Acs Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Acs. Here they are! All 100 of them:

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi stimul ac nummos contemplar in arca. (The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box.)
Arthur Conan Doyle (A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1))
I know what it's like when you can't get no one to listen to you. When what you say don't matter. I half think every girl knows what it's like to be silenced.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (The Bhagavad-gita (Bhagavadgita))
His arms went round my waist. He had a big grin, full of teeth like stars. "You saying you're the jealous sort,Scar?" "I'm saying that some girls slap, but I have knives.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
It takes a certain ingenuous faith - but I have it - to believe that people who read and reflect more likely than not come to judge things with liberality and truth.
A.C. Grayling (The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century)
Of a band with three actual boys, why is it that all the maids lust after the fake one?
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
I’ll keep your heart, Scar,” he whispered. “If you keep mine.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.
A.C. Grayling
You are my whole heart, Scarlet. And this is breaking it.' My heart cracked open and clear dropped out of me. My mouth opened, and I looked round me and stamped my foot. 'Does this look like a good time to tell me that, you damn stupid boy?' I meant to sound mean but my voice wobbled. 'Now?' He gave a little smile. 'My foul-mouthed warrior.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Everything is permitted, Nothing is true.
Oliver Bowden (Renaissance (Assassin's Creed, #1))
Because we always have a choice, even when it feels like we don't.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Middle age has been defined as what happens when a person's broad mind and narrow waist change places.
A.C. Grayling (The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century)
We have no idea, but its not like we're going to win any awards for normalcy anytime soon. So you get into people's heads? The two of us can throw people around like toys. Zu once blew up an AC unit, and all she did was walk by it.
Alexandra Bracken (The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1))
I do what I do because I will always believe that no matter how awful life gets for however many of these people, there is something I can do about it. There is something I will do about it.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
We do what we do because there's something we can do about it. Things like 'how long' and 'what if' aren't part of that. It's about the hope, not the horror.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
He takes the guilt and responsibility that others can't. John takes the punches. I just take the hunger, and most times it feels like awful little.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
To me, true love is about finding someone who not only sees and accepts your demons but also is willing to step up and fight them when you stumble.
A.C. Gaughen
Never would I have a man saying what or who were best for me, and that were all there were to it.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Rob looked a little shocked. "Don't you look at me like that," I snapped at him. "Just because I can't trim a beard don't mean I can't swear." "Like a sailor," he added. "I've never heard so many curses in my whole life. All combined.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Remember that on any world the wind eventually wears away the stone, because the stone can only crumble; the wind can change.
A.C. Crispin (Time for Yesterday)
I wouldn't never bathe with him or pass water when he were near. He got suspicious quick. Seems real boys are awfully eager to parade their bits around.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
You are my whole heart, Scarlet. And this is breaking it.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
The best gift we can give other people is our whole selves in truth. By doing so we give them a true and accurate mirror that allows them to see themselves. We also give ourselves the best opportunity to grow.
A.C. Ping (Be)
We spent a few minutes painting light graffiti. Grover wrote Pan 4ever. I wrote AC+PJ.
Rick Riordan (The Chalice of the Gods (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #6))
On the day of the dead, when the year too dies, Must the youngest open the oldest hills Through the door of the birds, where the breeze breaks. There fire shall fly from the raven boy, And the silver eyes that see the wind, And the light shall have the harp of gold. By the pleasant lake the Sleepers lie, On Cadfan’s Way where the kestrels call; Though grim from the Grey King shadows fall, Yet singing the golden harp shall guide To break their sleep and bid them ride. When light from the lost land shall return, Six Sleepers shall ride, six Signs shall burn, And where the midsummer tree grows tall By Pendragon’s sword the Dark shall fall. Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu, ac y mae’r arglwyddes yn dod.
Susan Cooper (The Dark Is Rising Sequence (The Dark is Rising, #1-5))
To say that nothing is true is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile and that we must be the shepherds of our civilization. To say that everything is permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious of tragic.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze
You have to stay safe, Scar. Maybe it's your bits in a dress and maybe it's just you, but I'm awful fond of something in there. So don't get killed.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Your power, your great gift, is that you never give up. When something fails you make a new plan, and another, and another. You never accept defeat. You never give up.
A.C. Gaughen (Lady Thief (Scarlet, #2))
You traitorous bitch!" he yelled. "You goddamn liar!" I laughed. "You knew I were a bitch and a liar when you married me, Guy. It's your own damn fault for agreeing to it.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Tough times don't last but tough people do
A.C. Green
I know what it is to look at your past, and see nothing more than your mistakes
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Do not fear the darkness, but welcome it's embrace.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze
He taught me so much about strength and power. That the man who is truly powerful has the option to forgive, to pardon, to forgo vengeance and violence. It's the weak man that must prove himself such.
A.C. Gaughen (Lady Thief (Scarlet, #2))
Honor, obey?" Gisbourne shouted, grappling with John. "This is what you call being a good wife?" I stopped. "I never said I'd be a good wife, Guy. Just that I'd marry you.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
I will not be broken or diminished or belittled by the choices of men around me.
A.C. Gaughen (Reign the Earth (The Elementae, #1))
I picked up the mop and started washing again as Rob struggled to his feet, red faced. John laughed, and Much covered a smile. "You lot think this is funny?" I asked. "I'll unman you too if you wish it." They jumped back, and Rob grunted. "You haven't unmanned me, and I resent the implication of it." "It were a warning blow," I told him, shoving the mop 'cross the floor. "Next time I'll try harder.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Sometimes it's harder to be bright when you feel the darkness inside you. Sometimes the very hardest thing is to let the pain go.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
It seems a precious thing, for someone to know the very worst part of you and love you anyway.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
Just as modern motorways have no room for ox-carts or wandering pedestrians, so modern society has little place for lives and ways that are too eccentric.
A.C. Grayling (The Meaning of Things)
...mastery of the emotions is fundamental to a virtuous life.
A.C. Grayling (Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life Without God)
When shall we break into the jail, then?" John asked. "Midnight. The guard changes then, and you'll fair certain look less conspicuous in that crowd." "So you think I look like a guard? I'll take that nicely." He took a drink of his beer, his eyes shining at me over the brim. I flicked my eyes over him. "Brutish and stupid? Yes, you look quite like a guard.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Misuse of reason might yet return the world to pre-technological night; plenty of religious zealots hunger for just such a result, and are happy to use the latest technology to effect it.
A.C. Grayling (The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century)
Not only is a book without conflict something no one wants to read, but a life without conflict is something where nothing is gained, nothing is earned, nothing is won.
A.C. Gaughen
One whose happiness is within, who is active within, who rejoices within and is illumined within, is actually the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains the Supreme.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
Religion without philosophy is sentiment, or sometimes fanaticism, while philosophy without religion is mental speculation.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-Gita As It Is)
Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted
Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Concerning Concealment as a symptom of love for Krsna: "It has been stated, 'although Srimati Radharani developed a deep loving affection for Krsna, She hid Her attitude in the core of Her heart so that others could not detect Her actual condition.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (The Nectar of Devotion: The Complete Science of Bhakti-Yoga)
Much were bent over in laughter. I pushed him, and he rolled to the floor without my intended insult. “Come off it!” I stamped my foot. “What’s so funny?” John asked, coming over in the middle of eating an apple. He tossed me an apple and I threw it at Much. He only laughed harder. “K-k-kissed Scar!” he hooted. “Someone kissed you?” John asked, turning to me. He didn’t look like it were too funny. “Who is he?” This made Much laugh more. “None of your business, John Little,” I told him. He stepped closer to me with a flat face that, if I could ape it, I’d never be kissed by a stupid girl when I didn’t want to be. “Who, Scar?” “Jenny Percy!” Much roared. John’s face broke open, like a smile could split a black mood. “Wait till Rob hears this.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
He put his hand to my cheek, just touching the fingertips to my skin before pulling away. "You are.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Stories are told to make you feel something, and they can tell ours over and over again, and every time it will be something different.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
I will always return to him. I can deny it all I like," I told her in a whisper, "but when someone holds your heart, its impossible to stay away.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
Rob's breath were pushing over my ear, his chest puffing up underneath me. His heart were beating so close to my own that it calmed me for sheer distraction.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
The media no longer hesitate to whip up lurid anxieties in order to increase sales, in the process undermining social confidence and multiplying fears.
A.C. Grayling (Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life Without God)
True power does not force others to make themselves smaller.
A.C. Gaughen (Reign the Earth (The Elementae, #1))
Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-Gita As It Is)
I liked AC/DC," Lee said. "If you were going to shoot someone, you'd really want to do it while you were listening to them." "What about the Beatles? Did you feel like shooting anyone listening to them?" Lee considered seriously for a moment, then said, "Myself." At the same time he was laughing, Ig was distressed. Not liking the Beatles was almost as bad as not knowing about them at all.
Joe Hill (Horns)
Because materialists cannot understand Krsna spiritually, they are advised to concentrate the mind on physical things and try to see how Krsna is manifested by physical representations.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-Gita As It Is)
I have been to the speed of God, sir...and I discommend it.
John Ringo (A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War, #1))
In the event of a total loss of direction in life, be sure to sort our your own shit before you start telling people what to do.
A.C. Ping (Be)
You see the world as fixed and finite, and it is not. It is liquid and ever moving, and one act can change everything.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-Gita As It Is)
I left little packages in front of the doors; the people looked for them in the morning, and I knew, in some bit of a way, it bucked them up. I did as much as I could, but it weren't like I could get everyone something every night. That seemed like the cruelest part. I tried not to think 'bout the people that woke up and rushed to the door and didn't find nothing; it made my chest hurt.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy. But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer--by demonstration--would take care of that, too. For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program. The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done. And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" And there was light--
Isaac Asimov (Robot Dreams (Robot, #0.4))
Country’s for dancing and crying. AC/DC is for cleaning your truck.
Jamie McGuire (Beautiful Sacrifice (The Maddox Brothers, #3))
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap.’ – AC/DC
Stephen King (The Shawshank Redemption)
A fault denied is twice committed.
A.C. Grayling
When she leaned forward to mess with the AC vents, her hair brushed against my leg and it was really soft. It made remember all over again. It made it hard to stay pissed and keep her at arm's length the way I'd planned. It was pretty near damn impossible. When I was near her, I just wanted to grab her and hold her and kiss the shit out of her. Maybe then she'd forget about my asshole of a brother.
Jenny Han (It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2))
I won't teach my daughter that her only choice is to be sheltered by the men around her.
A.C. Gaughen (Reign the Earth (The Elementae, #1))
A yogī is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, O Arjuna, in all circumstances, be a yogī.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
The wise say that our failure is to form habits: for habit is the mark of a stereotyped world,
A.C. Grayling (The Good Book: A Humanist Bible)
You and I are going to happen, that's all I'm sayin'. You say the word, I will make your body feel things that your pretty boy at home has never even come close to making you feel." Holding On (Lights of Peril)
A.C. Bextor
The paradox is that the ecosysytem as a whole needs its participants to ac with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior. Other than fear? Other than fear, which is a feeling you want to avoid or stop at all costs
Becky Chambers (A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1))
Dripping water wears the stone which could not be hammered.
A.C. Grayling (The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life)
This is the hope, not horror
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-Gita As It Is)
I want to stand beside you. I want to learn to fight with you. I won't accept you as a protector. But I will accept you as something else. Something far greater. Because with whatever scraps of my heart are left, I love you...
A.C. Gaughen (Reign the Earth (The Elementae, #1))
More people care about you than you know, Scarlet. No matter how you got your scars.” I covered my cheek, looking at her. “Not just those scars. The ones that make you think you’re unlovable.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
Saya iri ke Menak Jinggo .... Hidup luntang lantung bagai gelandangan di bawah pohon tapi hatinya penuh cinta. Kami hidup enak di ruang AC, bergemilang duit, tapi cinta kami redup bahkan kering kerontang," ungkap seorang anggota dewan
Sujiwo Tejo (Ngawur Karena Benar)
Aw, come on, it's just hot as hell there and my AC doesn't even make a dent. Let's try for something cooler." ~ Loki ~
Lora Leigh (Lawe's Justice (Breeds, #18))
I am a daughter of the desert, and my feet will never fail me.
A.C. Gaughen (Reign the Earth (The Elementae, #1))
We roll tonight to the guitar bite Stand up and be counted for what you are about to receive We are the dealers We'll give you everything you need Hail hail to the good times Cos rock has got the right of way We ain't no legends ain't no cause We're just livin' for today For those about to rock, we salute you For those about to rock, we salute you
AC/DC
If there is a deity of the kind imagined by votaries of the big mail-order religions such as Christianity and Islam, and if this deity is the creator of all things, then it is responsible for cancer, meningitis, millions of spontaneous abortions everyday, mass killings of people in floods and earthquakes-and too great mountain of other natural evils to list besides. It would also,as the putative designer of human nature, ultimately be responsible or the ubiquitous and unbeatable human propensities for hatred, malice, greed, and all other sources of the cruelty and murder people inflict on each other hourly.
A.C. Grayling
You are the only common denominator in everything that has happened to you in life, be it good or bad. To learn/grow from these experiences, you must accept the role you played in each of them.
A.C. Anderson
Our love filled the broken bits and made me whole again. There weren't a perfect time to love him, not ever, and it had always been with the threat of death and hurt hovering round us. And we'd love each other anyway. Sure, and true.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
Many Americans and Western Europeans proudly trumpet the diversity of cosmopolises like London and New York without realizing that cosmopolitanism does not mean people of different skin colors all sitting around over wine at a bistro table complaining about organized religion. It means people who hold profoundly different, even mutually exclusive, beliefs and cultural norms functioning in a shared space based on toleration of disagreement.
Jonathan A.C. Brown (Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy)
Such deluded persons, symptomatically, dwell in dualities of dishonor and honor, misery and happiness, woman and man, good and bad, pleasure and pain, etc., thinking, "This is my wife; this is my house; I am the master of this house; I am the husband of this wife." These are the dualities of delusion. Those who are so deluded by dualities are completely foolish and therefore cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bhagavad-Gita As It Is)
Words cannot express my disappointment that I must pass on the invitation to once again witness your gelatinous buttocks swaying as you try to climb a greased pole naked in search of athletic glory. Sadly, the last occasion on which I witnessed this event had a deleterious effect on my psyche for which I am still seeking the attention of a therapist. A.C. Kemp as Lady Arabella Snark
A.C. Kemp (The Perfect Insult for Every Occasion)
Behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Do not stop it. Is it not yet come? Do not stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a spouse, to public post, to riches, and you will eventually be a worthy guest at the feast of life.
A.C. Grayling
When the oldest Chatwin, melancholy Martin, opens the cabinet of the grandfather clock that stands in a dark, narrow back hallway in his aunt’s house and slip through into Fillory...it’s like he’s opening the covers of a book, but a book that did what books always promised to do and never ac tually quite did: get you out, really out, of where you were and into something better.
Lev Grossman (The Magicians (The Magicians, #1))
. . .the most important philosophical question we can each ask ourselves is, ‘Do I or do I not wish to commit suicide?’ If we say, ‘No I do not,’ as most of us would, it is because we have reasons for living, or at the very least real hope that we can find such reasons. Then the next question is: what are the reasons I personally have for saying ‘No’ to that question? The answer contains the meaning of my life.
A.C. Grayling (The God Argument: The Case against Religion and for Humanism)
Socrates famously said that the unconsidered life is not worth living. He meant that a life lived without forethought or principle is a life so vulnerable to chance, and so dependent on the choices and actions of others, that it is of little real value to the person living it. He further meant that a life well lived is one which has goals, and integrity, which is chosen and directed by the one who lives it, to the fullest extent possible to a human agent caught in the webs of society and history.
A.C. Grayling
Just as ceremonial fasting was a legitimate means for getting God's attention (Mt 6:16-18; Ac 13:2-3; 14:23), the casting of lots was a legitimate means for inviting God to intercede on a matter. (Pr 18:18) It was not expected that God should intervene every time (1Sam 28:6), but the ceremonial casting of lots was an invitation for God to participate in the final decision.
Michael Ben Zehabe (A Commentary on Jonah)
David punched him across the face. Allan dropped like a sack of potatoes. I crossed my arms. "Was that necessary?" "I won't tolerate an insult to your person," David told me, straightening his tunic. "But no. That was more for my enjoyment." "Well, now you have to carry him, you know," I told David. He raised a grim eyebrow to me. "Worth it.
A.C. Gaughen (Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3))
We do what we do because there's something we can do about it. Things like 'how long' and 'what if' aren't part of that. It's about the hope, not the horror." Thoughts of London welled up in my pipes but I kept going. "And for that matter, you know all about the horrors, just like I do, just like John does, just like Much. We shoulder it so these people don't have to know it too. And I know this because that's what you say. And when you say it, I believe you. and when I believe you, I'll follow you anywhere.
A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet (Scarlet, #1))
If the world is to have a future, it lies in the hands of women. At time of this writing nearly half of all women in the Middle East are illiterate; millions in poor countries are shackled to the most basic daily urgencies of finding water and feeding children; the majority of the world's women exist in various forms of bondage to necessity, to poverty, and to men. (2007)
A.C. Grayling (Toward the Light of Liberty: The Struggles for Freedom and Rights That Made the Modern Western World)
Ten Best Song to Strip 1. Any hip-swiveling R&B fuckjam. This category includes The Greatest Stripping Song of All Time: "Remix to Ignition" by R. Kelly. 2. "Purple Rain" by Prince, but you have to be really theatrical about it. Arch your back like Prince himself is daubing body glitter on your abdomen. Most effective in nearly empty, pathos-ridden juice bars. 3. "Honky Tonk Woman" by the Rolling Stones. Insta-attitude. Makes even the clumsiest troglodyte strut like Anita Pallenberg. (However, the Troggs will make you look like even more of a troglodyte, so avoid if possible.) 4. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard. The Lep's shouted choruses and relentless programmed drums prove ideal for chicks who can really stomp. (Coincidence: I once saw a stripper who, like Rick Allen, had only one arm.) 5. "Amber" by 311. This fluid stoner anthem is a favorite of midnight tokers at strip joints everywhere. Mellow enough that even the most shitfaced dancer can make it through the song and back to her Graffix bong without breaking a sweat. Pass the Fritos Scoops, dude. 6. "Miserable" by Lit, but mostly because Pamela Anderson is in the video, and she's like Jesus for strippers (blonde, plastic, capable of parlaying a broken nail into a domestic battery charge, damaged liver). Alos, you can't go wrong stripping to a song that opens with the line "You make me come." 7. "Back Door Man" by The Doors. Almost too easy. The mere implication that you like it in the ass will thrill the average strip-club patron. Just get on all fours and crawl your way toward the down payment on that condo in Cozumel. (Unless, like most strippers, you'd rather blow your nest egg on tacky pimped-out SUVs and Coach purses.) 8. Back in Black" by AC/DC. Producer Mutt Lange wants you to strip. He does. He told me. 9. "I Touch Myself" by the Devinyls. Strip to this, and that guy at the tip rail with the bitch tits and the shop teacher glasses will actually believe that he alone has inspired you to masturbate. Take his money, then go masturbate and think about someone else. 10. "Hash Pipe" by Weezer. Sure, it smells of nerd. But River Cuomo is obsessed with Asian chicks and nose candy, and that's just the spirit you want to evoke in a strip club. I recommend busting out your most crunk pole tricks during this one.
Diablo Cody
Eagleton has spent his life inside two mental boxes, Catholicism and Marxism, of both of which he is a severe internal critic—that is, he frequently kicks and scratches at the inside of the boxes, but does not leave them. Neither are ideologies that loosen their grip easily, and people who need the security of adherence to a big dominating ideology, however much they kick and scratch but without daring to leave go, hold on to it every bit as tightly as it holds onto them. The result is of course strangulation, but alas not mutual strangulation: the ideology always wins.
A.C. Grayling
Rea­sons Why I Loved Be­ing With Jen I love what a good friend you are. You’re re­ally en­gaged with the lives of the peo­ple you love. You or­ga­nize lovely ex­pe­ri­ences for them. You make an ef­fort with them, you’re pa­tient with them, even when they’re side­tracked by their chil­dren and can’t pri­or­i­tize you in the way you pri­or­i­tize them. You’ve got a gen­er­ous heart and it ex­tends to peo­ple you’ve never even met, whereas I think that ev­ery­one is out to get me. I used to say you were naive, but re­ally I was jeal­ous that you al­ways thought the best of peo­ple. You are a bit too anx­ious about be­ing seen to be a good per­son and you def­i­nitely go a bit over­board with your left-wing pol­i­tics to prove a point to ev­ery­one. But I know you re­ally do care. I know you’d sign pe­ti­tions and help peo­ple in need and vol­un­teer at the home­less shel­ter at Christ­mas even if no one knew about it. And that’s more than can be said for a lot of us. I love how quickly you read books and how ab­sorbed you get in a good story. I love watch­ing you lie on the sofa read­ing one from cover-to-cover. It’s like I’m in the room with you but you’re in a whole other gal­axy. I love that you’re al­ways try­ing to im­prove your­self. Whether it’s running marathons or set­ting your­self chal­lenges on an app to learn French or the fact you go to ther­apy ev­ery week. You work hard to be­come a bet­ter ver­sion of your­self. I think I prob­a­bly didn’t make my ad­mi­ra­tion for this known and in­stead it came off as ir­ri­ta­tion, which I don’t re­ally feel at all. I love how ded­i­cated you are to your fam­ily, even when they’re an­noy­ing you. Your loy­alty to them wound me up some­times, but it’s only be­cause I wish I came from a big fam­ily. I love that you al­ways know what to say in con­ver­sa­tion. You ask the right ques­tions and you know ex­actly when to talk and when to lis­ten. Ev­ery­one loves talk­ing to you be­cause you make ev­ery­one feel im­por­tant. I love your style. I know you think I prob­a­bly never no­ticed what you were wear­ing or how you did your hair, but I loved see­ing how you get ready, sit­ting in front of the full-length mir­ror in our bed­room while you did your make-up, even though there was a mir­ror on the dress­ing ta­ble. I love that you’re mad enough to swim in the English sea in No­vem­ber and that you’d pick up spi­ders in the bath with your bare hands. You’re brave in a way that I’m not. I love how free you are. You’re a very free per­son, and I never gave you the sat­is­fac­tion of say­ing it, which I should have done. No one knows it about you be­cause of your bor­ing, high-pres­sure job and your stuffy up­bring­ing, but I know what an ad­ven­turer you are un­der­neath all that. I love that you got drunk at Jack­son’s chris­ten­ing and you al­ways wanted to have one more drink at the pub and you never com­plained about get­ting up early to go to work with a hang­over. Other than Avi, you are the per­son I’ve had the most fun with in my life. And even though I gave you a hard time for al­ways try­ing to for al­ways try­ing to im­press your dad, I ac­tu­ally found it very adorable be­cause it made me see the child in you and the teenager in you, and if I could time-travel to any­where in his­tory, I swear, Jen, the only place I’d want to go is to the house where you grew up and hug you and tell you how beau­ti­ful and clever and funny you are. That you are spec­tac­u­lar even with­out all your sports trophies and mu­sic cer­tifi­cates and in­cred­i­ble grades and Ox­ford ac­cep­tance. I’m sorry that I loved you so much more than I liked my­self, that must have been a lot to carry. I’m sorry I didn’t take care of you the way you took care of me. And I’m sorry I didn’t take care of my­self, ei­ther. I need to work on it. I’m pleased that our break-up taught me that. I’m sorry I went so mental. I love you. I always will. I'm glad we met.
Dolly Alderton (Good Material)
One day in the next five hundred billion years, while the probes complete one full circuit of the Milky Way, maybe they’ll stumble upon intelligent life. In forty thousand years or so, when the two probes sail close enough to a planetary system, maybe just maybe one of these plants will be home to some life form which will spy the probe with whatever it has that passes for eyes, stay its telescope, retrieve the derelict fuel-less old probe with whatever it has that passes for curiosity, lower the stylus (supplied) to the record with whatever it has that passes for digits, and set free the dadadadaa of Beethoven’s Fifth. It’ll roll like thunder through a different frontier. Human music will permeate the Milky Way’s outer reaches. There’ll be Chuck Berry and Bach, there’ll be Stravinsky and Blind Willie Johnson, and the didgeridoo, violin, slide guitar and shakuhachi. Whale song will drift through the constellation of Ursa Minor. Perhaps a being on a planet of the star AC +793888 will hear the 1970s recording of sheep bleat, laughter, footsteps, and the soft pluck of a kiss. Perhaps they’ll hear the trundle of a tractor and the voice of a child. When they hear on the phonograph a recording of rapid firecracker drills and bursts, will they know that these sounds denote brainwaves? Will they ever infer that over forty thousand years before in a solar system unknown a woman was rigged to an EEG and her thoughts recorded? Could they know to work backwards from the abstract sounds and translate them once more into brainwaves, and could they know from these brainwaves the kinds of thoughts the woman was having? Could they see into a human’s mind? Could they know she was a young woman in love? Could they tell from this dip and rise in the EEG’s pattern that she was thinking simultaneously of earth and lover as if the two were continuous? Could they see that, though she tried to keep her mental script, to bring to mind Lincoln and the Ice Age and the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt and whatever grand things have shaped the earth and which she wished to convey to an alien audience, every thought cascaded into the drawn brows and proud nose of her lover, the wonderful articulation of his hands and the way he listened like a bird and how they had touched so often without touching. And then a spike in sound as she thought of that great city Alexandria and of nuclear disarmament and the symphony of the earth’s tides and the squareness of his jaw and the way he spoke with such bright precision so that everything he said was epiphany and discovery and the way he looked at her as though she were the epiphany he kept on having and the thud of her heart and the flooding how heat about her body when she considered what it was he wanted to do to her and the migration of bison across a Utah plain and a geisha’s expressionless face and the knowledge of having found that thing in the world which she ought never to have had the good fortune of finding, of two minds and bodies flung at each other at full dumbfounding force so that her life had skittered sidelong and all her pin-boned plans just gone like that and her self engulfed in a fire of longing and thoughts of sex and destiny, the completeness of love, their astounding earth, his hands, his throat, his bare back.
Samantha Harvey (Orbital)
RubyMars: Have you heard anything else about when you’re leaving for good? AHall80: Not yet, but everything seems to be on schedule. Should be about 8 weeks. The longest 8 weeks of my life. RubyMars: I’m sure. AHall80: I want a shitty, greasy, deep dish pizza like you can’t imagine. I can already taste it. AHall80: A hot shower… a real bed… AC everywhere… RubyMars: Clean clothes? AHall80: Clean clothes. Clean socks. No sand. RubyMars: Clean underwear. RubyMars: No sand? I thought you were planning on going to the beach? AHall80: The beach is different. There’s water. It isn’t just desert and more desert. RubyMars: I guess that makes sense. RubyMars: My brother said once that his goal is to never see sand in his life again. AHall80: For real. RubyMars: What I didn’t finish saying was that he said that, but he’s gone to Cancun twice with his boyfriend, LOL. AHall80: It’s different. I’m over this sand shit. AHall80: Never again RubyMars: Does that mean you’re dead set on not re-enlisting? AHall80: … RubyMars: Whatever you want. I’m not judging. We don’t have to talk about it. AHall80: It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it… RubyMars: But you don’t want to talk about it. AHall80: :] Basically. RubyMars: I’ll change the subject then. RubyMars: Have you gone #2 lately? AHall80: Three days ago. RubyMars: Are you joking? AHall80: I wish. RubyMars: AARON AHall80: I know. I KNOW. RubyMars: Does it hurt? AHall80: Uh, when it comes out? RubyMars: Omg RubyMars: Aaron RubyMars: I meant your stomach. RubyMars: Does your stomach hurt? RubyMars: I can’t breathe RubyMars: Or type RubyMars: I didn’t mean your… rectum. RubyMars: Aaron? RubyMars: Aaron? RubyMars: Are you there? RubyMars: AARON? AHall80: You’re not the only one who couldn’t breathe or type. RubyMars: LMAO I’m crying. AHall80: me too AHall80: me too RubyMars: I mean… you can tell me if your butt hurts too, I guess. AHall80: Ruby, stop RubyMars: Seriously. You can tell me. I won’t judge. RubyMars: It happens. RubyMars: I think. AHall80: Stop RubyMars: I can’t breathe AHall80: I don’t know when the last time I laughed so hard was. AHall80: Everyone is looking at me wondering wtf happened. RubyMars: Your rectum happened AHall80: BYE RubyMars: I can’t stop laughing AHall80: You’re never hearing from me again RubyMars: There are tears coming out of my eyes. AHall80: Bye. I’ll write you again when I find my balls. RubyMars: It was nice knowing you. AHall80: BYE
Mariana Zapata (Dear Aaron)