Kindlehighlight Quotes

Ah, Death, the spectre which sate at all feasts! How often, Monos, did we lose ourselves in speculations upon its nature! How mysteriously did it act as a check to human bliss - saying unto it thus far, and no farther! ~ Edgar Allan Poe

The message of the Nazarene had been turned into a weapon in some religious power game. 'Look how they love one another' just didn't seem an apt description of the bizarre religious theatre I'd just witnessed. ~ Dylan Morrison

These groups followed some solitary passer-by, hurrying his steps; one after another the doors were closed, one after ~ Alexandre Dumas

Where some see a new world disorder, others see the opportunity to bring organization. ~ Jeff Jarvis

Silence across the field. When they reached the edge of the forest, Claire's anxiety faded. It really would be easier ~ Christine Johnson

The perfect human being is uninteresting. - Joseph Campbell ~ Laura Greenwald

I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk. ~ Iain Banks

By the term cult I mean nothing derogatory to any group so classified. A cult, as I define it, is any religious group which differs significantly in one or more respects as to belief or practice from those religious groups which are regarded as the normative expressions of religion in our total culture. ~ Walter Ralston Martin

That the Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power because men in the mass were frail cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves. That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better. ~ George Orwell

Addiction is the hallmark of every infatuation-based love story. It all begins when the object of your adoration bestows upon you a heady, hallucinogenic dose of something you never even dared to admit that you wanted - an emotional speedball, perhaps, of thunderous love and roiling excitement. Soon you start craving that intense attention, with the hungry obsession of any junkie. When the drug is withheld, you promptly turn sick, crazy and depleted (not to mention resentful of the dealer who encouraged this addiction in the first place but who now refuses to pony up the good stuff anymore - despite ... ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Dear White Fella When I am born I'm black When I grow up I'm black When I am sick I'm black When I go out ina sun I'm black When I git cold I'm black When I git scared I'm black And when I die I'm still black. But you white fella When you're born you're pink When you grow up you're white When you git sick you're green When you go out ina sun you go red When you git cold you go blue When you git scared you're yellow And when you die you're grey And you got the cheek to call me coloured? ~ Steven Pinker

What, then, are some of the shifts that have happened in our understanding of the composing process that make a focus on digital writing in the writing workshop that much more compelling? ~ Troy Hicks

Eisenhower has been much criticized for his failure publicly to endorse the Court's decision. But he felt that doing so would set an undesirable precedent. If a president endorsed decisions he agreed with, might he feel compelled to oppose decisions he did not agree with? And what would that do to the rule of law? "The Supreme Court has spoken and I am sworn to uphold ... the constitutional processes ... I will obey."3 ~ William J. Bennett

Oh, the shame that I suffer now . . . the shame of a vanquished King. And those were the last words of Henry Plantagenet. ~ Jean Plaidy

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Like all strong people, she suffered always a measure of loneliness; she was a marginal outsider, a secret infidel of a certain sort. ~ Anne Rice

The Hopi Indians thought that the world's religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When all the threads are finally woven together they will form a rope that will pull us out of this dark cycle of history and into the next realm. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

You know, you remind me of my younger brother. I miss that kid, so much that I sometimes regret killing him. ~ Blake Crouch

One of the many difficult things about women was that they tended to pick the most unsuitable times to tell you something they considered to be important, and then became irrationally upset when you failed to remember it. ~ Ruth Downie

He hadn't altogether gotten it himself until this moment of seeing straight through to the soul of her. ~ Rebecca Goldstein

Yes, Wagner and the storm intermix with the wine as nights like this run up my wrists and up into my head and back down into the gut ~ Charles Bukowski

It's okay. Let your ego push you to be the initiator. But tell your ego that the best way to get something shipped is to let other people take the credit. The real win for you (and your ego) is seeing something get shipped, not in getting the credit when it does. ~ Seth Godin

This is a book about getting naked - not physically, but spiritually. It's about stripping away the symbols and status of public religion - the Sunday-dress version people often call "organized religion." And it's about attending to the well-being of the soul clothed only in naked human skin. ~ Brian D. McLaren

Every one knew he could foretell wars and famines, though that was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere. ~ Mark Twain

In retrospect, I now believe this expected donation of ten percent of income to the Fellowship was based on bad exegesis of an old Jewish taxation law that Jesus Himself seemed to completely ignore. ~ Dylan Morrison

Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray Forget your woes and let your troubles lay ~ Suzanne Collins

Task not unlike coming to grips with the Holy Ghost.' There ~ Pierangelo Isernia

You keep out of my bed, said Danny, for he knew that Joe Portagee had come to stay. The way he sat in a chair and crossed his knees had an appearance of permanence. ~ John Steinbeck

Bits have unique properties, then, that we can use to our advantage: they're super-small, super-fast, easily acquired and created and copied and shared in near-infinite quantity, protected from the ravages of time, and free from the limitations of distance and space. In practice, though, bits reveal several paradoxes: they're weightless, but they weigh us down; they don't take up any space, but they always seem to pile up; they're created in an instant, but they can last forever; they move quickly, but they can waste our time. ~ Mark Hurst

I strain to hear, but my old ears, for all their obscene hugeness, pick up nothing but snippets: ~ Sara Gruen

I had them all fooled into believing I was normal and well-adjusted, a rock of sensibility who could always be counted on to have a positive attitude. ~ Sara Zarr

Florence which included diplomatic missions to various European courts. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli

Diogenes carried a bowl with him for years, but one day saw a man drinking from his cupped palm and declared, 'I have been a fool, burdened all these years by the weight of a bowl when a perfectly good vessel lay at the end of my wrist. ~ Christopher Moore

A few minutes after he arrived, Lee was talking to a group of astronomers eager to learn what news he could bring them, for there are few natural philosophers as frustrated as astronomers in a fog. ~ Philip Pullman

It doesn't promise to solve or erase suffering but to transform it, pledging that by loving one another, even through pain, we will find more life. And it insists that by opening ourselves to strangers, the despised or frightening or unintelligible other, we will see more and more of the holy, since, without exception, all people are one body: God's. ~ Sara Miles

A child's stories are simpler to understand because the language has not been developed to the point of high abstraction. An adult tells stories far more obtuse in nature. ~ John S. Savage

I believe that the truth is the only force that will set us free. I have hope, not in the tangible or in what I can personally accomplish, but in the faith that battling evil, cruelty, and injustice allows us to retain our identity, a sense of meaning and ultimately our freedom. Perhaps in our lifetimes we will not succeed. Perhaps things will only get worse. But this does not invalidate our efforts. Rebellion - which is different from revolution because it is perpetual alienation from power rather than the replacement of one power system with another - should be our natural state. And faith, ... ~ Chris Hedges

When I look back on my life I come to one simple conclusion: there exists an intelligent, loving Presence in the Cosmos that will ultimately have its desire for relationship with us fulfilled; even our arrogant dismissal of its existence will not stop it in its tracks. The Enlightenment's god, the great idol of free will, lies smashed in pieces in its wake. The jealous Presence patiently draws us homeward like some gigantic electromagnetic beam. The Death Star in reverse. This divinity is, I believe, the 'Abba' of Jesus, a transcendence that will not be boxed in by religious misrepresentation... ~ Dylan Morrison

The customers, mostly well-to-do vacationers with little knowledge of turquoise, were using a standard principle - a stereotype - to guide their buying: expensive = good. ~ Robert B. Cialdini

I had not, it seems, the originality to chalk out a new road to shame and destruction, but trode the old track with stupid exactness not to deviate an inch from the beaten centre. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Mother Astarte who creates and destroys. Kybele, goddess of all that is, was, and ever shall be, he invoked. ~ Karen Essex

My prayer as you read this book is that you will find comfort for the disappointment of unanswered prayer, but also courage to continue on the epic journey that prayer is. ~ Gerald L. Sittser

They're both bungholes who think they're too noble to shit, ~ George R R Martin

Initiative and starting are about neither of these. They are about "let's see" and "try." If there's no clear right answer, perhaps the thing you ought to do is something new. Something new is often the right path when the world is complicated. ~ Seth Godin

Yet, when this cherished volume was now placed in my hand - when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find - all was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Juniper laughed for real, but one of those fake smiles he considered a plague of the Caucasian race followed. If you're sad, be sad, he wanted to say. ~ Jo-Ann Mapson

Or dead is coincidental. Copyright 2010 by Karen Fraunfelder Cantwell Chapter ~ Karen Cantwell

There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all BEGIN freely
a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement. In nine cases out of ten a women had better show MORE affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on. ~ Jane Austen

For instance, when people press their lips together in a manner that seems to make them disappear, it is a clear and common sign that they are troubled and something is wrong. ~ Joe Navarro

Enduring at the time played in his formulation of the test. ~ Jaron Lanier

FORGIVE FAILURE. The corollary to accountability is forgiveness. Things go wrong all the time in relationships, and the healthiest ones move on from them, leaving behind grudges and blame. This is not to say that failure is accepted; rather, that it is acknowledged and understood. ~ Charlene Li

Fall. Stand. Learn. Adapt. ~ Mike Norton

The book is intended to show how it is possible to live in and be enlarged by loss, even as we continue to experience it. ~ Gerald L. Sittser

And once I realized that code I write never fucking goes away and I'm going to be a maintainer for life. I get comments about blog posts that are almost 10 years old. "Hey, I found this code. I found a bug," and I'm suddenly maintaining code. ~ Peter Seibel

That's how you tell what a man's really made of. It's one thing for a man to be big and brave and kill a spider. Any man could do that. Trailin' after a woman when she's shopping for thongs and push-up bras is a whole other category of man. And then if you want to see how far you can go with it, you ask him to carry one of those little pink bags they give you. ~ Janet Evanovich

I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as I lay the sausage against my ear. Abruptly, my cell phone went dead. A drop of grease dribbled into the dead center of my ear, creeping like a worm down onto my neck and below the collar of my shirt. A group of men and women in business suits walked by, swerving to avoid me. Across the street, a homeless-looking guy was staring at me, curious. Yep, this was pretty much rock bottom. As I was about to reach for a napkin and at least get my money's worth by eating the bratwurst while still hot, I heard it. Dave? Can you hear me? ~ David Wong

The feeling I have reminds me of New Year's Eve, when the countdown is coming and I'm not quite sure whether to grab my camera or just live in the moment. Usually I grab the camera and later regret it when the picture doesn't turn out. Then I feel enormously let down and think to myself that the night would have been more fun if it didn't mean quite so much, if I weren't forced to analyze where I've been and where I'm going. ~ Emily Giffin

When they came it was as if the lord of the world had arrived, and had brought all the glories of its kingdoms along; and when they went they left a calm behind which was like the deep sleep which follows an orgy. ~ Mark Twain

At least twice a week, I pause in the rush of work and have a meeting with myself. (If I were part of a team, I'd call a team meeting.) I ask myself, again, of the project: "What is this damn thing about?" Keep refining your understanding of the theme; keep narrowing it down. ~ Steven Pressfield

The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The wrong fit however, can suffocate. ~ Brandon Sanderson

No matter how great a writer, artist, or entrepreneur, he is a mortal, he is fallible. He is not proof against Resistance. He will drop the ball; he will crash. That's why they call it rewriting. ~ Steven Pressfield

But Christian illiteracy is only the first part of the crisis. Even more seriously, even for those who think they speak "Christian" fluently, the faith itself is often misunderstood and distorted by many to whom it is seemingly very familiar. They think they are speaking the language as it has always been understood, but what they mean by the words and concepts is so different from what these things have meant historically, that they would have trouble communicating with the very authors of the past they honor. ~ Marcus J. Borg

For a split second longer she stood motionless. Then, somehow, she had caught at the front of his shirt and pulled him toward her. His arms went around her, lifting her almost out of her sandals, and then he was kissing her - or she was kissing him, she wasn't sure, and it didn't matter. The feel of his mouth on hers was electric; her hands gripped his arms, pulling him hard against her. The feel of his heart pounding through his shirt made her dizzy with joy. No one else's heart beat like Jace's did, or ever could. ~ Cassandra Clare

You think you want love, Mary. You think it is this beautiful gift that does nothing but fill you and make you whole. But you are wrong. Love can be cruel and ugly. It can become dark and cause the deepest pain. ~ Carrie Ryan

I had never been so extravagantly proud of having blood that clotted. ~ Rob Sheffield

No object, no event, no outcome or life circumstance can deliver real happiness to us. We have to make our own happiness - by working hard at activities that provide their own reward.15 ~ Jane McGonigal

As J. B. S. Haldane said when asked what evidence might contradict evolution, 'Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian. ~ Richard Dawkins

She likes us," said Umbo. "I know, I could feel it too," said Rigg. "She's really glad to have us here. I think she loves us like her own children." "Whom she murdered and cut up into the stew." "They were delicious. ~ Orson Scott Card

Lawyers often face intense demands but have relatively little "decision latitude." Behavioral scientists use this term to describe the choices, and perceived choices, a person has. In a sense, it's another way of describing autonomy - and lawyers are glum and cranky because they don't have much of it. ~ Daniel H. Pink

Facebook also has a fundamental characteristic that has proven key to its appeal in country after country - you only see friends there. ~ David Kirkpatrick

He didn't know which he preferred: the Red, with its fatalistic and pious acceptance of all futures, or the Misery, acknowledging that the more you attracted notice, the worse God dealt with you. ~ Kay Kenyon

The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive - and autonomy can be the antidote. TOM KELLEY General Manager, IDEO ~ Daniel H. Pink

Grand a pop for the vampires who survived their first does. ~ Lina Gardiner

Harris said, however, that the river would suit him to a "T." I don't know what a "T" is (except a sixpenny one, which includes bread-and- butter and cake AD LIB., and is cheap at the price, if you haven't had any dinner). It seems to suit everybody, however, which is greatly to its credit. ~ Jerome K. Jerome

Every form of strength is also a form of weakness," he once wrote. "Pretty girls tend to become insufferable because, being pretty, their faults are too much tolerated. Possessions entrap men, and wealth paralyzes them. I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say. ~ Michael Lewis

I didn't share her concern. Damn it. I should have banished you the first time I saw you. I don't have time for this, not with everything else. You should be in the Underworld by now. Kiyo isn't going to kill me. ~ Richelle Mead

There is no Master but the Master," he said, "and QT-1 is his prophet. ~ Isaac Asimov

That you will become entrapped in someone else's recent careless thoughts. ~ Jaron Lanier

Never make a decision until you have to. ~ Jeffrey Zaslow

You see, but you do not observe. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

So this is the goal: To make money by increasing net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment, and simultaneously increasing cash flow. ~ Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Builder pattern is more verbose than the telescoping constructor pattern, so it should be used only if there are enough parameters, say, four or more. ~ Joshua Bloch

Happened as I listened: I felt pain. Not in my head, not in my arm, not in my leg; everywhere at once. I told myself there was no difference between being "inside" and being "outside," that it all came down to X's and O's that could be acquired in any number of different ways, but the pain increased to a point where I thought I might collapse, and I limped away. ~ Jennifer Egan

Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions. ~ Donald A. Norman

When I think of how Jesus loved people, the word "cherish" comes to mind. When we cherish someone, we combine looking and compassion - we notice and care for that person. We don't shut him or her out. ~ Paul Miller

John Andrew Holmes, No exercise is better for the human heart than reaching down and lifting another up. ~ Tim Sanders

Today, I look forward and I see a future in which games once again are explicitly designed to improve quality of life, to prevent suffering, and to create real, widespread happiness. ~ Jane McGonigal

Theoretically the planet could suddenly crack in half, leaving me on one side and you on the other side, forever and tragically parted, but I'm not worried about that, either. Some things, Jace said, ~ Cassandra Clare

When you can do that, little Wren, when you can accept the wearing down and the eroding, then you can do anything. How did I manage to keep going out nights? I just told myself I didn't matter all that much - that those in here mattered more. You know something? It's not so hard really. You just have to get past the fear. ~ Terry Brooks

When you don't know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious. ~ Jason Fried

Isaac Asimov's remark about the infantilism of pseudoscience is just as applicable to religion: 'Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold.' It is astonishing, moreover, how many people are unable to understand that 'X is comforting' does not imply 'X is true'. ~ Richard Dawkins

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim. ~ Frank Herbert

Whatever the Clave was discussing, the Council meeting was dragging on brutally late. But he knows New York. He doesn't know Alicante - ~ Cassandra Clare

This was the winter of 2008/9. Work was ongoing to reinstate a tram system in the city. A lot of people couldn't see the point of trams and many more disliked the disruption. Streets were closed off. There was almost a sense of 'apartheid' as the roadworks made it difficult to move from New Town to Old Town and vice versa. Added to which, the weather was fairly grim. And the banks looked ready to implode. ~ Ian Rankin

I understand why we do that now. It's a help, not a threat. It's something to remind you how important words are. Ideas are important. Principles are important. Words are important. Your word is the most important of all. Your word is who you are. ~ Tom Clancy

The first symptom of the trouble appeared when Madison studied Hamilton's proposal for the funding of the domestic debt. On the one hand, Hamilton's recommendation looked straightforward: All citizens who owned government securities should be reimbursed at par - that is, the full value of the government's original promise. But many original holders of the securities, mainly veterans of the American Revolution who had received them as pay for their service in the war, had then sold them at a fraction of their original value to speculators. What's more, the release of Hamilton's plan produced ... ~ Joseph J. Ellis

Had been equally obvious. The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organisers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists and professional politicians. These people, whose origins ~ George Orwell

Wouldn't that be an incredibly stupid thing to do? To say 'I never want to smoke again', then spend the rest of your life saying 'I'd love a cigarette.' That's what smokers who use the Willpower Method do. No wonder they feel so miserable. They spend the rest of their lives desperately moping for something that they desperately hope they will never have. ~ Allen Carr

As self-knowledge develops, we begin to care more about what we think and less about what others ask of us. We ~ Charles Hayes