Theodora Guerin Quotes

Eve turned away as a whispered "yes, ma'am" reached her ears. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Why was she saving this asshole? Eve opened her eyes and unlocked the heavy steel bolt securing the five-by-two slab of oak. She looked back, ready to give him the signal to haul ass, when all the air punched from her lungs.
Naked.
It was the only word her stunned mind could form. Eve spun in place, and her rear bumped against the door. Guerin stood there, completely nude, with his briefs and coat in his grip.
"W-wh-what are you doing?" Dear God, she was stuttering like a young girl who'd never seen "boy parts" before. ~ Jessica Lee

Okay you know what, I'm through with you and your threats and your blackmail. Just go ahead and kill me already ~ Theodora Taylor

Only an idiot would bring an important letter out in the rain. ~ Theodora Goss

Witches, with hearts like a wild song, ~ Charles Guerin

Amma Theodora said: A certain monk, afflicted by many sorrows, said to himself, "Leave this place." With these words he began to put his sandals on his feet, and suddenly he saw the devil in the form of a man sitting in the corner of his cell. The devil was also putting on his sandals. He said to the monk, "Are you leaving here because of me? Well then, wherever you go, I will be there before you." ~ Ignatius Bryanchaninov

Where have you been, Theodora?," Mrs Goodman asked.
"Walking, Mother."
"And whom did you see?"
Mrs Goodman flung her grammar like a stone.
"I did not see a cat," said Theodora.
Mrs Goodman looked at her daughter, who giggled before she left the room. ~ Patrick White

He had entered another imaginative world, one connected to the beginning of his life as a writer, to the Napoleonic world that had been a lifelong metaphor for the power of art, for the empire of his own creation He began to dictate notes for a new novel, "fragments of the book he imagines himself to be writing." As if he were now writing a novel of which his own altered consciousness was the dramatic center, he dictated a vision of himself as Napoleon and his own family as the Imperial Bonapartes....William and Alice he grasped with his regent hand, addressing his 'dear and most esteemed brother and sister.' To them, to whom he had granted countries, he now gave the responsibility of supervising the detailed plans he had created for 'the decoration of certain apartments, here of the Louvre and Tuileries, which you will find addressed in detail to artists and workment who take them in hand.' He was himself the 'imperial eagle.'

Taking down the dictation, Theodora [his secretary] felt it to be almost more than she could bear. 'It is a heart-breaking thing to do, though, there is the extraordinary fact that his mind does retain the power to frame perfectly characteristic sentences. ~ Fred Kaplan

No wonder men did not want women to wear bloomers. What could women accomplish if they did not have to continually mind their skirts, keep them from dragging in the mud or getting trampled on the steps of an omnibus? If they had pockets! With pockets, women could conquer the world! ~ Theodora Goss

I will tell you, too, that every fairy tale has a moral. The moral of my story may be that love is a constraint, as strong as any belt. And this is certainly true, which makes it a good moral. Or it may be that we are all constrained in some way, either in our bodies, or in our hearts or minds, an Empress as well as the woman who does her laundry ... Perhaps it is that a shoemaker's daughter can bear restraint less easily than an aristocrat, that what he can bear for three years she can endure only for three days ... Or perhaps my moral is that our desire for freedom is stronger than love or pity. That is a wicked moral, or so the Church has taught us. But I do not know which moral is the correct one. And that is also the way of a fairy tale. ~ Theodora Goss

Fear is the beginning of wisdom. ~ Eugenie De Guerin

But then she put her hands on Mary's shoulders and kissed both her cheeks. Well, Mary didn't mind. Irene was the most interesting woman she had ever met. They were not in competition, but if they had been, she would happily have lost to Irene Norton. ~ Theodora Goss

A little time separates us from those who depart - a time of tears, a time of sadness and solitude; but, that over, we go to rejoin them and to enjoy with them the society of the blessed. Oh, how sweetly the heart rests in this immortal hope! ~ Eugenie De Guerin

Theodora glared at me, but Mrs. Murphy Sallis gave me a brief smile and offered me her hand, which was as smooth and soft as old lettuce. ~ Lemony Snicket

For a king, death is better than dethronement and exile. ~ Theodora

I'm S. Theodora Markson," she said.
"I'm Lemony Snicket," I said, and handed her an envelope I had in my Pocket. Inside was something we called a letter of introduction, just a few paragraphs describing me as somebody who was an excellent reader, a good cook, a mediocre musician and an awful quarreler. ~ Lemony Snicket

Like a lie, cracking and dropping from him. He looked at the gleam of the gold where Guerin placed it, halved, on the workbench. Veretian shackles. In the curve of its metal was every humiliation of his time in this country, every frustration at Veretian confinement, every indignity of an Akielon serving a Veretian master. Except that it was Kastor who had put the collar on him, and Laurent who was freeing him. It ~ C.S. Pacat

Far from checking the spread of immorality, repression has always extended and deepended it. Thus it is futile to oppose it by rigorous legislation which trespasses on individual liberty. ~ Daniel Guerin

Write all the time. I believe in writing every day, at least a thousand words a day. We have a strange idea about writing: that it can be done, and done well, without a great deal of effort. Dancers practice every day, musicians practice every day, even when they are at the peak of their careers – especially then. Somehow, we don't take writing as seriously. But writing – writing wonderfully – takes just as much dedication. ~ Theodora Goss

Selkie women are the women you don't understand. They are the women who know that they belong to another tribe, in another element. And so they seem as though they don't belong in yours – and they don't. They are the women who live by other rules and values, because their rules and values are different from those of this world. They are the women who sometimes seem to be listening to other voices, or music you can't hear, or the call of distant bells. There is a faraway look in their eyes.

Selkie women are the ones who look as though they came out of faerytales, because they did. The ones who look at the sea longingly, who look at the sky as their home. They do not fear death. They only fear imprisonment.

Selkie women are the ones you can't keep. ~ Theodora Goss

Certainly, friends are sufficiently rare not to be neglected; they are life's best comforters. ~ Eugenie De Guerin

One fancies that what one loves cannot die. ~ Eugenie De Guerin

His secretary of many years' standing, Theodora Bosanquet, was struck by this persistent aspect of the Jamesian sensibility: 'When he walked out of the refuge of his study and into the world and looked about him, he saw a place of torment, where creatures of prey perpetually thrust their claws into the quivering flesh of the doomed, defenceless children of light.' Yet ~ Henry James

Sometimes thing are too good to be true. ~ Theodora

First give them beauty. Then give them darkness. ~ Theodora Goss

One great mistake made by intelligent people is to refuse to believe that the world is as stupid as it is. ~ Claudine Guerin De Tencin

I think there is a certain age, for women, when you become fearless. It may be a different age for every woman, I don't know. It's not that you stop fearing things: I'm still afraid of heights, for example. Or rather, of falling - heights aren't the problem. But you stop fearing life itself. It's when you become fearless in that way that you decide to live.
Perhaps it's when you come to the realization that the point of life isn't to be rich, or secure, or even to be loved - to be any of the things that people usually think is the point. The point of life is to live as deeply as possible, to experience fully. And that can be done in so many ways."
(From her blog post "Fearless Women") ~ Theodora Goss

If crimes are committed they must be seen as a disease, and punishment as treatment rather than as social vengeance. ~ Daniel Guerin

I know it's the belief that women should never show daring in front of men. Never be bold when men hesitate. I know flight is not the answer; even to save our lives. ~ Empress Theodora

For the first time, Mary understood the attraction of coffee. If you have been up all night, escaping from a burning mental asylum or fighting men who refuse to die when you shoot them in the forehead, or both, coffee is the perfect beverage. ~ Theodora Goss

To call oneself a libertarian marxist today is not to look backwards but to be committed to the future. The libertarian marxist is not an academic but a militant. He is well aware that it is up to him to change the world - no more, no less. History throws him on the brink. Everywhere the hour of the socialist revolution has sounded. Revolution - like landing on the moon - has entered the realm of the immediate and possible. Precise definition of the forms of a socialist society is no longer a utopian scheme. The only utopians are those who close their eyes to these realities. ~ Daniel Guerin

We are not called upon to do all the good that is possible, but only that which we can do. ~ Theodore Guerin

I stop listening when academics start mixing their Greek and Latin roots. That never leads anywhere productive. ~ Theodora Goss

Witticisms are fire-arms, that make a noise and give pain ... ~ Eugenie De Guerin