The Reckoning Quotes

The reckoning what to do or abstain from in particular circumstances will constantly include a reference, implicit or explicit, to generalities. […] Because of it human conduct is not left to be distinguished from the behavior of other animals by the fact that in it calculation is used by which to ascertain the means to perfectly particular ends. The human wants things like health and happiness and science and fair repute and virtue and prosperity, he does not simply want, e.g., that such-and-such a thing should be in such-and-such a place at such-and-such a time. ~ G.E.M. Anscombe

But here, in the murk of conflagration, where scarcely a friend is left to know we, the survivors, do not flinch from anything, not from a single blow. Surely the reckoning will be made after the passing of this cloud. We are the people without tears, straighter than you ... more proud ... ~ Anna Akhmatova

The reckoning is how we walk into our story; the rumble is where we own it. The goal of the rumble is to get honest about the stories we're making up about our struggles, to revisit, challenge, and reality-check these narratives. ~ Brene Brown

One must have common sense, nothing is permanent, nothing endures. I have come to the conclusion that this place is run by a madman. A madman, let me tell you, can be very logical. If you are rich and logical and also mad, you can succeed for a very long time in living out your illusion. But in the end....in the end this will break up. Because, you see, it is not reasonable what happens here! That which is not reasonable must always pay the reckoning in the end.

~Dr. Barron ~ Agatha Christie

For Ming Kai's nose - which, like so many Chinese organs, was advanced beyond the reckoning of his Caucasian brother - ~ Daniel Wallace

One hundred fifty years is not long in the reckoning of a hill. But to a man it's long enough.
One hundred fifty years is a week end to a redwood tree, but to a man it's two full lifetimes.
One hundred fifty years is a twinkle to a star, but to a man it's time enough to teach six generations what the meaning is of liberty, how to use it, when to fight for it. ~ Judith C. Waller

[...] my father staggering in drunk, beating my mother, the shame and hate in him burning, burning. Then he'd hit my brothers. And then me whom it was said he loved most. He'd save me for last, when his anger was ashes, when the fire was hottest. And then he's hold me, 'Sugar, sugar', he's croon, the tears so thick they made a lake on the linoleum floor. ~ Joy Harjo

Chase opened the mini fridge. "Wanna drink?" He asked.
"No thank you and you shouldn't either."
"Oh I definitely need one, besides it numbs the hunger." He grabbed a few of the tiny bottles from the door shelf.
"Then by all means get your drink on." Samuel chuckled. ~ S.L. Ross

Everyone has some kind of debt. Such is life. Debts and liabilities, obligations, gratitude, payments, doing something for someone. Or perhaps for ourselves? For in fact we are always paying ourselves back and not someone else. Each time we are indebted we pay off the debt to ourselves. In each of us lies a creditor and a debtor at once and the art is for the reckoning to tally inside us. We enter the world as a minute part of the life we are given, and from then on we are ever paying off debts, To ourselves. For ourselves. In order for the final reckoning to tally. ~ Andrzej Sapkowski

The encounter and separation, for all its wildness, is typical of the sufferings of love. For when a heart insists on its destiny, resisting the general blandishment, then the agony is great; so too the danger. Forces, however, will have been set in motion beyond the reckoning of the senses. Sequences of events from the corners of the world will draw gradually together, and miracles of coincidence bring the inevitable to pass. ~ Joseph Campbell

Once before, Jerott had seen him like that, in Algiers. He had seen him as he was now, with every skill of mind and body tuned to the ultimate pitch in pursuit of one object. Francis Crawford like that was uncontrollable and very close to invincible. But not invincible. And not impervious to the reckoning afterwards. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

I know I have gained Christ and through His blessing I have gained the whole world too, but for what I have lost, for what we have all lost, there is no end to the reckoning. We lost everything. ~ Bernard Cornwell

The terror that took Baru came from the deepest part of her soul. It was a terror particular to her, a fundamental concern - the apocalyptic possibility that the world simply did not permit plans, that it worked in chaotic and unmasterable ways, that one single stroke of fortune, one well-aimed bowshot by a man she had never met, could bring total disaster. The fear that the basic logic she used to negotiate the world was a lie. Or, worse, that she herself could not plan: that she was as blind as a child, too limited and self-deceptive to integrate the necessary information, and that when the reckoning between her model and the pure asymbolic fact of the world came, the world would devour her like a cuttlefish snapping up bait. ~ Seth Dickinson

Come and let us live my Deare,
Let us love and never feare,
What the sowrest Fathers say:
Brightest Sol that dies to day
Lives againe as blithe to morrow,
But if we darke sons of sorrow
Set; o then, how long a Night
Shuts the Eyes of our short light!
Then let amorous kisses dwell
On our lips, begin and tell
A Thousand, and a Hundred, score
An Hundred, and a Thousand more,
Till another Thousand smother
That, and that wipe of another.
Thus at last when we have numbred
Many a Thousand, many a Hundred;
Wee'l confound the reckoning quite,
And lose our selves in wild delight:
While our joyes so multiply,
As shall mocke the envious eye. ~ Richard Crashaw

The Reckoning
The time has come for Retribution
A time for Redemption, A time for Forgiveness
A time for Renewal, A time to prevail
My love will set you free my darling.
Our love, forever bound.
-SL Ross ~ S.L. Ross

We are here. We will work together for what purpose seems to us right. We will work with calm, and with tolerance and, please God, with saving laughter.

'We know something of men. We know of evil, and of sloth, and of self-seeking ambition. We accept it, and will use what we have of wit and good faith to overcome it.

'And if we do not overcome it, still we are the road; we are the bridge; we are the conduit. For something have we been born. For something have we been brought here. And if we hold firm, the men who peopled our earth need not be ashamed, when the reckoning comes, to say, we worked with all we had been given; and for one another.' ~ Dorothy Dunnett

He had made a vow, a private promise to the world in the long dark watches of the night, that if he did survive then in the great afterward he would always try to be kind, to live a good, quiet life. Like Candide, he would cultivate his garden. quietly. And that would be his redemption. Even if he could add only a feather to the balance it would be some kind of repayment for being spared. When it was all over and the reckoning fell due, it may be that he would be in need of that feather. ~ Kate Atkinson

In estimating what amount of power would be requisite to secure the objects of government, we must take into the reckoning, what would be necessary to defend the community against external, as well as internal dangers. Government must be able to repel assaults from abroad, as well as to repress violence and disorders within. It must not be overlooked, that the human race is not comprehended in a single society or community. The limited reason and faculties of man, the great diversity of language, customs, pursuits, situation and complexion, and the difficulty of intercourse, with various other causes, have, by their operation, formed a great many separate communities, acting independently of each other. Between these there is the same tendency to conflict - and from the same constitution of our nature - as between men individually; and even stronger - because the sympathetic or social feelings are not so strong between different communities, as between individuals of the same community. ~ John C. Calhoun

But we had with us, to keep and to care for, more than five hundred bruised bodies of men- men made in the image of God, marred by the hand of man and must we say in the name of God? And where is the reckoning for such things? And who is answerable? One might almost shrink from the sound of his own voice, which had launched into the palpitating air words of order- do we call it? - fraught with such ruin. Was it God's command we heard or His forgiveness we must forever implore? ~ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning. ~ Thomas Hobbes

I had discovered, or rediscovered, that crying is a pleasure - that it can be a pleasure beyond all reckoning if your head is pressed in your mother's waist and her hands are on your back, and if she happens to be wearing clean clothes. ~ Richard Yates

Okay," I began. "You're too old for me. You're scary. It's creepy that you were so all over my mom and now you're all over me. ~ Lili St. Crow

You cannot just keep borrowing more and more and keep spending more and more without eventually having a day of reckoning. ~ Wilbur Ross

Dinosaurs had been around for over 150 million years when their time of reckoning came. They had endured hardships, evolved superpowers like fast metabolisms and enormous size, and vanquished their rivals so that they ruled an entire planet…
Then, literally, in a split second, it ended. ~ Stephen Brusatte

I'm only afraid of dying if I'm to be held accountable for what I did while living. If there's no God or reckoning, I'm like, whew! ~ Dana Gould

But a week must pass; only a week, in Anne's reckoning, and then, she supposed, they must meet; and soon she began to wish that she could feel secure even for a week. ~ Jane Austen

And, above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning. ~ Anthony Trollope

Did we believe a final Reckoning and Judgment; or did we think enough of what we do believe, we would allow more Love in Religion than we do; since Religion it self is nothing else but Love to God and Man. Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. Love is above all; and when it prevails in us all, we shall all be Lovely, and in Love with God and one with another. ~ William Penn

A day of fiscal reckoning was nigh. ~ Adam Nevill

What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. ~ William Shakespeare

I've talked to Bruce about it. He'll have kittens, and Hiro will have penguins, and August will completely throw a fit, but I've made up my mind. It's up to you ~ Lili St. Crow

Try as we might to postpone them, days of reckoning inevitably arrive. ~ Brandon Mull

We will have a reckoning with our culture and religion, with military rulers and Islamists - two sides of one coin. Such a reckoning is essentially a feminist one. And it is what will eventually free us. Women - our rage, our tenacity, our daring and audacity - will free our countries. ~ Mona Eltahawy

Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning; for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds. ~ Bahaullah

But he starting to confuse representing people with owning them, and soon even he going need a reckoning. ~ Marlon James

(...) or there will be a reckoning! ~ Terry Pratchett

In every life, there comes a day of reckoning - a time when unsettled scores demand retribution, and our own lies and transgressions are finally laid bare. ~ Emily Thorne

Talk often, but never long: in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. ~ Bill Vaughan

they had no way of reckoning longitude. ~ Anonymous

My debt to you, Beloved, is one I cannot pay, in any coin of any realm, on any reckoning day. ~ Jessie B. Rittenhouse

There is a time of reckoning in all our lives. ~ Lorna Luft

A man's life weighs more then glory, and a price paid in blood is a heavy reckoning. ~ Lloyd Alexander

Demon, your reckoning has come. - Danel Blackwalker ~ Daniel Calhoun

Only a fool believes a thing of value will be laid in her lap with no reckoning. ~ Brian Staveley

Last night you sat there singing to me 'nothing to hide, believe what I say' and not ten hours later you're standin' in front of me lyin ~ Kristen Ashley

Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea? ~ Samuel Johnson

No reckoning made, but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head. ~ William Shakespeare

Man is fond of reckoning up his troubles, but does not count his joys. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Death is a bored clerk, with too many orders to fill. There is no reckoning. No profound moment. It creeps up on us from behind, and snatches us away while we shit. He ~ Joe Abercrombie

I dreamed I was a single moment in a single day.
A note struck and vanished. A sounding. A reckoning. Gone. ~ Jeanette Winterson

I find that it takes a lot of years of living, and many more of reckoning, to come up with one worthwhile paragraph. And when a deadline looms, prayer doesn't hurt, either. ~ Carmen Agra Deedy

Washington is horribly broken. We are encountering a day of reckoning and this movement, this Tea Party movement, is a message to Washington that we're unhappy and that we want things done differently. ~ Rand Paul

To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning. ~ John W. Gardner