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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 4a83bd1 | Seks is geen ruilhandel, het is een schenkeconomie. | Rachel Kushner | ||
| 634afe7 | The Sunset was transformed. The grocery store on Irving was gourmet. A girl I was friends with in high school worked the meat counter. People who looked like frat boys crowded the streets, wearing college sweatshirts and sipping health drinks out of giant Styrofoam containers. They even moved the old post office, which felt like a grievous insult. Everything got converted by money and I started to miss these grim places that offered no happ.. | Rachel Kushner | ||
| f8b7c06 | He understood that this was the overseer's main skill, to recognize what was within human limits, but just barely. "Within, but just barely" was the optimum calibration, the unit of profit." | exploitation labor slavery | Rachel Kushner | |
| 518b5d2 | Silent people can be misleading, suggesting profundity and thoughtfulness where there may be none. | deception deep-thoughts misappropriation silence wisdom | Rachel Kushner | |
| 6d8ce24 | and it is easier to like difficult people when they are leaving, or already gone. | Rachel Kushner | ||
| ee9211d | The three passions," Stanley had said to me that morning, "are love, hate, and ignorance. Ignorance is the strongest." | Rachel Kushner | ||
| ce6cf95 | She knew that it was not smart to address her concerns about money directly, for men despised women who confronted them in this way. She knew that the smart wife, especially one no longer willing to parlay sexual favors, would find a way to bring up matters sweetly, pouring honey all over the problem before showing it to the husband. But she was out of patience. | money-matters women-and-money | Karen Essex | |
| 9d78a7f | Princess of the night, I have come to offer myself to you," you say in French, the language of my homeland. "Come with me." I am trying to look inside you, to foresee your intentions- lust, rape, or ransom- but your beauty clouds my sight. "Why should I go with you, stranger?" I ask, though I am thrilled by the candor of your request and the desire and enthrallment in your eyes. "Because I am yours, whether you wish it or not. You enchanted.. | mina-and-dracula | Karen Essex | |
| 35ab2fc | I sat down to a lavish meal of Irish stew, boiled salad with beets, celery, potatoes doused in cream sauce, haddock and rice, and a long cheeseboard piled with pungent varieties and tasty rolls. I ate with fiendish voraciousness, and slowly, my hunger subsided and my nerves calmed. | mina-harker | Karen Essex | |
| 9427dfe | My dress is of plain forest green wool, but the other girls are wearing beautiful tunics the color of gems- ruby dresses with sapphire mantles and dappled with jewels that dance before me like little insects on fire. My hair is dark as a crow, but theirs is red and gold and even longer than mine. A ray of sun slashes through the turbulent Irish sky, and I see that my friends' perfect skin shimmers in the sun, making them almost translucent. | little-girl mina-harker | Karen Essex | |
| 9349c3d | The room was dark, though weak autumnal light filtered in through arched windows high on the walls, illuminating the room's rich aubergine brocade wallpaper. Its color cast a soft violet haze that floated through the bedroom, twinkling the huge diamond-shaped crystals that dropped from two immense, many-tiered silver chandeliers. They were larger than any I had ever seen, things out of a palace or a fairy tale. An imposing, heavily carved w.. | chandelier-crystals damask light mina-harker purple titian wardrobe | Karen Essex | |
| 8a664fd | He produced a wide silver tray with wrought handles that was piled with sliced bread, grapes, apricots, oranges, apples, cheeses, and a goblet of red wine, and put it on the bed. "Wine?" I asked. I wanted a cup of tea. "Your blood needs its elements. Drink at least some of it." He sat on the bed next to me. "You must eat now. You will need your strength." At that moment, the pungent aroma of the cheeses, the sharp citrus of sliced oranges, .. | fruit hunger mina-and-dracula mina-harker sustenance | Karen Essex | |
| c6fc448 | You see, Great Caesar. she said, this is the way in which mortals retain the power of the divine---in every earthly choice they make. 'But it's a paradox.' he said. 'Human beings are in control of everything and nothing at all.' 'Yes, she answered, her coy smile spreading joy across her lovely face. It is that simple. | human-condition humanity | Karen Essex | |
| 9b9cbe9 | Waiters began to appear with tureens of soup, platters of fish and meat, and bowls of vegetables. Another with a huge gold tasting spoon hanging like a necklace at his chest showed the Count a bottle of wine, which he approved, and when opened, sniffed the cork, and then nodded so that a glass could be poured for me. He ordered the waiters to put everything on the table and retreat to the rear of the room. "I will serve her," he said. "Tell.. | dinner likes-and-dislikes mina-and-dracula thoughts | Karen Essex | |
| d91b287 | Ho personalmente sezionato la lingua, e benche non abbia trovato muscoli specifici per i pettegolezzi, questo sembra lo scopo principale di quell'organo-almeno a corte. | Karen Essex | ||
| 6d5ed81 | You see, Miss Mina, the air is thick with the spirits of the young sailors and fishermen who died in the sea. They still yearn for the love and touch of beautiful women, young men that they were when they were forced to leave their bodies and earthly pleasure behind. I tell you this to warn you, beauty that you are with your jet-colored hair and your lovely skin more pure and delicious than the top of the cream, and those eyes of yours that.. | mina-murray warning | Karen Essex | |
| 2624a8b | He leaned over toward me, putting his fingers under my chin. He grazed my lips with his nose and then with his own lips, first gently, and then taking them into his mouth and biting them one at a time. He put his big hand around my neck, covering my throat, terrifying me with the power he had to wrap those fingers tight and suffocate me, but exciting me because I knew that he would not do it. There was too much that he wanted from me, and I.. | passionate-kiss | Karen Essex | |
| db3b9f6 | The rolling hills we traveled through were lined with rows of crisscrossed crops- apple and pear trees, vines of grapes, and maize- creating bafflingly precise geometries. In the forested areas, the branches on the trees drooped lugubriously like the long sleeves of Druid priests. Jonathan pointed to the curved roads that cut through the hillsides and valleys. "Forged by Romans, Mina!" he said. "So many civilizations have come and gone on t.. | civilizations crops fruit-trees hills natures-beauty | Karen Essex | |
| 168ca01 | It is a woman's burden to suffer the machinations and destruction of men. | Karen Essex | ||
| f3d5f4e | I selected a simple but graceful gown with a sage-colored organza overdress and a seed-pearl choker, hoping that I had chosen well, and I swept my hair up with long, pearl-dotted pins from a small ivory box on the vanity. | gown green mina-harker pearls | Karen Essex | |
| 228fbc3 | Guinevere loved Arthur until she met Lancelot. Do you not agree that it is possible to love one person but encounter another whose very soul speaks to you? | love-another mina-murray | Karen Essex | |
| 2d7b526 | I suppose that Lucy and I were worthy of the male gaze, what with her pale blond beauty shown off nicely in a peach summer frock, in contrast to my black hair set against light skin. Tonight I wore my favorite dress of pale green linen, which everyone said complemented my eyes, and a cotton bolero jacket perfect for a summer evening. | lucy-westenra mina-murray | Karen Essex | |
| 2385ac9 | All my life I have known fear. But I have acted in spite of it. I urge you to do the same. Your father used to say that it is preferable to die rather than to live fearing death. | living-fearlessly living-life-to-the-fullest | Karen Essex | |
| cad0490 | I am now satisfied of what I always though--which is how much more women can do if they set about it then men. I will lay any bet that had you been here, you would not have got half as much on board as I have. | women women-vs-men | Karen Essex | |
| 264f0b6 | Feeding the family trumps conviction every time, Mary though, a basic law of the human condition. | human-condition hunger starvation | Karen Essex | |
| 2bd50e3 | Mr. Darwin demonstrated that we- male and female alike- were descended from wild animals. Women, held high in men's esteem and given the task of living up to a higher moral standard, seemed as capable as men of bestial behavior. Jonathan claimed that the women seduced him. It made sense, I suppose. It wasn't as if men evolved from beasts and women evolved from angels. But if women too gave free rein to our base wants, as I did in my dreams,.. | men-and-women mina-harker moral-standards | Karen Essex | |
| 2c0617f | He did not smile. 'We are the keepers of the world's greatest treasures. Does that mean nothing to you?' "My children are my greatest treasures,' she said. 'Stone no matter how old, means nothing to me when compared to their welfare." | greed-of-man motherhood pride selfishness | Karen Essex | |
| 8aba3cd | Lights like stars whirled past me from out of the darkness, and when I opened my eyes, I was lying on a bed covered in rich tapestry and piled high with pillows. The room was lit by candles in colossal iron holders that flickered on the walls. A great fire was ablaze in the hearth. I recognized the triptych of slender, arched windows, though I was seeing them for the first time from the inside. No longer empty, they were fitted with glass t.. | mina-and-dracula preternatural | Karen Essex | |
| 2ef0830 | It is not that I do not approve. Whatever a man's passion, he must pursue them, unless they offend God. | Karen Essex | ||
| e40b99c | The people call it a miracle; the scientists call it invention. But the invention is miraculous, is it not? | karen essex | ||
| 15265c4 | What will I taste like?" I asked. He inhaled deeply at the base of my throat. "Sweet and pure," he answered, "like white lilacs." | mina-and-dracula taste | Karen Essex | |
| 3357093 | Hungry men are not known for their patience or their kindness. | patience-kindness pestilence war | Karen Essex | |
| bde88ee | What is the difference between freedom and hedonism? Between freedom and insanity? | freedom-of-speech hedonism insanity | Karen Essex | |
| 39fc541 | Think about it. For the sake of fame, men will risk great dangers. They put themselves in the jaws of death more than for their children. For fame, they will spend their money like water and work their fingers to the bone. Have you not observed this in your own home? | men-and-fame men-and-greed | Karen Essex | |
| 9a1e665 | The strong do as they will while the weak suffer what they must. | strong-vs-weak suffering | Karen Essex | |
| 4e707ec | The merciful man is rarely victorious. One's enemies are like snakes; though one may learn to handle them, they are always poisonous. | kleopatra victory | Karen Essex | |
| 1e2a3d5 | Simplicity! He is as simple as a spider's web. | simplicity | Karen Essex | |
| ac6ba78 | Together, they were greater than either them could possibly be apart. Together, she prayed, they were invincible. | invincible kleopatra-and-anthony love togetherness | Karen Essex | |
| 2d76064 | The rich rarely give a black dog for a white monkey, my friend. It's the way of the world. | rich-vs-poor | Karen Essex | |
| 52ab389 | Those on the decline always criticize those on the rise. | power | Karen Essex | |
| 0311fa1 | Can you not see that we still might win? We lost a battle, not a war. | positive-attitude valour | Karen Essex | |
| 6767710 | Once you've spent a winter buried in the Alpine snow foraging for food, it's hard to complain over heat. | julius-caesar warm-weather | Karen Essex | |
| 646f098 | As a famous historian once said, in all its history, Rome deigned to fear two people; one was Hannibal, the other was a woman. | egypt rome | Karen Essex | |
| a550ee9 | I raised the hood of my cape and opened my umbrella. Headmistress had given it to me for my twenty-first birthday, knowing how fond I was of the purple foxglove that bloomed in the park. When open, the underside revealed in each of the panels a spray of painted stems, lush with lavender bells. "No matter how bad the weather, you will always be able to look up and see something that will cheer you," she had said, knowing that my quiet moods .. | purple umbrella | Karen Essex |