Quotes by American Authors - Page 754

Aftera brief silence, Kenzie said, "Don't you believe in second chances?"The room seemed a little colder, a little darker, as if a shadow had passed over the sun. "Sonny Lee always said, 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Cinda Williams Chima
It is better to die honorably and render yourself immortal than live to old age and fade to dust.
Livia Blackburne
I'll be damned if I apologize for the choices I've made. They were hard decisions, but I had good reasons for making them.
Christine Feehan
OVERREACTING" sounds like "OVARYACTING" Coincidence? I think NOT!!
Tanya Masse
So if you choose me, then you have declared me more special to you than anyone else, because only one man can have that honor.
Zack Love
You were correct, for all men have within them both that which is dark and that which is light. A man is a thing of many divisions, not a pure, clear flame such as you once were. His intellect often wars with his emotions, his will with his desires . . . his ideals are at odds with his environment, and if he follows them, he knows keenly the loss of that which was old, but if he does not follow them, he feels the pain of having forsaken a new and noble dream. Whatever he does represents both a gain and a loss, an arrival and a departure. Always he mourns that which is gone and fears some part of that which is new. Reason opposes tradition. Emotions oppose the restrictions his fellow men lay upon him. Always, from the friction of these things, there arises the thing you called the curse of man and mocked; guilt!
Roger Zelazny
August is dust here. Droughtstuns the road,but juice gathers in the berries.
Robert Hass
Millions saw the apple fall, Newton was the only one who asked why?
Bernard M. Baruch
Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
Helen Keller
For Abelard, the death of Christ on the Cross did not, strictly speaking, redeem man: it only offered him an example of supreme humility, charity, and self-sacrifice. Bernard asserts, against Abelard, that Christ became man precisely in order to redeem mankind from sin, deliver man from the power of the devil, and to become, instead of fallen Adam, the new head of a redeemed and sanctified human race. Jesus, says Saint Bernard, not only taught us justice but gave us justice. He not only showed us His love by dying for us on the Cross, but by the effects of His death He really and objectively causes His charity to exist and act in our hearts. In, doing so, He actually destroys sin in our souls and communicates to us a new life which is totally supernatural and divine. The effect of our redemption is therefore a complete and literal regeneration of those souls to whom its fruits are applied. Without this dogmatic basis the whole mystical theology of Saint Bernard would be incomprehensible. The purpose of all his mystical and ascetic teaching is to show us how to co-operate with the action of divine grace so that our redemption and regeneration may not remain a dead letter but may actually influence all our conduct and find expression in every part of our lives
Thomas Merton
The point is, every book we had could save us in a different way -- only, we had to open it. We had to drop our eyes to the page and drink in the words that were there.
Nova Ren Suma
This choreography of ruin, the world breakinglike glass under a microscope,the way it doesn’t crack all at once,but spreads out from the damaged cavities.Still for a moment it all recedes.The backyard potatoes swell quietlyburied beneath their canopy of leaves.The wind rubs its hands through the trees.
Ellen Bass
I love the word 'fashion.' That's why I'm using it in the title of this book. Fashion is about change and about creating clothes within a historical context. To me, dismissing fashion as silly or unimportant seems like a denial of history and frequently a show of sexism—as if something that's traditionally a concern of women isn't valid as a field of academic inquiry. When the Parsons fashion department was founded in 1906, it was called 'costume design,' because fashion was then a verb: to fashion. But the word 'fashion' has evolved to mean something much more profound, and those who resist it seem to me to be on the wrong side of history.
Tim Gunn
When confronted by a ‘believer’ it is easy for me to contrast the views of the skeptic with those of the rationalist. I simply reach into my pocket and pull out my change.Holding a quarter aloft, I say, ‘This is a most remarkable coin, for it is heavier than all the sins of humanity committed since the beginning of the human race.’I then hold up a nickel and say, ‘This coin is even more amazing, as it is brighter and shinier than the flames that proceeded from the Burning Bush discovered on Mt. Sinai by Moses.’Then I raise a penny and state, ‘This portrait of President Lincoln is more realistic and true-to-life than any portrait of Satan ever painted.’And finally, I hold out a bright, shiny dime and say, ‘And this dime is the most amazing of all because it is heavier and contains more precious metals than all the gold bricks in the streets of Heaven.’I end with ‘Give to Caesar what is his, and hold the rest of it dear—for it is all you see and touch—and the Christian god can take care of all his things, for they amount to less than this 41 cents I hold here in my hand.
E. Haldeman-Julius
He could almost hear the wail of pain that went up from his heart. It was a sharp terrible personal pain the kind of pain that comes only when someone to whom you have never done any harm turns on you and says goodbye goodbye forever without any reason for doing it. Without any reason at all.
Dalton Trumbo
Just so you know, I realize that what happened is not in any way okay, but I think we're going to have to pretend like it is.Because it wasn't okay and never will be. We will power through it; I will continue to power through it-all the stagnant, soul-crushing grief-but it will never be okay that my mom is not here.
Julie Buxbaum
Just remember, when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed.
Charles M. Schulz
The often-used phrase “pay attention” is apt: you dispose of a limited budget of attention that you can allocate to activities, and if you try to you try to go beyond your budget, you will fail.
Daniel Kahneman
Ten years ago I wondered, “How does one travel around the world? How does one step out of a well-established life to follow the dream?” I’ve answered those questions. But now new ones emerge.
Gina Greenlee
The still watersWrap my lips,Eyes, nose and ears,A clearCellophane I cannot crack.
Sylvia Plath
I found that I couldn't muster any belief in a literal heaven or hell, anyway. I thought the best we could all do was to look after one another and clean up the various hells we've made right here on earth.
Octavia E. Butler
All of us must do our best to live gracefully in the present moment. I now see depression as akin to being tied to a chair with restraints on my wrists. It took me a long time to realize that I only magnify my distress by struggling for freedom. My pain diminished when I gave up trying to escape completely from it. However, don't interpret my current approach to depression as utterly fatalistic. I do whatever I can to dull depression's pain, while premising my life on its continuing presence. The theologian and philosopher Thomas Moore puts it well with his distinction between cure and care. While cure implies the eradication of trouble, care "appreciates the mystery of human suffering and does not offer the illusion of a problem-free life.
David A. Karp
Anyone out without the excuse of a dog should be handcuffed and searched for loneliness.
Stephen Dunn
You can't ever really have enough worth that when you're gone, the spot you left won't close over.
Laura Florand
Paul looked down at the hand that had known pain, and then up to the Reverend Mother. The sound of her voice contained a difference than from any other voicing his experience. The words were outlined in brilliance. There was an edge to them.
Frank Herbert
All children in those small-town, unhurried days had a vast inner life going on in the movies. Children were allowed to go without chaperone in the afternoons. My sense of making fictional comedy undoubtedly first caught its spark from the antic pantomime of the silent screen, and from having a kindred soul to laugh with.
Eudora Welty
There is no more precious currency than the unfettered liberty to explore while engaged in an "Idea Economy". You cannot centrally plan the "Idea Economy" any more than you can plan fun or spontaneity. Regulations are restraints in an "Idea Economy". The entrepreneur is either free to experiment or not.
A.E. Samaan
Michael grew silent, his gaze softening as he looked from me to Will, and a dim light of hope flickered in my heart. “You would mourn for h
Courtney Allison Moulton
Books are like bacon for the mind.
Thomas F. Shubnell
y. I told them to admire us for the hope we still havethat there is enough goodness in man to use the omnipotence science hasgiven him to ennoble his life on earth instead of degrading it. Self government,through dangers and distortions and failures, is the Americancause. Faith in self government, when all is said and done, is faith in theeventual goodness of man
John dos Passos
Being female in this world means having been robbed of the potential for human choice by men who love to hate us. One does does not make choices in freedom. Instead, one conforms in body type and behavior and values to become an object of male sexual desire, which requires an abandonment of a wide-ranging capacity for choice...Men too make choices. When will they choose not to despise us?
Andrea Dworkin
In God’s vocabulary, ‘lost’ is an unnecessary adjective that is easily erased by the adjective ‘found’ if we would simply be brave enough to hand Him the eraser.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Unconditional love… It’s a sacred space, an energy. An eternal flow of all that we are.
Camille Lucy
It is always the minorities that hold the key of progess it is always through those who are unafraid to be different that advance comes to human society.
Raymond B. Fosdick
Men can never have the true power they were endowed with by creation, until they respect and protect the women and children of the world.
Bryant McGill
The will is the keystone in the arch of human achievement. It is the culmination of our complex mental faculties. It is the power that rules minds, men and nations.
Thomas Parker Boyd
You sort of don't find me attractive? That can also mean you sort of do find me attractive.
Colleen Hoover
Most are unaware of their tremendous worth and boundless potential, despite possessing both.
Richelle E. Goodrich
I might be manipulating you to create risk for myself.
Sharon Stone
If one should criticize one should always have a meaningful explanation to accompany.
Criss Jami
As many thoughts in succession substantiate themselves, we shall by and by stand in a new world of our own creation, and no longer strangers and pilgrims in a traditionary globe. My friends have come to me unsought.... Will these, too, seperate themselves from me again, or some of them? I know not, but I fear it not; for my relation to them is so pure, that we hold by simple affinity, and the Genius of my life being thus social, the same affinity will exert its energy on whomsoever is as noble as these men and women, wherever I may be.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Political stress is always apt to shrink the private arena and attach it on to the public
Robert Hughes
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better.
Tom Robbins
He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."(on Ernest Hemingway
William Faulkner
Achieving a goal requires endurance and sacrifices beyond limitations.
T.F. Hodge
It's a theme born out of the Christian faith rather than a pagan understanding of the universe. Both views agree that we human beings are small, frail, and limited in our ability to battle the forces of the world that seek to destroy us. In response, the pagan worldview says, "We cannot win this on our strength. Therefore, let us go down fighting nobly and die well."The Christian worldview, on the other hand, says, "We cannot win this on our own strength. Therefore, we must rely on a Power outside of ourselves to win this for us.
Sarah Arthur
The books in the library were old, rotted, and there was no one left in the world to read them, but Kira made sure that none of them went into the fire. It seemed wrong.
Dan Wells
His tongue tapped his top lip as he cupped her breast in his hand. "Tis boidhche --beautiful.
Amy Jarecki
Your joy can be the impetus that motivates others to find their way to joy.
Molly Friedenfeld
children betrayed their parents by becoming their own people
Leslye Walton
I get a fine warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day. Let's face it, writing is hell.
William Styron
He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one's heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained!
Ann Patchett
It must be remembered that the forty hour work week until age sixty five was designed by governments and corporations and not the medical profession.
Steven Magee
Do not be afriad! I can see that Americans are not afraid. They are not afraid of the sun, they are not afraid of the wind, they are not afraid of 'today'. They are, generally speaking, brave, good people. And so I say to you today, always be brave. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. God is with you. Do not be afraid to search for God-then you will truly be the land of the free, the home of the brave. God Bless America.
Peggy Noonan
I should think a poet president would be able to create a delectable confluence of various spaces. A poet is most political.
Meia Geddes
Even the most ill-formed words, set to paper, are a great blessing.
Ruthanna Emrys
nothing knee-jerk about their politics. Two out of three of them say that abortion is “always” or “usually” morally wrong. They are far more likely than voters age thirty and over to identify themselves as politically “strictly independent.” In fact, more than any other generation I’ve tracked in my polling, Globals seem determined to find a middle ground on the hot-button issues of the day and to decide each one on a case by case basis, not because their party leaders are urging them in one direction or the other. I like to tell audiences that while First Globals might not be more...
John Zogby
That's the crazy things about lies, you start to believe them yourself." (pg. 342)
Jodi Picoult
What a face this girl possessed!—Could I neither die then nor gaze at her face every day, I would need to recreate it through painting or sculpture, or through fatherhood, until a second such face could be born.
Roman Payne
Stand strong, firm and rooted like a solid tree. Though distractions may cause you to waver, remain balanced and calm. Otherwise, you will surely snap in half and fall to the ground at the slightest hint of difficulty. Be a filter, not a sponge. Learn to remove unnecessary junk from your life before it becomes a part of who you are. Stand tall, stand proud, keep your eyes and your body focused. Otherwise, you will blow away with the slightest gust of wind.
Leigh Hershkovich