The Talisman Quotes

I was away from home, I was a virgin, I thought I had a soul. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

How does something immoral, when done privately, become moral when it is done collectively? Furthermore, does legality establish morality? Slavery was legal; apartheid is legal; Stalinist, Nazi, and Maoist purges were legal. Clearly, the fact of legality does not justify these crimes. Legality, alone, cannot be the talisman of moral people. ~ Walter E. Williams

You're what gives me strength. If I am what centers you, Nikki, then you are what anchors me. Every time I touch you, every time I bury myself deep inside you - Nikki, don't you see?
You are the talisman of my life, and if I lose my grip on you, then I have lost myself. ~ J. Kenner

He thought the ancient Babylonians knew the truth of existence, knew things that were lost later on. Lost or destroyed. Not just the usual stuff about wisdom. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

There are moments in the middle of winter when all seems lost, and the darkness presses in like death, and everthing is cold, and I wake in the night shivering, and relive all I went through then. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

All the fairy tales of Aladdin, or the invisible Gyges, or the talisman that opens kings' palaces, or the enchanted halls underground or in the sea, are only fictions to indicated the one miracle of intellectual enlargement. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

As Lily Cavenaugh says in The Talisman (and it was Peter Straub's line, not mine), "You can never be too thin or too rich." And if you don't believe it, you were never really fat or really poor. ~ Stephen King

A cricketer who hits a century in one match may score zero in the next, if he does not have the same outfit, shoes and bat that he used in the first match. In fact, many sportsmen keep some kind of talisman in their pocket that acts as a lucky charm for their game. Here the talisman or the outfit doesn't possess any magical power that helps the player to perform better. But it is their own subconscious reliance on the charm, that makes them give their best. ~ Abhijit Naskar

I used to joke that she'd married me for my books and my knowledge of the field, and she used to laugh and shake her head. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

Oblivion, or an eternal sleep in which no pain could come to him again. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

Love is the vital essence that pervades and permeates, from the center to the circumference, the graduating circles of all thought and action. Love is the talisman of human weal and woe
the open sesame to every soul. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

He had been ploughing his way through the early volumes, discovering the origins of Lazenby's twin obsessions: sex and eternal life. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

He could not say goodbye to these three rooms as he could to a house he had loved: hotel rooms accepted departures emotionlessly. ~ Stephen King

My next thought was that it might be a city of the jinn, inhabited by a race of demons, its walls the work of magic, it houses built of smoke. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

When he remembered to turn and look for it, the Talisman was gone. ~ Stephen King

To get from the tangible to the intangible (which mature artists in any medium claim as part of their task) a paradox of some kind has frequently been helpful. For the photographer to free himself of the tyranny of the visual facts upon which he is utterly dependent, a paradox is the only possible tool. And the talisman paradox for unique photography is to work "the mirror with a memory" as if it were a mirage, and the camera is a metamorphosing machine, and the photograph as if it were a metaphor ... . Once freed of the tyranny of surfaces and textures, substance and form [the photographer] can use the same to pursue poetic truth" (Minor White, Newhall, 281). ~ Minor White

The intellect,-that is miraculous! Who has it, has the talisman: his skin and bones, though they were of the color of night, are transparent, and the everlasting stars shine through, with attractive beams. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Three things I remember: I was in a city so old it did not have a name,; there was a full moon that cast a pale light over buildings unlike any I had ever seen before; and at the end of a long tunnel something was waiting for me. ~ Jonathan Aycliffe

The essay form has superceded the novel as the vehicle that best suggests the prevailing apocalyptic gestalt, and as the talisman that is most able to repel the onset of paralysing dread. ~ Adam Parfrey

Sometimes the meaning beyond the talisman is greater than the talisman itself.
A star has a hint of galaxies. ~ Talismanist Giebra

Not everything has to be done with herbs and oils. In fact, when it comes to any kind of business-related magic, I much prefer a consecrated metal talisman or paper seal hidden away, rather than a bulky bag that smells like a hippie is hiding in my pocket. ~ Jason G. Miller

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. ~ John Quincy Adams

When you have never known a thing except to dream, it becomes more than a talisman. ~ Robert Jordan

It is odd, isn't it? Whenever I read something interesting, I tear out a piece and keep it as a talisman until I find something new to replace it with. It's a sort of superstition. I did it once and it helped me break out of writer's block, so I've done it ever since. Librarians must hate me. ~ Mohsin Hamid

Why do they use it like that? Peace." "When you have never known a thing except to dream," Lan replied, heeling Mandarb forward, "it becomes more than a talisman. ~ Robert Jordan

You're my wife, Suki. That gives me every right. ~ Sofia Grey

Everything became a metaphor, a talisman, a sign that I was still actually connected to people - that I wasn't so completely on my own. ~ Susan Jane Gilman

Here is a sovereign talisman against regret: never do that which might engender it. ~ David Mamet

I can bear to tell you no more - only that they comforted each other as
well as they could, and, as you probably know from your own bitter
experience, that is never quite good enough. ~ Stephen King

Too often, in novels that are speculative, God is a kind of kryptonite, and that's about all that it is, and it goes back to Dracula, where someone dumps a crucifix in Count Dracula's face, and he pulls away and runs back into his house. That's not religion. That's some kind of juju, like a talisman. ~ Stephen King

Since we're into witches, let's swing by and check out this Isis at Spirit Quest." She slid her eyes right. Well, maybe she'd rag just a little. "You can probably buy a talisman or some herbs," she said solemnly. "You know, to ward off evil."
Peabody shifted in her seat. Feeling foolish wasn't nearly as bad as worrying about being cursed. "Don't think I won't."
"After we deal with Isis, we can grab a pizza sub
with plenty of garlic."
"Garlic's for vampires."
"Oh. We can have Roarke get us a couple of his antique guns. With silver bullets."
"Werewolves, Dallas." Amused at both of them now, Peabody rolled her eyes. "A lot of good you're going to do if we have to defend ourselves against witchcraft."
"What does it to witches, then?"
"I don't know," Peabody admitted. "But I'm damn sure going to find out. ~ J.D. Robb

If I must face this new trial, I would do it with my past fisted in my palm like a talisman reminding me if I could breathe it, I could write it, and when I wrote it, I would find freedom from it. Now, ~ Pepper Winters

Memory was talisman and ward for him, gateway and hearth. It was pride and love, shelter from loss: for if something could remembered, it was not wholly lost. Not dead and gone forever. ~ Guy Gavriel Kay

This one's mine. I've claimed him. And he's wearing my talisman to keep him safe. ~ Leta Blake

Talisman, Talisman, show me your secrets,
Helmsman, Helmsman, turn me for home. ~ Robert James Waller