Quotes by American Authors - Page 428

We live in a culture of secrecy, where hiding and lying are accepted as natural, even though we don’t like it. We want honesty, transparency, and authenticity in our loved ones, our groups and organizations, and in our own self so we can reach the heights of our capacity. By clinging to the opaque reality we stall our evolution.
Penney Peirce
A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.
W.H. Auden
Housework is what woman does that nobody notices unless she hasn't done it.
Evan Esar
We cannot save everyone, can we?’ I said to her as we continued walking on our way. I turned my head back only to find the spot the beggar had occupied empty. ‘Not everyone,’ she said. She took my hand once more in hers, kissed the back of it, and finished one of the sincerest axioms I had heard in sometime. ‘We must save,’ she said, ‘only the ones we can while we can.’Leila Bakr, in A TIME TO LOVE IN TEHRAN, and speaking to her love, John Lockwood
C.G. Fewston
There’s no value in digging shallow wells in a hundred places. Decide on one place and dig deep. Even if you encounter a rock, use dynamite and keep going down. If you leave that to dig another well, all the first effort is wasted and there is no proof you won’t hit rock again. (52)
Swami Satchidananda
A Master is not someone who merely revels in the benefits that he reaps from the power and control that he wields over his sub. A Master is not just an automaton who emotionally doles out orders and watches with amusement as his minions perform his bidding. A Master is not a person who only relishes the benefits that his superior status entitles him. Certainly all of these characteristics could and often do exist within a Master. He may be demanding and at times selfish. He may genuinely enjoy and even be aroused by the power that he has over a sub. He may be able to expertly control his emotions, issuing his commands and enforcing his discipline with stone-faced determination. But a true Master, a Master such as Matt, was so invested in his sub that he was actually in a way a slave himself. He was a slave to his love for me. He was a slave to his responsibility. He was a slave to the passion and the commitment. He was a slave to his overwhelming desire to protect his property at all costs. He was a slave to his slave. I knew without questions that he loved me so much he'd literally lay down his life for me. He owned me, and his ownership owned him
Jeff Erno
I smile and shed tears of joy when I see someone being kind to others.
Debasish Mridha
My discontent has accumulated over the past months, searching for a leak in the dam I’ve constructed to separate my true feelings from the situation closing in around me.
Doug Cooper
Songs and smells will bring you back to a moment in time more than anything else. It's amazing how much can be conjured with a few notes of a song or a solitary whiff of a room.
Emily Giffin
A succubus on the set. Strike that, the health-conscious kid sister made it two… succubuses. Succubusees? Succubi? Stupid Latin correspondence course.
Jim Butcher
Does't thou love life? Then do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin
Wisdom is a dreadfully wonderful gift,giving you great insight but terrible pain that you learn from.
Royal Cromwell
I should spank you; I didn’t enjoy you impulsively ditching me, but I did enjoy your driving.”“Wait, back up. You…” She paused as she replayed what he’d said earlier. “I was watching for you; how the hell?”“I think somewhere between screaming freedom, and crying your pretty little eyes out, you missed me sifting in and I was at a loss for the weirdness of the situation. I was also pretty sure you wanted some alone time
Amelia Hutchins
To simply survive appears to be the choice of the plodding hoards that wander all around me. Therefore, I’ve adamantly committed to never hoard hoards.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
... at thirty-two she had less dating experience than the average high school student.
Lacey Alexander
Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra as opposed to the Bible? Who wins?
Frank Zappa
When it comes to sexuality, romantic love plays a large part in feminine sexual scripts. Research suggests that women make sense of sexual encounters in terms of the amount of intimacy experienced; love becomes a rationale for sex. If i am in love, women often reason, sex is okay. Men more easily accept sex for its own sake, with no emotional strings necessarily attached. In this way, sexual scripts for men have involved more of an instrumental (sex for its own sake) approach, whereas for women it tends to be more expressive (sex involving emotional attachments). There is evidence to suggest that women are moving in the direction of sex as an end in itself without the normative constraints of an emotional relationship. By and large, however, women are still more likely than men to engage in sex as an act of love. Many scholars suggest that romance is one of the key ways that sexism is maintained in society.
Susan Shaw
Feelings could override facts, as facts could alter feelings. Choose the truth first, rather than following after feelings.
Anthony Liccione
Bravery shared doesn't act like bravado among her own.
Linda Robinson
Both the teardrop and the tempest are made of water, making it the most yielding and most destructive force on Earth.
Fiona Paul
So, Freckles,” he said when I sat down. “Freckles?” I interrupted. “You said I couldn’t call ya, Katie-cat.” I shuddered. “I do have a given name, you know.” “I don’t want to call you what everyone else calls you.” “You don’t?” “Nope.” “Why?” I asked suspiciously. “Because I’m special.” “There goes that ego of yours again.” I held out my arms wide. “Big,” I mouthed.
Cambria Hebert
To improve your being, appreciate yourself for simplest of reasons.
Debasish Mridha
She was everything he'd ever wanted in a woman, and nothing he'd ever thought to find in a lady.
Eloisa James
...not everyone is willing to defend a position of 'not knowing.' There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.
B.F. Skinner
In newer countries, you often find two types of public square: one that is older, organic, chaotic, and populated; and one that is recent, planned, orderly, and deserted. The first type predates the nation-state and accretes over time to accommodate the habits and needs, mainly commercial ones, of ordinary city dwellers. Its names are maidan, souq, bazaar, market. The second is constructed according to a master plan to embody the idealized qualities of the nation, often with grandiose results. The first thrusts people together in a public space, a hive if activity. Its essence is accidental and spontaneous. The second leaves nothing to chance. It tells people that they are subservient to the state and, in a sense, irrelevant to it [George Packer, "History: Influence on Humanity"].
Catie Marron
Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress—probably had never even begun to see into himself
Philip Roth
No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
Gideon J. (Gideon John) Tucker
The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?
Dorothy Day
But seriously – how is this a good example of womanhood? How is this something we should be propping up and praising? Think about the women in your life – your mom, your aunts, your grandmothers, your sisters, your daughters, your nieces, your friends. Would you like ANY of them reduced to one small part of their anatomy? Would you tell them to their faces that they are nothing more than a walking life support system for their vaginas? ‘Cause that’s the message that feminism is sending to women the world over.I thought feminists cared more about a woman’s mind and heart, and less about her body parts....Ladies, we are so much more than our body parts. Don’t take Hollywood airheads like Cate Blanchett as your life example.
Chrissy Johnson
A prayerless age will have but scant models of divine power. The age may be a better age than the past, but there is an infinite distance between the betterment of an age by the force of an advancing civilization and its betterment by the increase of holiness and Christlikeness by the energy of prayer.
E.M.Bounds
Have peace in your heart to find peace in the outer world.
Debasish Mridha
The sound of him drinking was indescribable—like dirty runoff down a storm drain.
Steven Ramirez
David,you’re my true love, why did we wait so long to get together? I don’t care what the world says. Let’s defy them all, my darling.- Maddy
Hailey Abbott
An intensely gripping narrative...expertly crafted and totally addictive...a must read!
Maggie Reese
Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
Mark Twain
It called to him, a sweet heady beacon of femininity, fertility, and fuckability. His three favorite f-words.
Christine Warren
If you don't have the ambition to be the very best at what you do, then what's the point? If you aim for greatness but keep missing -- fine. At least you had the guts to aim. There's honour in failing that way. But there's nothing honourable about settling for mediocrity.
Benjamin Wood
Once upon a time in the Land of Sad, / a girl went on a journey. / She was not a princess, except to her mother... / Her father had vanished some tipsy moons ago, / kidnapped by the pirate Captain Smirnoff.
Susan Browne
Whatever connection we thought we had before this...it doesn't compare to this moment. No matter what happens between us in life, this moment has just merged pieces of our souls together. Well always have that, and in a way it's comforting to know.
Colleen Hoover
You don't love someone because it's the logical thing to do.
Marty Rubin
You are not as great or terrible as you think you are. Neither are they.
J.D. Mader
unaccountably we are aloneforever aloneand it was meant to bethat way,it was never meantto be any other way–and when the death strugglebeginsthe last thing I wish to seeisa ring of human faceshovering over me–better just my old friends,the walls of my self,let only them be there.I have been alone but seldomlonely.I have satisfied my thirstat the wellof my selfand that wine was good,the best I ever had,and tonightsittingstaring into the darkI now finally understandthe dark and thelight and everythingin between.peace of mind and heartarriveswhen we accept whatis:having beenborn into thisstrange lifewe must acceptthe wasted gamble of ourdaysand take some satisfaction inthe pleasure ofleaving it allbehind.cry not for me.grieve not for me.readwhat I’ve writtenthenforget itall.drink from the wellof your selfand beginagain.Mind and Heart
Charles Bukowski
The general public has failed to realize that the USA government has built a High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in most cities with the mass deployment of smart radio frequency transmitting utility meters.
Steven Magee
Keesha looked at me for a long time. "I did leave you alone. We all did. But you didn't get better. You didn't stop. You're still doin' all your weird shit. And I think it's time to stop.""You think it's time to stop!" I exploded, and lunged at her with my hands outstretched. I pushed her real hard. She almost fell down. "I don't care what time you think it is!" I screamed. "Do you think I want to do this! Do you think I like it?""You pushed me!""Yeah. So what?""You're so afraid of being interrupted that you pushed me!""I'm not scared of being interrupted, you jerk! I'm . . . I'm scared . . . I'm scared of being." I crumpled into a ball and sat down where I was standing. I sat on a crack. Unevenly."Who are you anymore, Tara?"Tears spilled over my frozen lashes and disappeared across my cheekbones. I had never felt so defeated. "I don't know.
Terry Spencer Hesser
The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men.
Charles H. Fowler
And she was not beautiful asleep. Her expression slack and not angelic. The very ordinariness of it so beautiful he felt a yearning to be something more than he was or could be. And as good a player as he was, he knew as he turned on the reel to reel and hugged the Fender once again that nothing he composed would ever be as beautiful as her ordinary sleep.Watching her he played the music of her sleeping. And by surrendering made something beautiful.
Steven R. Boyett
the gods play nofavorites.
Charles Bukowski
A nation that can't control its energy sources can't control its future.
Barack Obama
Repetition opens doors, you know?
Tim Lucas
Getting over what you did to me is not why I get out of bed anymore.
Naomi Shihab Nye
I don't speak, I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own.
Frank Herbert
So, great. This is Camp…what do you call it? Camp Fish-Blood?”Aphros frowned. “I hope that was a joke. This is Camp __________.” He made a sound that was a series of sonar pings and hisses.
Rick Riordan
No one wants to stumble into gates on moonless nights to trip in holes dug by dogs, but Maria finds more beauty than danger in night.
Jeannine Atkins
InsomniaI cannot get to sleep tonight.I toss and turn and flop.I try to count some fluffy sheepwhile o'er a fence they hop.I try to think of pleasant dreamsof places really cool.I don't know why I cannot sleep -I slept just fine at school.
Kathy Kenney-Marshall
A man is indeed a city, and for the poet there are no ideas but in things.
William Carlos Williams
It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.
Neal Shusterman
The best lies were the simplest and made the most sense, in the mind and in the mouth.
Rebecca Scherm
I asked this heroic pet lover how it felt to have died for a schnauzer named Teddy. Salvador Biagiani was philosophical. He said it sure beat dying for absolutely nothing in the Viet Nam War.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
When he flashed that rockin’ smile of his again, I couldn’t help but think that me being cute was what might be crossing his mind. Then again, maybe he thought I was a dumbass. Either way, he smiled, which was good enough for me. - Ariel
Victoria H. Smith
When I create characters for the world of others I realize how much I have yet to experience.
Teresa LaBella