Sarah Bakewell Quotes

Be free from vanity and pride. Be free from belief, disbelief, convictions, and parties. Be free from habit. Be free from ambition and greed. Be free from family and surroundings. Be free from fanaticism. Be free from fate; be master of your own life. Be free from death; life depends on the will of others, but death on our own will. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom', ~ Sarah Bakewell

As the modern critic David Quint has summed it up, Montaigne would probably interpret the message for humanity in Christ's crucifixion as being "Don't crucify people. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) ~ Sarah Bakewell

for Arendt, if you do not respond adequately when the times demand it, you show a lack of imagination and attention that is as dangerous as deliberately committing an abuse. ~ Sarah Bakewell

As one of [Montaigne's] favorite adages had it, there is no escaping our perspective: we can walk only on our own legs, and sit only on our own bum. ~ Sarah Bakewell

He blushed to see other Frenchmen overcome with joy whenever they met a compatriot abroad. The would fall on each other, cluster in a raucous group, and pass whole evenings complaining about the barbarity of the locals. These were the few who actually noticed that locals did things differently. Others managed to travel so 'covered and wrapped in a taciturn and incommunicative prudence, defending themselves from the contagion of an unknown atmosphere' that they noticed nothing at all. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Each man is a good education to himself, provided he has the capacity to spy on himself from close up. ~ Sarah Bakewell

it was one of the many petty weaknesses Montaigne cheerfully acknowledged, adding: If others examined themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Get rid of it I cannot without getting rid of myself. We are all steeped in it, one as much as another; but those who are aware of it are a little better off - though I don't know. ~ Sarah Bakewell

The trick is to maintain a kind of naïve amazement at each instant of experience - but, as Montaigne learned, one of the best techniques for doing this is to write about everything. Simply describing an object on your table, or the view from your window opens your eyes to how marvelous such ordinary things are. To look inside yourself is to open up an even more fantastical realm. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Over the centuries, this interpretation and reinterpretation creates a long chain connecting a writer to all future readers- who frequently read each other as well as the original. Virginia Woolf had a beautiful vision of generations interlinked in this way: of how "minds are threaded together- how any live mind is of the very same stuff as Plato's & Euripides ... It is this common mind that binds the whole world together; & all the world is mind." This capacity for living on through readers' inner worlds over long periods of history is what makes a book like the 'Essays' a true classic. As it is reborn differently in each mind, it also brings those minds together. ~ Sarah Bakewell

From now on, he wrote, we must always take into account our knowledge that we can destroy ourselves at will, with all our history and perhaps life on earth itself. Nothing stops us but our own free choosing. If we want to survive, we have to decide to live. Thus, he offered a philosophy designed for a species that had just scared the hell out of itself, but that finally felt ready to grow up and take responsibility. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Ideas are interesting, but people are vastly more so. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Seneca had an extreme trick for practising amor fati. He was asthmatic, and attacks brought him almost to the point of suffocation. He often felt that he was about to die, but he learned to use each attack as a philosophical opportunity. While his throat closed and his lungs strained for breath, he tried to embrace what was happening to him: to say "yes" to it. I will this, he would think; and, if necessary, I will myself to die from it. When the attack receded, he emerged feeling stronger, for he had done battle with fear and defeated it. ~ Sarah Bakewell

Freedom, for him, lay at the heart of all human experience, and this set humans apart from all other kinds of object. Other things merely sit in place, waiting to be pushed or pulled around. Even non-human animals mainly follow the instincts and behaviors that characterise their species, Sartre believed. But as a human being, I have no perceived nature at all. I create that nature through what I choose to do. Of course I may be influenced by my biology, or by aspects of my culture and personal background, but none of this adds to a complete blueprint for producing me. I am always one step ahead of myself, making myself up as I go along... having found myself thrown into the world, I go on to create my own definition (or nature, or essence), in a way that never happens with other objects or life forms. You might think you have defined me by some label, but you are wrong, for I am always a work in progress. I create myself constantly through action, and this is so fundamental to my human condition that, for Sartre, it is the human condition, from the moment of first consciousness to the moment when death wipes it out. I am my own freedom: no more, no less. ~ Sarah Bakewell

You should make your choices as though you were choosing on behalf of the whole of humanity, ~ Sarah Bakewell

It does not matter how strong your gravity is, we were always meant to fly. ~ Sarah Kay

Kaltain flowed into the room, spreading her arms wide, and became shadowfire, became freedom and triumph, became a promise hissed in a dungeon beneath a glass castle:
Punish them all. ~ Sarah J. Maas

The King of Adarlan is dead," Manon said. The world stopped. "Aelin Galathynius killed him and shattered his glass castle."

Elide covered her mouth with a hand, shaking her head. Aelin... Aelin...

"She was aided," Manon went on, "by Prince Aedion Ashryver."
Elide began sobbing.

"And rumor has it Lord Ren Allsbrook is working in the North as a rebel."

Elide buried her face in her hands. Then there was a hard, iron-tipped hand on her shoulder.

A tentative touch.

"Hope," Manon said quietly. ~ Sarah J. Maas

You are not like other girls. You are not like other girls ("You are not like other girls," the boys you run with will tell you, and you will try not to let them see you preen under the glancing light of their approval). You learn their books and their language. You laugh at their jokes. You listen to their stories, sit blank-eyed on their couched while they play video games, pass them your English notes. You keep their secrets. You use the words they use about other girls in order to assure yourself that they will never use those words about you. You make yourself into nothingness, a ghost conjured into being only through the desires of boys, the rules of boys, the ideas of boys. You're not like other girls. ~ Sarah McCarry

Who seems a harmless fool to those above him is a malevolence to those beneath. ~ Sarah Manguso

Such kings can destroy a world, just as easily as they can build one. ~ Sarah Warden

Rape is more of a fundamental threat to self-determination of tribal nations than the drawbacks federal reform could ever be. Rape and child sexual abuse are directly related to most of the social challenges tribal nations face, and when people are hurting, they cannot effectively govern themselves or provide guidance and support for the children in the community. ~ Sarah Deer

Because people are people. Evie fixed her eyes on him. People have complicated lives. Lives that don't necessarily fall so cleanly into black-and-white choices - people are blind, but still well-intended, and see as far as they can. ~ Sarah Blake

Great potential for personal empowerment can be found in attending to our awareness of global problems and to our understanding of how they connect with each other and with our personal lives. The process of naming the danger, saying aloud that the threats to life on earth are real, moves us from the numbness of denial to the aliveness that makes action possible. ~ Sarah Connor

When you think about archaeology, archaeology is the only field that allows us to tell the story of 99 percent of our history prior to 3,000 B.C. and writing. ~ Sarah Parcak

There was a tattoo, in block letters, low on his pelvis. She sat up on the edge of the bed, her hands reaching behind to grab his ass and pull him closer, so she could read it. "You have got to be shitting me, THE END ZONE, really?" ~ Sarah Curtis

She was god-awfully hideous. I swear she looked like a bad-tempered mutant tomato, and she was making a sound like a cat being fed into a printer ~ Sarah Rees Brennan

There aren't a finite number of things that can make you happy. ~ Sarah Addison Allen

Gods, he was brilliant. Cunning and wicked and brilliant.
Even when he beat the hell out of her. Every. Damn. Day. ~ Sarah J. Maas

But death isn't an ending, Elyse. Just part of a longer journey. Death begets life, remember. One does not exist without the other. ~ Sarah Ockler

Paul Hiebert's Sarah Binks, the cover said. ~ Louise Penny

Never would forever, with all its meanings, be so clear and distinct as in the true, guaranteed end of the world. ~ Sarah Dessen

I love the dog. She comes for drives with me in the back of my car. Darby is not aggressive or judgmental. She just is. That's what I love about her. She sits there and watches 'The Fugitive' with me. ~ Sarah Bolger

You could be different," Elena said quietly. "You could be great. Greater than me - than any of us." Celaena opened her mouth, but no words came out. Elena took a step toward her. "You could rattle the stars," she whispered. "You could do anything, if you only dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That's what scares you most." She ~ Sarah J. Maas

Time in West Africa is not a linear measurement. It can be free-flowing or motionless, but it is never a constant. Time in Africa is personalized, divided and defined on an individual basis. ~ Sarah Erdman

Life is full of screwups," he said, chucking another paper at the split-level before taking the corner. "You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existence. ~ Sarah Dessen

She should not remember what it was like to be free. ~ Sarah J. Maas

And far away, across the snow-covered mountains, on a barren plain before the ruins of a once-great city, a flower began to bloom ~ Sarah J. Maas

They haven't changed Zach; you have. I think that each of us has. ~ Sarah Holman

No one can ever know you like those with whom you've shared the pangs of your youth. ~ Sarah Domet

One thing I've discovered is that if you remain in contact with people, if you build longitudinal relationships, if you invest in sources who seem at first like they're uncomfortable or unwilling to talk, if you keep in touch with them, a year later that might yield something much more powerful. ~ Sarah Stillman

Our faith is often embodied in the relationships and neighborhoods where we live. In our world of globalization, technology, and mobility, we've misplaced the sacredness of place.
The act of staying and living in our place has an impact on us practically, of course, but also on us theologically. It's not always sexy to stay put, is it? In most of my church tradition, no one ever mentioned the holy work of staying. ~ Sarah Bessey

I think there's a ton of fear in the perception of romance in part because there's something very realistic in great romance - namely, that women have the right to demand relationships that are based on equality and honesty and trust and, yes, a great sex life. ~ Sarah MacLean

Read the editorial page of your local paper. It introduces you to opinion and can be terrifically provocative and perhaps a great motivating force for you to get involved in your community, regardless of your political ideology. ~ Sarah Jessica Parker

...anyone who willingly has more than two children is clinically insane. ~ Sarah Jio

Why do adults think every girl who isn't some overachieving nitwit needs to be reassured about her intelligence? Folks, my self-esteem is just fine, thanks. I may not be school smart, and I may do extremely stupid things sometimes, but I know I'm smart. And I'd give me some serious Vegas odds to kick the ass of Sarah Scholar at life-skills moral combat any day. ~ Rachel Cohn

Magical realism is a blending of the unusual or supernatural into an otherwise ordinary setting. And, to me, this perfectly describes the South. 'The Sugar Queen' involves a lot of magical happenings, but in a very down-home Southern setting. It's full of things that could almost be true. ~ Sarah Addison Allen

It's Aelin now," she snapped as loudly as she dared. "Celaena Sardothien doesn't exist anymore. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Cross," she whispered. "Please-"
And in that plea, he lost himself. "Yes, love," he said, inhaling her heady, glorious scent. "I'll give you everything you want. Everything you need."
He stroked into her softness again, and he wondered at the way she wept for him, not knowing what he would give her... what he could do to her... and wanting it nonetheless. "Do you feel it? The truth of it? How much you want me?"
"I want..." she started, then stopped.
He turned his head, nipping at the soft skin of her inner thigh, reveling in the softness there- that untouched, uncharted, silken spread. "Say it." He would give it to her. Anything in his power. Anything beyond it.
She looked down at him, blue eyes fairly glowing with desire. "I want you to want me."
He closed his eyes at that; trust Pippa to be forthright even here, even now, even as she bared herself to his eyes and mouth and hands. Trust her to strip this moment of all remaining shrouds, leaving it raw and bare and honest.
God help him, he told her the truth. He wasn't certain he could do anything but. "I do, love. I want you more than you could ever know. More than I could have ever dreamed. I want you enough for two men. For ten."
She laughed at that, the sound coming on a wicked movement of strong hips and soft stomach. "I don't require ten. Just you."
Even as he knew he would never be worthy enough for her, the words went straight to the hard, straining length of him, and he k ~ Sarah MacLean

( ... ) contemporary art has become a kind of alternative religion for atheists. ( ... ) For many art world insiders and art aficionados of other kinds, concept-driven art is a kind of existencial channel through which they bring meaning to their lives. It demands leaps of faith, but it rewards the believer with a sense of consequence. Moreover, just as churches and other ritualistic meeting places serve a social function, so art events generate a sense of community around shared interests ~ Sarah Thornton

I frowned at the eye in my palm. "What, literally shout at the tattoo?"
"You could try rubbing it on certain body areas and I might come faster. ~ Sarah J. Maas

You say you were asking for a pencil. I say you were sending me a clear message, a warning even, that if I didn't tell everyone about us, you'd move on, with Sarah. ~ Anonymous

The relationship you have with your mother is like nothing else. They do kind of know everything about you, even though they don't confront it. That is often a dynamic from childhood onwards. As a teenager, you want to be independent and do slightly furtive things. ~ Sarah Waters

Some stories don't get told. Some stories you hold on to. To stand and watch and hold it in your arms was not cowardice. To look straight at the beast and feel its breath on your flanks and not to turn
one could carry the world that way.
They sat together, the four of them, a little longer, before Harry rose slowly to his feet. It was Thursday. It was the end of the afternoon. It was time to pick up and carry on to the other side of the day. ~ Sarah Blake

There are those people in your life who matter instantly, on another plane, and you have to marry them or kill them or run the hell away, you can't do it halfway. I hope her house is full of paintings. I hope somebody loves her. ~ Sarah Cornwell

RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION is a manual and a call to action for awakened patriots who are too intelligent to believe the leftist media lies and distortions ... Breitbart reminds us why we must fight for our country's future by staying true to core values and never retreating. ~ Sarah Palin

It wasn't about being happy or unhappy. I just didn't want to be me anymore. ~ Sarah Dessen

But you cannot know the glimpses I have had, you cannot know there is another, dazzling place, that seems to welcome me! I have been led to it, Helen, by someone marvellous and strange. You won't know this. They will tell you of her, and they will make her seem squalid and ordinary, they will turn my passion into something gross and wrong. You will know, that it is neither of those things. It is only love, Helen - only that.
I cannot live, and not be at her side! ~ Sarah Waters

How long has it been since you've slept?" Chase asked.
"I sleep." Not much.
"How long since you've slept more than an hour here and there?"
"I do not require a mother."
Chase lifted a brow. "Perhaps a wife, then?"
Bourne wished Chase were in the damn ring, too. ~ Sarah MacLean