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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| cdc0dc6 | in a people whose moral code is so lax, so little is wrong. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| c149060 | Perhaps every accidental cluster of people has a short period of grace, in between an initial shyness and prejudice on the one hand and eventual repugnance and betrayal on the other. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 0cf620f | Evil is moral at its heart--the selection of vice over virtue; you can pretend not to know, you can rationalize, but you know it in your conscience | Gregory Maguire | ||
| cbf47ca | Animals in pens have lots of time to develop theories", said the Cow, "I've heard more than one clever creature draw a connection between the rise of tiktokism and the erosion of traditional Animal labour. We weren't beasts of burden, but we were good reliable labourers. If we were made redundant in the workforce, it was only a matter of time before we'd be socially redundant too." | political society technology theory | Gregory Maguire | |
| 46872c0 | A notion of character, not so much discredited as simply forgotten, once held that people only came into themselves partway through their lives. They woke up, were they lucky enough to have consciousness, in the act of doing something they already knew how to do: feeding themselves with currants. Walking the dog. Knotting up a broken bootlace. Singing antiphonally in the choir. Suddenly: This is I, I am the girl singing this alto line off-k.. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| aa6f2d7 | who knows what we want? We're all mysteries, even to ourselves. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 235e1af | One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her - is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil? It is at the very least a question of definitions. | evil good-and-evil struggle | Gregory Maguire | |
| bb0a37c | Listen, we're all trapped in our own lives. You, me, everyone we've ever met. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 2f8f748 | Her voice is hoarse. She's caught a catarrh from that dreadful draft. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 4d01af8 | It seems there is no shortage of regret among the young -- but then, they are young, they make mistakes. They have time to correct them and the courage to admit their failings aloud. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 9820c37 | Yes, freedom is magnificent. But freedom is hard work. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 6352c5e | One should see the world, and see himself, as a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed, the scale is tipped to the good -- he and the world are saved. When he does one evil deed, the scale is tipped to the bad -- he and the world are destroyed.'" "Interesting. Who said that, your grandmother?" "Maimonides. The great Jewish scholastic." "I didn't know you read Jewish philosophers." "It is said, 'You must acc.. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 78b2f1f | Ravens aren't usually nocturnal, but hunger can be. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| c85743a | Those who are roped into bed at night often fall into delusions of flight. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 149ee7a | There is a limit to the nonsense even a dream can attempt. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 636f52b | When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis those who are the most themselves are the victims. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| b14fba5 | To consider what other people might say is hardly a good reason to take action or to defer it. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 253b9d8 | Is it only in childhood that we are capable of taking in the whole world? What does it do to us that we briefly have that privilege? And, then, what harm , when the fund of novelty in human experience runs dry? | childhood | Gregory Maguire | |
| 42804af | But to be most effective, the faces of the children would need to be painted in a blur, the way all children's faces truly are. For they blur as they run; they blur as they grow and change so fast; and they blur to keep us from loving them too deeply, for their protection, and also for ours. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| c70a1a8 | Chovia bastante naquela manha. A luz tinha um tom acinzentado e musguento devido as nuvens baixas. Teve de admitir que a menina nao era um cadaver. Estava viva. Talvez tivesse nascido gelada, mas agora estava viva. Ainda suja com o sangue do nascimento e o inicio aguado das suas fezes, Liir levou-a ate a porta e ergue-a para a chuva. Lavada, revelou-se verde. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 4938f7d | Oh, the accident necessary to fiction! | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 5309d45 | It would have made a nice painting, were someone to choose something as lowly as that to study. Another story, a story written in oils rather than one painted on porcelain. But to be most effective, the faces of the children would need to be painted in a blur, the way all children's faces truly are. For they blur as they run; they blur as they grow and change so fast; and they blur to keep us from loving them too deeply, for their protectio.. | Gregory Maguire | ||
| 11b280c | They Harry Potters still enormously outnumber the likes of Petunia and Vernon Dursley in society, who just don't hold with such nonsense, perhaps reflecting how modern life seems more out of control than ever. Most people do indeed believe in magic of one sort or another, whether the thespian who shouts "break a leg" at a colleague, the student who always wears the same outfit for exams, the blushing bride who crosses her fingers for good l.. | Roger Highfield | ||
| cb6c2ab | As in most obituaries, the author said little about the man; they rarely do. But the reticence here was greater than usual. It mentioned that Ravenscliff left a wife, but did not say when they married. It said nothing at all about his life, nor where he lived. There were not even any of the usual phrases to give a slight hint: 'a natural raconteur' (loved the sound of his own voice); 'Noted for his generosity to friends' (profligate); 'a fo.. | Iain Pears | ||
| ee0d7da | The next day was a dream of such perfection that I have never approached the like again. It was, of course, all illusion, but I like to think of it still in isolation from what came after,as a moment of bliss, one of those days when on is no longer oneself, but becomes bigger, and better, able to overcome the normal preoccupations of life and breathe more freely. | Iain Pears | ||
| 8160483 | Rosie digested the information, but not the cake. Her mother was strict about eating between meals. 'A fat girl will never find a good man, Rosie,' was her view, handed down to her by Great-aunt Jessie, a woman of many cliches. | Iain Pears | ||
| 5a73096 | It was, for the time being, an empty threat, and he must have sensed it also, for he laughed easily and with contempt. "You will do what your masters tell you to do, doctor. As do we all." | Iain Pears | ||
| 9758e8c | Shame, I do believe, is the most powerful emotion known to man; most discoveries and journeys of importance have been accomplished because of the ignominy that would be the result if the attempt was abandoned. | Iain Pears | ||
| 8889815 | People make the mistake of assuming far too many things about armies,' Lefevre told me one evening. 'They assume, for a start, that generals know what they are doing and know what is going on. They assume that orders pass down from top to bottom in a smooth and regulated fashion. And above all they assume that wars start only when people decide to start them.' 'You are going to tell me that is not the case?' 'Wars begin when they are ready,.. | Iain Pears | ||
| 43e4b09 | His idleness was his refuge, and in this he was like many others in [occupied] France in that period; laziness became political. | laziness occupation occupied-france politics war wwii | Iain Pears | |
| 755ebc6 | My Lord Bacon, in his | logic truth | Iain Pears | |
| 41e4981 | Aunt Gertie could not tell the difference between 1928 and now. Uncle Joseph was dead and alive. In other words, she grasped the essential non-existence of time. Generally speaking, our minds impose an entirely artificial order on the world. It is the only way that such an inadequate instrument as our brain can function. It cannot deal with the complexity of reality, so simplifies everything until it can, putting events into an artificial o.. | Iain Pears | ||
| 843f9c8 | Who you are is less important than what you seem. | Iain Pears | ||
| 9aeae41 | Lying," he said out loud, hoping no one would hear. "I need to lie. Teach me, quickly." I wouldn't if I were you, came the response. For a start, it's a variable concept here. You are in a culture where ambiguity has been raised to a high level. Let me give an example: depending on phrasing, circumstance, expression, body movement, intonation and context, the statement "I love you" can mean I love you; I don't love you; I hate you; I want t.. | love politics truth | Iain Pears | |
| 5bfe487 | it always made him feel better, and calmer, and more sane, to hold a book. He had never been able to understand people who did not read. He had never been able to understand how they held on to themselves. | Jane Haddam | ||
| ab36035 | i' don't really understand people who are in love . it's difficult to display your emotions. | emotions-quotes love manga | Ai Yazawa | |
| d0559f0 | A moment later, all of the men at the party, stupefied by the way the hooker had gone banshee, | Chris Bohjalian | ||
| 4678d07 | But history does matter. There is a line connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Serbs and the Rwandans. | Chris Bohjalian | ||
| 0e82c4f | quid pro quo, | Chris Bohjalian | ||
| 0b7e6ba | Supposedly, whatever we do that's selfish goes with us to the grave; whatever we do that's selfless lives on. | Chris Bohjalian | ||
| edb9f5b | this was why men fell in love with strippers and escorts: it wasn't the licentiousness, the dissembling, their craven willingness to do whatever you wanted. It was the way they would, out of the blue, surprise you with the psychic ability to know what you needed. | men strippers | Chris Bohjalian | |
| 0d6b02d | up now | Chris Bohjalian | ||
| 6d1fa74 | Remember that person you wanted to be? There's still time." She wanted to believe that; she wanted to believe it almost desperately. She wanted to be different from what she was--to be anything but what she was. But every day that grew less and less likely. Life, it seemed to her in the back of the cab, was nothing but a narrowing of opportunities. It was a funnel." | Chris Bohjalian | ||
| f147062 | Too often we presume that the unexpected strangers in our lives bode ill,or we are skeptical of their designs.We think we know more. And while I am well aware that there is indeed all manner of malevolence in the ether,there is benevolence there,too | Chris Bohjalian |