The Terminal Quotes

The geology of Staten Island is the most complex of the city's boroughs, containing the terminal moraine of the last ice age, a fault line from 470 million years ago, the southern tail of the Palisades formation, and sediments collected over the millennia. ~ Sergey Kadinsky

It [ME] is one of the most disabling diseases that I care for, far exceeding HIV disease except for the terminal stages. ~ Daniel L. Peterson

This "sir, yes sir" business, which would probably sound like horseshit to any civilian in his right mind, makes sense to Shaftoe and to the officers in a deep and important way. Like a lot of others, Shaftoe had trouble with military etiquette at first. He soaked up quite a bit of it growing up in a military family, but living the life was a different matter. Having now experienced all the phases of military existence except for the terminal ones (violent death, court-martial, retirement), he has come to understand the culture for what it is: a system of etiquette within which it becomes possible for groups of men to live together for years, travel to the ends of the earth, and do all kinds of incredibly weird shit without killing each other or completely losing their minds in the process. The extreme formality with which he addresses these officers carries an important subtext: your problem, sir, is deciding what you want me to do, and my problem, sir, is doing it. My gung-ho posture says that once you give the order I'm not going to bother you with any of the details--and your half of the bargain is you had better stay on your side of the line, sir, and not bother me with any of the chickenshit politics that you have to deal with for a living. The implied responsibility placed upon the officer's shoulders by the subordinate's unhesitating willingness to follow orders is a withering burden to any officer with half a brain, and Shaftoe has more than once seen seasoned noncom ~ Neal Stephenson

He touched the keyboard and the terminal displayed a list of all the activities he usually engaged in, then scanned through them. He could touch a key and it would go directly to the activity he wanted, skipping dozens of preliminaries, saving him many painful minutes of typing one character at a time. ~ Orson Scott Card

The evil eye is the fascinum, it is that which has the effect of arresting movement and, literally, of killing life. At the moment the subject stops, suspending his gesture, he is mortified. This anti-life, anti-movement function of the terminal point is the fascinum, and it is precisely one of the dimensions in which the power of the gaze is exercised directly. ~ Jacques Lacan

When you touch this basic nature of human life you feel relief. This is your final abode, your terminal station. If you take the train of human life, finally you arrive at the terminal station. It seems to be a dead end, but it is not the usual dead end. When you reach that terminal station it is the end, but it is also the beginning. At that dead end something happens. A new life comes up. From this basic place you can go anywhere - to the north, to the west, to the south, to the east - everywhere. Your life is open in all directions. ~ Dainin Katagiri

*Always schedule enough time between connections. I always like to give myself at least two hours between flights. It's much easier to sit in the terminal for three hours than it is to sit on standby for two days because you missed your connection. ~ Morgan Carver Richards

Amelia: 'I have to go.'
Viktor: 'I have to stay.'
- The Terminal (movie) ~ Anonymous

The gremlin mob turned on Root, and when they saw the triple-barreled blaster on his hip, they kept right on turning. Root grabbed the microphone from behind the desk, and hauled it out to the extent of its cable. "Now hear this," he growled, his gravelly tones echoing around the terminal. "This is Commander Root of the LEP. We have a serious situation above ground, and I would appreciate cooperation from all you civilians. First, I would like you all to stop your yapping so I can hear myself think!" Root paused to make certain his wishes were being respected. They were. "Secondly, I would like every single one of you, including those squawling infants, to sit down on the courtesy benches until I have gone on my way. Then you can get back to griping or stuffing your faces. Or whatever else it is civilians do." No one had ever accused Root of political correctness. No one was ever likely to either. ~ Eoin Colfer

He always cared for her. He always loved her. He's madly in love with her. She's his Love, Actually. She's his Casablanca. She's the one he'd stop the bus for, the one he'd run through traffic for, the one he'd drive like a crazy man to the airport for and run through the terminal to stop the plane. Her name's above the title for him. She's the opening credit and the closing credit. She's the love of his life. ~ Lauren Blakely

In Technologized Desire, the cultural pathologies that mark the panic ecstasy and terminal doom of the posthuman condition are powerfully rehearsed in the language of science fiction. Here, images of prosthetic subjects, zombies, cut-ups and armies of the medieval dead actually slip off the pages of literature to become the terminal hauntology of these technologized times. Technologized Desire is nothing less than a brilliant data screen of future memories. Read it well: it's a survival guide for bodies flatlined by the speed of accelerating technology. ~ Arthur Kroker

I jumped out of the cab and flung money at the driver without counting it or waiting for change, and as I ran into the terminal I thought, Chuppah. That was the name of the Jewish wedding canopy. Remembering the word pleased me a whole lot more than it should have, and I made a mental note to think about why that mattered some other day. I ~ Jeff Lindsay

For once, Watson didn't look the worse for wear. He never fared well on planes across the Atlantic, sleeping fitfully or not at all, but this morning his hair was so extravagantly tousled, I knew he'd spent the whole flight unconscious. Though the red lines near his temple (striated; elastic?) flummoxed me until -
"You had on a sleeping mask," I said, delighted beyond all sense. "Tell me, was it one of those with the eyelashes printed on it? Was it silk? Was it your mother's, or -?"
He pulled it from his pocket and tossed it to me; I caught it one-handed. Black silk, sans eyelashes. "You're a jerk," he said, laughing. "I bought it in the terminal."
"Why would I be a jerk? I'm only asking about your beauty sleep. ~ Brittany Cavallaro

I also remember catching the eye of the few conscientious objectors in the terminal, the people opposed to the war but afraid to speak up. There was no hate in their eyes, only pity. Sadness. Knowledge that I might be necessary, but that we shouldn't be proud that I was necessary. That's how I saw myself and my company by the end of my second tour. I didn't hate what we did so much as hate the need for it all. No one should applaud this. We should bow our heads not in thanks but in sadness. ~ Hugh Howey

At the San Francisco Airport"

To my daughter, 1954

This is the terminal: the light
Gives perfect vision, false and hard;
The metal glitters, deep and bright.
Great planes are waiting in the yard -
They are already in the night.

And you are here beside me, small,
Contained and fragile, and intent
On things that I but half recall -
Yet going whither you are bent.
I am the past, and that is all.

But you and I in part are one:
The frightened brain, the nervous will,
The knowledge of what must be done,
The passion to acquire the skill
To face that which you dare not shun.

The rain of matter upon sense
Destroys me momently. The score:
There comes what will come. The expense
Is what one thought, and something more -
One's being and intelligence.

This is the terminal, the break.
Beyond this point, on lines of air,
You take the way that you must take;
And I remain in light and stare -
In light, and nothing else, awake. ~ Yvor Winters

Graduation is not the terminus of your experience; it is the terminal of your success. ~ Christian J. Dolores

All this intelligent and careful work revealed a man of great forethought. Yet you could see in Mr. Wicks's eyes
as he stood in the shade of the terminal awning, all that tweed and education waving to us, as one by one each bus pulled out for the noisy drive into the city
that he had failed. ~ Bill Buford

We need adventure, we need meaning, we need identity. We need love. Someone who has seen us through loving eyes has awakened us from the ranks of the formerly dead. Most people bear the terminal stress of walking the world unseen, a mere number or cog in a lifeless machine. ~ Marianne Williamson

They called it the Terminal Bar but they had no idea that like twenty years later the place'd be filling up with terminal cases. ~ Tom Waits

The wind seemed to be pushing the darkness into the terminal. ~ Rainbow Rowell

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. ~ W. H. Auden

One immutable law of travel is that one's arrival or departure gate is always at the extreme outer limit of the terminal, especially if your bag is heavy or your shoes have just begun to pinch. ~ Sue Grafton

We need to put undercover security armed people at the curbside of the terminal with the uniform of policemen. We need to protect the terminal. We need to protect the security checkpoint, the gate, the aircraft, the perimeter. ~ Isaac Yeffet

Two-thirds of the terminal cancer patients in the Coping with Cancer study reported having had no discussion with their doctors about their goals for end-of-life care, despite being, on average, just four months from death. But the third who did have discussions were far less likely to undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation or be put on a ventilator or end up in an intensive care unit. Most of them enrolled in hospice. They suffered less, were physically more capable, and were better able, for a longer period, to interact with others. In addition, six months after these patients died, their family members were markedly less likely to experience persistent major depression. In other words, people who had substantive discussions with their doctor about their end-of-life preferences were far more likely to die at peace and in control of their situation and to spare their family anguish. ~ Atul Gawande

Cooper grinned at me. "So, are you going to see me off at the airport? Stand in the terminal lounge, staring out the window, waiting for my plane to take off?"
I snorted. "Um, no. I was going to drop you off at the departure terminal so I didn't have to get a parking spot."
He gaped and narrowed his eyes. "When you get home, do me a favour and Google the word chivalry," he said flatly. "It's spelled c-h-i-v - "
"Shut up," I said with a laugh.
"Or even look up the definition of 'nice boyfriend'. I'm pretty sure it says 'does not drop off loved one at terminal gate' or 'does not tell boyfriend to shut up'. ~ N.R. Walker

Every Jew was the last Jew; Tevye the Terminal, every single one. Yet, Kugel couldn't help but observe, in all that time - no last Jew. There had been a last Assyrian. There had been a last Ammonite. There had been a last Babylonian, a last Mesopotamian, a last of the Mohicans. But no last Jew. ~ Shalom Auslander

So, Mr. Digence, home to visit the family?"

"That's right. My mother's folks are from Killarney."

"Oh, really?"

"O'Reilly, actually. But what's a vowel between friends?"

"Very good. You should be on the stage."

"It's funny you should mention that."

The passport officer groaned. Ten more minutes and his shift would have been over. "I was being sarcastic, actually. . ."

"Because my friend, Mr. McGuire, and I are also doing a stint in the Christmas pantomime. It's Snow White. I'm Doc, and he's Dopey."

The passport officer forced a smile. "Very good. Next."

Mulch spoke for the entire line to hear. "Of course, Mr. McGuire there was born to play Dopey, if you catch my drift."

Loafers lost it right there in the terminal. "You little freak!" he screamed. "I'll kill you! You'll be my next tattoo! You'll be my next tattoo!"

Much tutted as Loafers disappeared beneath half a dozen security guards.

"Actors," he said. "Highly strung. ~ Eoin Colfer

The Dalai Lama took the Archbishop's hand, and then they were more eight than eighty, laughing and making jokes together as they strolled toward the terminal, yellow umbrella sheltering above them. Even ~ Dalai Lama XIV

Omitting sacrifice will gain you nothing...
He is the striver,
who sacrifices delight, ail, sympathy and slumber,
and at the terminal
Striver is the WINNER. ~ Prerna Sharma

The spectacle of the constabulary in the terminal with automatic weapons slung on their shoulders also made me homesick, confirming I was again in a country with its malnourished neck under a dictator's loafer. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

How far can the airlines go?" replied a clearly irritated TWA spokesman when asked whether his employer planned to make any changes to its boarding procedures. "Restrict everyone from the terminal except those who have a ticket? Stop everyone from entering the airport area except those who ~ Brendan I. Koerner

About thirty-five genera of mammals disappear from America, about half of them in a brief window of 500 years, 13,200 to 12,700 years ago, with Clovis hunters occupying the core of that time period. A sudden cooling, the Younger Dryas, descends on the Earth by 12,880 years ago, marking the terminal appearance of many of these animals. Suspected causes of the YD are still contentious. But it signals the end of Clovis and much of the megafauna. ~ Doug Peacock

When I burst into the terminal, my eyes swept around, bouncing from person to person in the crowded, bustling space. My stomach fell a little when I didn't see him, but I knew he probably couldn't come this far. He was probably at baggage claim.
I looked around for a sign to point me in the right direction and finally saw one labeled Baggage Claim with an arrow pointing off to the left.
But I didn't follow the arrow.
My eyes fixed on someone standing beneath the sign.
His hands were jammed into the pockets of his well-worn slouchy jeans. The relaxed action pulled the waistband low, highlighting his flat, narrow waist his Henley tee molded to. As usual, he was wearing his varsity jacket and his blond hair was a mess.
My gaze locked on his sapphire-blue eyes and didn't let go. His eyes, ohmigod, his eyes. The blue was so intense it served as an emergency brake on everything in my life. The second I looked at him, everything else came to a screeching halt. I no longer noticed the huge crowd rushing around.
The anxiety-causing flight was just a distant memory, and the two weeks I spent longing for his touch became something I would live through ten times over just to be in this moment with him again.
His lips pulled into a smile and the charm that oozed from every pore in his body made me almost lightheaded. Romeo pulled his hands out of his pockets and straightened, motioning for me.
I rushed across the space separating us, my bag ~ Cambria Hebert

The Terminal
I pace the Greyhound waiting room,
that famished void on the outskirts of Reno
between the Atavans and Ambiens,
filled with the stench of the homeless and
the suicide ticking of attoseconds.
It is a zombie casino with no clocks
partitioned with great walls of glass.
On the other side of the glass I see people
take tokens from Big Gulp sized cups
and feed them into the mute ears of bandits.
They are the gamblers whose tokens
are redeemed into winnings. They breathe
without conscious effort and board their buses.
On my side of the glass there are
no gamblers, no buses, no exits.
There are just Dixie cups of meds
to transport me through REMless dreams
to awaken another day
in the same terminal
waiting and breathing,
breathing and waiting
for the glass to shatter
so I may redeem
my fist full of tokens. ~ Beryl Dov

So I got off the plane and I forget to take off my seat-belt and I'm dragging the plane through the terminal ... The wings are knocking people over ... ~ Steven Wright

The bartender - Chip - said, "Had a few too many of my margaritas?" "The first one was too many," Holden replied, then climbed under the booth looking for the terminal. "And calling that a margarita should be illegal." "It's as margarita as it gets with rice wine and lime flavor concentrate," Chip said, sounding vaguely hurt. ~ James S.A. Corey

The suppression of ecstasy and condemnation of pleasure by patriarchal religion have left us in a deep, festering morass. The pleasures people seek in modern times are superficial, venal, and corrupt. This is deeply unfortunate, for it justifies the patriarchal condemnation of pleasure that rotted out our hedonistic capacities in the first place! Narcissism is rampant, having reached a truly global scale. It now appears to have entered the terminal phase known as "cocooning," the ultimate state of isolation. Dissociation from the natural world verges on complete disembodiment, represented in Archontic ploys such as "transhumanism," cloning, virtual reality, and the uploading of human consciousness into cyberspace. The computer looks due to replace the cross as the primary image of salvation. It is already the altar where millions worship daily. If the technocrats prevail, artificial intelligence and artificial life will soon overrule the natural order of the planet. ~ John Lamb Lash

God, thank you for waking me up this morning. I want to embrace every day, however limited my day may be, as a gift from God. I want to live this day to its fullest. I know there are things I can no longer do. I know I am facing daily limitations. But I want to focus on what I can do, not on what I cannot do. So help me God. I know this day will never be repeated. I know I cannot live it over again. Help me to live it to its fullest. ~ Ed Dobson

Life is some kind of a terminal disease, otherwise, why do we have more dead people than alive? ~ Boris Zubry

Life - a sexually transmitted terminal condition. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

He kissed her then. Not tentative. Not polite.
This was no first-kiss kiss. It was demanding. Dirty. And it went on and on. Deep, open-mouthed, head-twisting, tongue-fucking, rock'n'roll kissing. ~ Amy Andrews

Bach is thus a terminal point. Nothing comes from him; everything merely leads to him. ~ Albert Schweitzer

Dr. Monroe and I realized very gradually that drug addiction is a terminal disease. It is a cancer that eats families alive. ~ Karin Slaughter

I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever. ~ Quincy Jones

I have been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). It's a terminal disease with an average lifespan of two to five years post-diagnosis, and scientists don't know what causes it. ALS prevents your brain from talking to your muscles. As a result, muscles die. As a result, every 90 minutes people die. I am a person. ~ Steve Gleason

And nostalgia is a cancer. Nostalgia will fill your heart up with tumors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what you are. You're just an old fart dying of terminal nostalgia. ~ Sherman Alexie

No matter what's in your head, you go up into any hospital, up to a terminal ward and it'll smack you right back into reality that, "Hey man, whatever you're dealing with, if it's heavy on your heart and head, you're gonna have to let that go, because there, some people are dealing with unavoidable situations that they can't let go." And then they eventually let those go, so, I mean, that's helpful. ~ Chuck D

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival. ~ Noam Chomsky

When my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1991, I asked him if he had any regrets, and he said no. I was a burnt-out litigation solicitor in my thirties, hating my life, and his cancer made me re-evaluate it all. ~ Michelle Paver

His fee was $300 an hour, and
for clients who couldn't afford that, he had a sliding scale that was
never less than $250 - except for crying old ladies facing terminal
diagnoses. ~ Lisa Scottoline

He hit terminal velocity and kept accelerating, ~ Lev Grossman

To have Achilles's gratitude was clearly a terminal disease. ~ Orson Scott Card

Short-term can be terminal. ~ Mark McCormack

No man is infinitely strong; for every creature that runs, flies, hops or crawls there is a terminal nemesis which he will not circumvent, which will finally do him in. ~ Philip K. Dick

Ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity, intelligence, or common sense. ~ Gene Spafford

Miguel Angel," he said, "It isn't hard to die. Everybody does it. Even flies do it. Everyone here is doing it. We're all terminal." He had a tear in his eye; Big Angel could see it brimming. "Your schedule is just different from mine. ~ Luis Alberto Urrea

Death is very, very terminal. ~ David Lange

We're all terminal; none of us are getting out of this alive. ~ Valerie Harper

While this has been a private part of my family's life, it is now clear a media story will soon emerge. My father tragically ended his life while battling terminal cancer in 1979. ~ Bill De Blasio

Life, by nature, is a terminal illness. ~ Dylan Moore

A smart terminal is not a smartass terminal, but rather a terminal you can educate. ~ Rob Pike

Depression can seem worse than terminal cancer, because most cancer patients feel loved and they have hope and self-esteem. ~ David D. Burns

Life is a terminal illness. ~ David Mitchell

It must be understood that, as adults, we are all terminal. ~ Jacob K. Javits

You're fly, Mum."
"Is that like cool?"
"More like sick. Better yet, dumb ill."
"Oh, dear God, before you know it I'll be terminal. ~ C. Kennedy

Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

To only see 'death' in death is to somehow assume that death itself is a barrier so abrupt that God Himself is halted by it. To see 'life' in death is to understand that death is a sprawling horizon to a new beginning that God created long before death ever thought to show up. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

Life is a terminal condition. Were all going to die. Cancer patients just have more information, but we all, in some ways, wait for permission to live. ~ Kris Carr

Quentin wasn't stupid, despite living what his father called 'a lifestyle unworthy of yourself'. ~ Ros Baxter

There is only one terminal dignity - love. ~ Helen Hayes

Indian System of Medicine is not just traditional Ayurveda, unani, or yoga but also a vast field of ancient oral and family medicine traditions. Especially nadi based gut-brain axis modulation medicines are most effective for terminal illness. ~ Amit Ray

Drug-use is a terminal disease. ~ Virgil Miller Newton

My mother, father, stepmother and surrogate mother have all died of cancer; my best friend has got terminal cancer and at least five of my other friends have had cancer but survived it. ~ Arabella Weir

As an ex-footballer, sometimes surfer and wannabe rock star, Quentin had been fucked by cheerleaders, surfer girls and groupies, but he had never, ever been fucked like that. ~ Ros Baxter

I am convinced that we are in a terminal process. ~ E.P. Thompson

To say ... that Laetrile should not be continued to be used by those who are suffering from terminal cancer, I would have to hang my head in shame. ~ Luther L. Bohanon

I'm not even sure where home is. Probably Terminal 5. There is a strange sense of calm about arriving back at Heathrow. ~ Alex Turner

There is no God for sure, else how could one justify terminal diseases in small kids? ~ Pawan Mishra

Being down is not abnormal; it's a virus that we all must contact at different times. Who you look up to recovery is what separates us! This phase has a terminal date....... ~ Bayode Ojo