philip Pullman
e1bc737 Why do they do these things to children, Pan? Do they all hate children so much, that they want to tear them apart like this? Why do they do it? Philip Pullman
d04612b It was difficult to tell them the truth when a lie would have been so much easier for them to understand. Philip Pullman
b020159 I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you . . . We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams . . . And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able .. Philip Pullman
b052c05 Human beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it, Lyra. That's original sin. Philip Pullman
9c74d6d Friends ... They come to your house and they know your parents and.... Sometimes a boy might ask me around to his house, and I might go or I might not, but I could never ask him back. So I never had friends, really. I would have liked ... I had my cat, Philip Pullman
90dd249 Will considered what to do. When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed. At the moment all Will's choices existed at once. But to keep them all in existence meant doing nothing. He had to choose, after all. Philip Pullman
1fff5a2 We've heard them all talk about Dust, and they're so afraid of it, and you know what? We believed them, even though we could see that what they were doing was wicked and evil and wrong... We thought Dust must be bad too, because they were grown up and they said so. But what if it isn't? What if it's--' She said breathlessly, 'Yeah! What if it's really good... evil good good-and-evil original-sin sin Philip Pullman
4d05218 The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled. Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, and at the bottom edge a profound and fiery crimson like the fires of Hell, they swung and shimmered loosely with more grace than the most skillful dancer. his-dark-materials northern-lights northern-sky Philip Pullman
b3b673f If you speak to people, you just attract their attention," he said, with a shaking voice. "You should just keep quiet and still and they overlook you. I've been doing it all my life. I know how to do it. Your way, you just--you make yourself visible." Philip Pullman
3250c75 Wir sind alle dem Schicksal unterworfen [...] aber wir mussen so tun, als seien wir es nicht, sonst wurden wir vor Verzweiflung sterben. Philip Pullman
702e05f The essence of education is, in the words of William James, to teach a person what deserves to be valued, to impart ideals as well as knowledge, to cultivate in students the ability to distinguish the true and good from their counterfeits and the wisdom to prefer the former to the latter. William J. Bennett
2305011 It wasn't the big decisions that set the course of one's life; it was the slow accretion of all the little ones. life path-of-life Lauren Willig
92c1f5f Hard to believe that so nearby, just across the Channel, such atrocities could still occur in their supposedly civilized world, that one could wake up one morning and find oneself bereft of brothers, parents, friends, all with the slice of an ax. family revolution Lauren Willig
753d46a Colin mustered a perfunctory leer, but his mind was obviously elsewhere. 'Do you know...' he began. I knew many things, but I didn't think he needed to hear the entirety of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales right at just this moment. Lauren Willig
1b6fa27 Why was it that cheering expressions were invariably so infuriating? Lauren Willig
a685156 My dear Mrs. Grimstone, sometimes cowardice is merely another word for common sense. Lauren Willig
dc1d39d There was something unnatural, a little unhealthy, about the way she inhaled Veda's smell as she dedicated the rest of her life to this child who had been spared. James M. Cain
a5a0770 Mildred sat quite still, and when she heard Veda drive off she was consumed by a fury so cold that it almost seemed as though she felt nothing at all. It didn't occur to her that she was acting less like a mother than like a lover who had unexpectedly discovered an act of faithlessness, and avenged it. James M. Cain
959a030 We're just two punks, Frank. God kissed us on the brow that night. He gave us all that two people can ever have and we just weren't the kind that could have it. [I]t's a big airplane engine, that takes you through the sky, right up to the top of the mountain. But when you put it in a Ford, it just shakes it to pieces. That's what we are, Frank, a couple of Fords. James M. Cain
6239dea I knew then what I had done. I had killed a man. I had killed a man to get a woman. I had put myself in her power, so there was one person in the world that could point a a finger at me, and I would have to die. I had done all that for her, and I never want to see her again as long as I lived. That's all it takes, one drop of fear, to curdle love into hate. hate love James M. Cain
0f9d9c4 Kaizen" is a Japanese term that captures the concept of continuously making many small improvements." Andrew Hunt
8187a13 The Khanum?" Arland coughed. The last sip of tea must've gone wrong. "Are you unwell?" Dagorkun inquired. "Healthy as a krahr," Arland said. "That's such a relief. I would hate for some illness to interfere and spoil the grand celebration I planned when I send you to your afterlife." -- sweep-in-peace Ilona Andrews
3accf9f Dali elbowed Jim in the ribs. "What he meant to say was he is sorry that duties of his office and his own paranoid nature caused him to overreact." Jim looked like someone had hit him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. "Yes." "And" Ilona Andrews
7fb500f Why me?" he said finally. "Are you on some sort of mission to fuck up my life?" "I try my best to avoid you." "You're doing a hell of a job." "I honestly don't mean to cause problems." "You don't cause problems. An unpiloted vampire causes problems. You cause catastrophes." Ilona Andrews
c3f062f Hi. And what kind of screwed-up beastie would you be? urban-fantasy-series Ilona Andrews
209d172 Some of you know me. Some of you have seen me fight and some of you are my friends. Have your vote. But know this: if you come to remove me, come in force, because if you try to separate me from him, I will kill every single one of you. My hand won't shake. My aim won't falter. My face will be the last thing you'll see before you die. Ilona Andrews
c1b3c17 I don't snore." He nodded with a wide grin. "It's a quiet peaceful kind of snoring. Like a small cuddly Tasmanian devil. Kind of cute when sleeping, all claws and teeth when awake." "You snore worse. At least I don't turn into a lion in my sleep." kate-and-curran magic-slays Ilona Andrews
f41905d Your definition of 'well' is troubling at best." He suddenly smiled and affected a slight accent. "'I do not think that word means what you think it means.'" He was obviously quoting something he and Jason seemed to know that she did not. Jason grinned. "Ha, she ain't a princess, and you wish you were that good a swordsman." the-princess-bride Ilona Andrews
a4e57db We Draytons are many things: pirates, witches, rogues...but nobody ever accused us of being ungrateful. A family has to have standards. Even in the Edge. Ilona Andrews
5573b5e Curran, please don't bite his head off." "Why?" "Because it's illegal. Technically you assaulted him first when you threw him across the lawn." "I didn't throw him very far." I rolled my eyes. "I could've thrown him straight up and let him land on the pavement." "That would also be illegal." "You keep bringing this 'illegal' thing up as if it means something to me." Ilona Andrews
907f802 I would have to stop at a local shelter and possibly PetSmart. They had silent, stealthy, vicious predators available for adoption. Ilona Andrews