Quotes by American Authors - Page 633

New York City is finished," he said. "They can't keep order there, and you can't have business without order. It'll take a hundred years to sort things out and get it all going again."t"What do you hear of the U.S. government? I said. "We don't have electricity an hour a month anymore and there's nothing on the air but the preachers anyway."t"Well, I hear that this Harvey Albright pretends to be running things out of Minneapolis now. It was Chicago, but that may have gone by the boards. Congress hasn't met since twelve twenty-one." Ricketts said, using a common shorthand for the destruction of Washington a few days before Christmas some years back. "We're still fighting skirmishes with Mexico. The Everglades are drowning. Trade is becoming next to impossible, from everything I can tell, and business here is drying up. It all seems like a bad dream. The future sure isn't what it used to be, is it?"t"We believe in the future, sir. Only it's not like the world we've left behind," Joseph said.t"How's that?"t"We're building our own New Jerusalem up the river. it's a world made by hand, now, one stone at a time, one board at a time, one hope at a time, one soul at a time. . .
James Howard Kunstler
Good for you and be proud of yourself because you have your priorities in order. Be proud of yourself if you are responsible, reliable, persistent, and take your job and education seriously.
Ana Monnar
I don’t have to be logical. I’m a leopard. We’re considered wild animals, you know. (Spoken by Megan.)
Amy Neftzger
I had to figure out if I was happier being with a live woman or living with the memories of a dead one.
Rebecca Forster
Gay life is this object out there that’s waiting to be written about. A lot of people think we’ve exhausted all the themes of gay fiction, but we’ve just barely touched on them.
Edmund White
Loving, of enemies is another dogma of feigned morality, and has besides no meaning. It is incumbent on man, as a moralist, that he does not revenge an injury; and it is equally as good in a political sense, for there is no end to retaliation; each retaliates on the other, and calls it justice: but to love in proportion to the injury, if it could be done, would be to offer a premium for a crime. Besides, the word enemies is too vague and general to be used in a moral maxim, which ought always to be clear and defined, like a proverb. If a man be the enemy of another from mistake and prejudice, as in the case of religious opinions, and sometimes in politics, that man is different to an enemy at heart with a criminal intention; and it is incumbent upon us, and it contributes also to our own tranquillity, that we put the best construction upon a thing that it will bear. But even this erroneous motive in him makes no motive for love on the other part; and to say that we can love voluntarily, and without a motive, is morally and physically impossible.Morality is injured by prescribing to it duties that, in the first place, are impossible to be performed, and if they could be would be productive of evil; or, as before said, be premiums for crime. The maxim of doing as we would be done unto does not include this strange doctrine of loving enemies; for no man expects to be loved himself for his crime or for his enmity.Those who preach this doctrine of loving their enemies, are in general the greatest persecutors, and they act consistently by so doing; for the doctrine is hypocritical, and it is natural that hypocrisy should act the reverse of what it preaches. For my own part, I disown the doctrine, and consider it as a feigned or fabulous morality; yet the man does not exist that can say I have persecuted him, or any man, or any set of men, either in the American Revolution, or in the French Revolution; or that I have, in any case, returned evil for evil.
Thomas Paine
If you truly must obey your mistress. If you truly must have revenge, then you can start with me. But if you choose to follow your own path, well you can start that with me too if you like.
Steve Hockensmith
White ain't nothing.'Mama's grip did not lessen. 'It is something, Cassie. White is something just like black is something. Everybody born on this Earth is something, and nobody, no matter what color is better than anybody else.''Then how come Mr. Simms don't know that.''Because he's one of those people who has to believe that white people are better than black people to make himself feel big.' I stared questionably at Mama, not really understanding.Mama squeezed my hadn't and explained further, 'You see, Cassie, many years ago, when our people were fist brought from Africa in chains to work as slaves in this country--''Like Big Ma's Papa and Mama?'Mama nodded. "Yes, baby. Like Papa Luke and Mama Rachel. Except they were born right here is Mississippi, but their grandparents were born in Africa. And when they came, there was some white people who thought that is was wrong for any people to be slaves. So the people who needed slaves to work in their fields and the people who were making money bringing slaves from Africa preached that black people weren't really people like white people were, so slavery was all right. They also said that slavery was good for us because it thought us to be good Christians, like the white people.' She sighed deeply, her voice fading into a distant whisper, 'But they didn't teach us Christianity to save our souls, but to teach us obedience. They were afraid of slave revolts and they wanted us to learn the Bible's teachings about slaves being loyal to their masters. But even teaching Christianity didn't make us stop wanting to be free, and many slaves ran away.�...She was silent for a moment, then went on. 'Well, after a while, slavery became so profitable to people who had slaves and even to those who didn't that most people started to believe that black people weren't really people like everybody else. And when the Civil War was fought, and Mama Rachel and Papa Luke and all the other slaves were freed, people continued to think that way. Even the Northeners who fought the war didn't really see us equal to white people.'So, now, even though seventy years have passed since slavery, most white people still think of us as they did then, that we're not as good as they are. And people like Mr. Simms hold onto that belief harder than some other folks because they have little else to hold onto. For him to believe that he is better than we are makes him think that he's important, simply because he's white.
Mildred D. Taylor
I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.
John Kennedy Toole
Nobody really knows what I am,” Nyx said. “Not until I put a bullet in their head.
Kameron Hurley
Sometimes you have to give something up to get something better.
Miranda Kenneally
Amalie took his hand and spread it against her heart. Her smile was utterly tranquil. 'The world changes and the world stays the same', she told him, ... 'The old moon sets. New moon rises.
Sharon Shinn
This is the Self-Esteem Looking-Glass. You have to look in the mirror and compliment yourself.
Malia Ann Haberman
I remind you that there are churches so completely out of the hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn't find it out for many months
A.W. Tozer
What would you rather have, peace or freedom?
Eric Kripke
When I was a little girl I used to read fairy tales. In fairy tales you meet Prince Charming and he's everything you ever wanted. In fairy tales the bad guy is very easy to spot. The bad guy is always wearing a black cape so you always know who he is. Then you grow up and you realize that Prince Charming is not as easy to find as you thought. You realize the bad guy is not wearing a black cape and he's not easy to spot; he's really funny, and he makes you laugh, and he has perfect hair.
Taylor Swift
Owning a dog is slightly less expensive than being addicted to crack.
Jen Lancaster
After all, that's why we read historical fiction-to be transported to another time, and to be astonished at ancient people's lives and traditions, just as they would probably be astonished at ours.
Michelle Moran
We are all swimmers before the dawn of oxygen and earth. We all carry the memory of that breathable blue past.
Lidia Yuknavitch
In order for us to grow we have to get our feet wet. If God put all the answers in front of us, we would never learn. We need to dig a little deeper, reach a little further, think a little harder, run a little faster, and surprisingly when we utilize our capabilities and push our limits, we begin to grow in leaps and bounds.
Lindsey Rietzsch
When I reached the street I didn't know whether to go right or left. Soon I'd have to start acting like a person who cared about what happened to him.
Denis Johnson
I invent a reason for the Hertz attendant to start the rental car.I am seventy-five years old: this is not the reason I give.
Joan Didion
While police internal affairs is allowed to protect corrupt police officers that engage in unethical behaviors, illegal activities or murder, there will always be a genuine mistrust by the common people.
Steven Magee
God’s side is determined not by geography, but by those who do His will. If Germans, English, Japanese, and Americans prayed right, they would all be praying for the same intention: Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And what is that Will? The reign of Justice and Charity in the hearts of men. Through a prayerful contemplation of war we will see not soldiers of different nations in combat, but one great family, quarreling, fighting, wounding, and all in need of the peace and charity of Christ which we hope to obtain by our supplications.
Fulton J. Sheen
every loss, every mistake, was seared into her soul, creating a different kind of tattoo, one made from rage and abandonment, heart break and tears
Kami Garcia
Terrible things happened when you were least expecting them...But it seemed that wonderful things could happen too. You could be forced to take a trip, not knowing who you would meet. Not knowing that it would change your life.
Morgan Matson
Only a philosopher would consider taking Oedipus as a model for a normal, unproblematic relation between an action and the maxim of the act.
Jerry A. Fodor
They declare that it is unpatriotic and disruptive to question the workings of authority--but patriotic to institute harsh and regressive policies that benefit the wealthy, undermine social programs that serve the needs of the great majority, and subordinate a frightened population to increased state control.
Noam Chomsky
We don't know how our choices can change the course of our lives until they do. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes tragedy for us to realize it.
Rachel Renee
If I want to catch the damn worm I get outta bed.
Lois Greiman
Fear's a box we grow used to, convince ourselves it's all the space we need, that we like its color, its smell, its protection. Comes a time to stop hiding, stop being afraid. If we don't break free of our boxes, our spirits' shrink, we shrink in every way imaginable. Oh, Grace, my friend, don't let fear, especially someone else's fear, prevent you from living your life.
Joan Medlicott
Sometimes you have to get sad before you get happy 'cause otherwise how would you know the difference?
Maureen Child
Let me eat the love and digest it.Let me love the flower and beautify it.
Debasish Mridha
I have yet to discover a source of information, practical advice, and hope that compares to the wisdom found in the Bible.
Billy Graham
Talking doesn't get your point across but listening does.
Debasish Mridha
Where, then, do we find the truth? We find it in the body, in the woods, in the water, in the soil. We find it in music, dance, and sometimes in poetry. We find it in a baby’s face, and in the adult’s face behind the mask. We find it in each other’s eyes, when we look. We find it in an embrace, which is, when we feel into it, being to being, an incredibly intimate act. We find it in laughter and sobs, and we find it in the voice behind the spoken word. We find it in fairy tales and myths, and the tales we tell, even if fictional. Sometimes embroidering a tale enlarges it as a vehicle for the truth. We find it in silence and stillness. We find it in pain and loss. We find it in birth and death.
Charles Eisenstein
i've heard this called st. peter's square," arlene said. "but it isn't square. it's oval.
David Morrell
She’s alive, Alaric. She was wounded, but it was minor,” Alexios said, a rough compassion in his voice. A strange weakness raced through Alaric and he had to fight his own lungs to draw breath. Quinn was wounded. “How minor?” he snarled. “Tell me, now.
Alyssa Day
Like some homeopathic cure, our very sense of imprisonment can be a step toward liberation. We need not rebel against our temporally determined roles. Merely to recognize them is to limit their power over us. The liberation implied by such awareness is threefold. To understand one’s own temporal determinism is to establish, above and beyond what one says and does, an analytic posture toward the present as history; it is to achieve, amid the earnest vanities of contemporary society, an easing humility; it is to mark off, as territory precious and imperiled, the moments and pursuits that are left to our choice.
Robert Grudin
We read to know we’re not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.
Gabrielle Zevin
Divine judgment is intended not to destroy but to awaken people to the devastating truth about their lives.
Walter Wink
Years ago, a group of good, wise, brave, God-fearing men stood up to claim and defend the human right for independence. Those men are now dead. Their work is not. If good, wise, brave, God-fearing men fail to stand up in their stead, that independence will cease to exist.
Richelle E. Goodrich
I'm on the last great journey here--and people ant me to tell them what to pack.
Mitch Albom from "Tuesdays with Morrie"
And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.
William Gibson
My wakeup call wasn’t some light switch of empowerment. From as early as preschool I feared that if I didn’t grow up to be the pretty princess men fawned over, I was a failure. That mentality was my disease. It got me raped. It made me feel dirty and devalued because my cherry wasn’t popped on a bed of rose petals. It fueled an adolescence juggling starvation and vomiting until my throat bled out and my stomach acid burned through the plumbing. It made me snort coke, smoke meth, and routinely gulp down narcotic petri dishes in hopes of obtaining hallucinogenic intimacy with junkie boyfriends. But most of all, it made me waste my youth chasing, obsessing over, fighting for, worshipping, clinging to, and crying over one after another loser. At some point, I just quit giving a fuck.
Maggie Georgiana Young
Mocking a woman is like drinking too much wine. It may be fun for a short time, but the hangover is hell.
Brandon Sanderson
No one can soothe my inner being like you. No one can make me look to the future with such excitement like you did. No one can understand me, fulfill me, fit me like you did." ~Emma Ranstein
Lindsay Detwiler
And I was even beginning to think home might be with you.
Ben Sherwood
I would have asked you to let down your hair" turning to regard her with a grin, his teeth a slash of white in his blackened face."But it is not quite long enough anymore.
Shelly Thacker
Grant that I may radiate Thy Light, Thy Love,Thy Healing, Thy Joy, and Thy Peaceto all those around meand all those in my thoughtsthis day and ever more.
Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Every Mind Breaker I met was a true person inside and out. My name is Hayden Laevary, and these are their stories... as well as mine.
Megan Duke
Leaders must see the dream in their mind before they will accomplish the dream with their team.
Orrin Woodward
Beauty shouldn’t be about changing yourself to achieve an ideal or be more socially acceptable. Real beauty, the interesting, truly pleasing kind, is about honoring the beauty within you and without you. It’s about knowing that someone else’s definition of pretty has no hold over you.
Golda Poretsky
Your children will smash your understanding, knowledge and reality. You will be better off. Then they will leave. You'll miss them forever.
Tibor Kalman
A particularly difficult line to navigate is the one between fear and love, especially for parents, who want more than anything to protect their children from suffering.
Sharon Salzberg
It's not the end. It's the beginning.
Stephenie Meyer
I think, actually, that none of us understands anyone else very well, because we're all too shy to show what matters the most. If you ask me, it's a major design flaw. We ought to be able to say, Here, look what I am. I think it would be quite a relief.
Elizabeth Berg
You can beat a man to death with a crystal /Or build him shelter with the butt of a pistol
Haylar Garcia
Hello, luv," he says through a thick curtain of blue hair. "Hope I'm...interrupting.
A.G. Howard
His dad said even the cavemen had geniuses among them. Somebody had thought up the wheel.
Suzanne Collins