Cruel Wonders Quotes

I had no hope. Yet expectation lived on in me, the last thing she had left behind. What further consummations, mockeries, torments did I still anticipate? I had no idea as I abided in the unshaken belief that the time of cruel wonders was not yet over. ~ Stanislaw Lem

William's eyes glowed like two amber coals. She met his gaze and flinched. No emotion reflected in the amber, only intelligence, cruel in a way the eyes of a hunting Mire cat were cruel. She saw no worry, no softness, no thoughts at all, only waiting. He seemed barely human now, not a man but some feral thing, knitted of darkness and biding his time for an opportunity to pounce. ~ Ilona Andrews

I did not want to worship gods as cruel as this - gods cruel enough to rape my mother after she objected to being deceived, or willing to waste the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands of men in a useless war. I did not want to believe we could not be free. ~ Amalia Carosella

A cruel critic has never made anything; his glibness is a way of inflicting his emptiness on others. ~ John Lahr

9 years earlier "Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it." Isaiah 13:9 ~ Phillip W. Simpson

Baby steps for your nerdy girl, she writes.
The girl clearly underestimates the power of her bum and a seductively minimal pose.
Nerdy my arse, I type back. All the cold showers in the world can't cure what u've done to me.
Cruel wife. ~ Wendy Higgins

I'm not trying to cause another fight. I just want to offer a bit of parting wisdom, little brother. If she was the one, why are you alone at twenty-two? Surely, life wouldn't be so cruel' I squeezed my eyes shut, holding back the wave of emotions threatening to take over. Keeping my voice even and my anger checked, I replied, ' When you've lost the one person who makes life worth living, give me a call and let me know what you think about the cruelty of it all. ~ J.L. Berg

That's the nub of the thing, you see seriousness of spirit. It doesn't mean heaviness of heart, or a lack of fantasy, but it does mean an awareness of influences that touch our lives, sometimes in ways that seem cruel and unfeeling, and sometimes in ways that open up a glory which can never be forgotten. ~ Robertson Davies

I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically - any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster. ~ John Lennon

In relationships, you cannot give to another that which they need, you can only share who you are. ~ Rene Gaudette

Now that Dad was gone I was starting to see how mortality was bound up in things like that cold, arc-lit sky. How the world is full of signs and wonders that come, and go, and if you are lucky you might see them. Once, twice. Perhaps never again. The albums on my mother's shelves are full of family photographs. But also other things. A starling with a crooked beak. A day of hoarfrost and smoke. A cherry tree thick with blossom. Thunderclouds, lightning strikes, comets and eclipses: celestial events terrifying in their blind distances but reassuring you, too, that the world is for ever, though you are only a blink in its course. ~ Helen Macdonald

Outsiders always look for a reason to explain why they are not inside. They never look in the mirror. Let's face it, the profession I'm in is a very simple and a very cruel one. There is no way that you can create a career for someone without talent and no way to stop a career of someone with talent. ~ Isaac Stern

When someone is cruel, harsh, mean, to not take their words personally is one thing, but to hear the silent cry within those words is another. This sort of perspective can not only liberate us from crippling self-doubt in the face of criticism, it can also liberate us from automatically becoming blind participants in the interaction patterns that the cruel person has become accustomed to - a favour we do for the other person as much as for ourselves. ~ Vironika Tugaleva

We're only lucky enough to see the wonders of nature's canyons because they're gracious enough to show us the places they've been damaged. ~ Curtis Tyrone Jones

Cruel thoughts lead to cruel words, and hurt you as much as they hurt their target. ~ Veronica Roth

This is an evening of wonders, indeed! ~ Jane Austen

Any irrational fears?no, i'm quite a rationalist. i'm not superstitious, i think life is too full of natural wonders and logical complexities to worry about illogical things. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch

We came from somewhere - everything does. When the transition is made from spirit to flesh, the gates are meant to be closed. It's a kindness. It would be cruel not to. ~ Akwaeke Emezi

I knew nothing, and I persisted in the faith that the time of cruel miracles
was not past. ~ Stanisław Lem

His lips formed a cruel smile as he leaned forward to whisper into her ear. "I could have let you die up there. In fact, I'm not altogether of one mind why I didn't ... Oh, that's right. You have something I want." He took his free hand and gently stroked the side of her cheek, running his fingers over her lips. The move sent an unwilling shiver through her until his fingers moved under her chin. "I want that dagger. ~ Chanda Hahn

He was here once before but that was in a different lifetime, when wonders were rare and announced - like amusement parks or school trips.
Now they are everywhere, for the delectation of those among the survivors who might be hunters of miracles.
And the beauty he looks over is fathomable only by a girl who would have felt the measure of it as deep as to her dazzled soul. ~ Alden Bell

It is cruel for you to leave your daughter, so full of hope and resolve, to suffer the humiliations of disfranchisement she already feels so keenly, and which she will find more and more galling as she grows into the stronger and grander woman she is sure to be. If it were your son who for any cause was denied his right to have his opinion counted, you would compass sea and land to lift the ban from him. ~ Susan B. Anthony

Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman? (wonders Lady Catelyn Stark) ~ George R R Martin

I was blinded by whispered promises and I never realised how cruel a woman could be until it was too late. ~ Emma Russell

Taxing people for having a spare bedroom and forcing them into rent arrears or the possibility of losing homes they have lived in for years has always been a cruel and heartless measure, and so it is good that the Scottish Parliament has been able to step in. ~ Nicola Sturgeon

W if for Women. They're awful, mendacious,
Nasty and selfish, cruel and salacious,
As thievish as gypsies, more crazy than Celts
Be sure that you never fuck anything else ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Long ago in China, knot-makers tied string into buttons and frogs, and rope into bell pulls. There was one knot so complicated that it blinded the knot-maker. Finally an emperor outlawed this cruel knot, and the nobles could not order it anymore. If I had lived in China, I would have been an outlaw knot-maker. ~ Maxine Hong Kingston

It is because I recognize the brutality with which my own multi-branched ancestors have been treated that I can identify the despicable, lawless, cruel, and sadistic behavior that has characterized Israel's attempts to erase a people, the Palestinians, from their own land. ~ Alice Walker

Life in general was cruel and offered only different types of voids and chaos. The only way to tolerate it, to have any hope of escaping it, I reasoned, was to know my own strength, to defy life by surviving it. ~ Lucy Grealy

He rushed past the usual fragments of painful memories – his mother smiling down at him, her face illuminated by the sunlight rippling off the Venetian Grand Canal; his sister Bianca laughing as she pulled him across the Mall in Washington, D.C., her green floppy hat shading her eyes and the splash of freckles across her nose. He saw Percy Jackson on a snowy cliff outside Westover Hall, shielding Nico and Bianca from the manticore as Nico clutched a Mythomagic figurine and whispered, I'm scared. He saw Minos, his old ghostly mentor, leading him through the Labyrinth. Minos's smile was cold and cruel. Don't worry, son of Hades. You will have your revenge. ~ Rick Riordan

Stigma takes many forms, comes from all directions, is sometimes blatantly overt, but can also be remarkably subtle. It is the cruel comment, the unkind smirk, the extrusion from the group, the lost job opportunity, the rejected marriage proposal, the ineligibility for life insurance, the inability to adopt a child or pilot a plane.

But it is also the reduced expectation, the helping hand when none is needed or wanted, the solicitous sympathy that one cannot really be expected to measure up.

And the secondary psychological and practical harms of having a mental disorder come only partly from how others see you. A great deal of the trouble comes from the change in how you see yourself: the sense of being damaged goods, feeling not normal or worthy, not a full fledged member of the group.

It is bad enough that stigma is so often associated with having a mental disorder, but the stigma that comes from being mislabeled with a fake diagnosis is a dead loss with absolutely no redeeming features. ~ Allen Frances

A rape victim...a rape victim who fights...They've been violated, made helpless and afraid. It breaks their confidence in the safety of their little world. It makes them afraid."

[....]

"If you don't fight, it's not quite the same. If they make you help, make you cooperate, then it's not clear to you anymore. Is it rape? You feel dirty, violated, and guilty. Most of all guilty because you should have fought. Especially if you're Mercy and you fight everything."

[...]

"She chooses to go to Tim's house, but she also feels on some level that it's the wrong thing to do. Her choice. Her fault. Her fault when she drinks from that bloody fairy cup. Her fault that he - "

Just that fast Adam had Ben on the ground underneath him while he snarled. "It's not her fault she was raped," he growled.

Ben lay limp and gave Adam his throat, but he didn't quit talking, even though a tear slid down his cheek. "She thinks so."

Adam stilled.

"What's more," he continued hoarsely. "I bet she wonders if she was raped at all. ~ Patricia Briggs

And yet there are many times when it does not make any difference what pattern one uses. One thing is certain. The more bedraggled the fly gets the better the trout like it. I think there is a reason for this. I think the bedraggled half worn out wet fly more closely imitates a nymph than a new one does. Most commercial flies are tied too bushy and full. A little trimming of wings and thinning out of hackles will often work wonders. ~ Ray Bergman

The Hippocratic oath prevents doctors and medical personnel from participating in executions, so Alabama officials planned for untrained correctional staff to take a knife and make a two-inch incision in Mr. Nelson's arm or groin so that they could find a vein in which to inject him with toxins and kill him. We argued that without anesthesia, the procedure would be needlessly painful and cruel. ~ Bryan Stevenson

Phineas Riordan was exactly what came to mind when someone imagined a cruel prince from a fairytale: the kind that ruined maidens instead of saving them. ~ Nenia Campbell

To do a great right do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will. ~ William Shakespeare

The most wonderful pleasure on earth is in saving treasures in heaven ... The most wonderful treasure lies in the pleasure of doing so ... Live life so well! ~ Israelmore Ayivor