“
I moved up beside Jamie."I have to go."
She frowned at me. "Where?"
I pressed a hand to the bottom of my belly. "My bladder.It-"
Ah." She gave a small laugh. "We interrupt this life-or-death situation for a pregnancy pee break. Don't see that in the movies, do you?
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Broken (Women of the Otherworld, #6))
“
A girl my age had been murdered in these woods and I'd seen her last terrified moments, watched her bleed to death in this forest. A life like mine had ended here, and it didn't matter how many times I'd seen deaths in movies, it wasn't the same, and I wasn't ever going to forget it.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Awakening (Darkest Powers, #2))
“
Speaking of death, LeBlanc boasted he could kill me in the waiting room. I broke his wrist. He wasn't impressed.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Bitten (Otherworld, #1))
“
there is no ascent to the heights without prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A Short History of Myth (The Myths))
“
Simon whispered to me, “But is everything okay?”
“No,” Tori said. “I kidnapped her and forced her to escape with me. I’ve been using her as a human shield against those guys with guns, and I was just about to strangle her and leave her body here to throw them off my trail. But then you showed up and foiled my evil plans. Lucky for you, though. You get to rescue poor little Chloe again and win her undying gratitude.”
“Undying gratitude?” Simon looked at me. “Cool. Does that come with eternal servitude? If so, I like my eggs sunnyside up.”
I smiled. “I’ll remember that.”
***
“Oh, right. You must be starving.” Simon reached into his pockets. “I can offer one bruised apple and one brown banana. Convenience stores aren’t the place to buy fruit, as I keep telling someone.”
“Better than these. For you, anyway, Simon.” Derek passed a bar to Tori.
“Because you aren’t supposed to have those, are you?” I said. “Which reminds me…” I took out the insulin. “Derek said it’s your backup.”
“So my dark secret is out.”
“I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“Not really. Just not something I advertise.”
...
“Backup?” Tori said. “You mean he didn’t need that?”
“Apparently not,” I murmured.
Simon looked from her to me, confused, then understanding. “You guys thought…”
“That if you didn’t get your medicine in the next twenty-four hours, you’d be dead?” I said. “Not exactly, but close. You know, the old ‘upping the ante with a fatal disease that needs medication’ twist. Apparently, it still works.”
“Kind of a letdown, then, huh?”
“No kidding. Here we were, expecting to find you minutes from death. Look at you, not even gasping.”
“All right, then. Emergency medical situation, take two.”
He leaped to his feet, staggered, keeled over, then lifted his head weakly.
“Chloe? Is that you?” He coughed. “Do you have my insulin?”
I placed it in his outstretched hand.
“You saved my life,” he said. “How can I ever repay you?”
“Undying servitude sounds good. I like my eggs scrambled.”
He held up a piece of fruit. “Would you settle for a bruised apple?”
I laughed.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Awakening (Darkest Powers, #2))
“
There were worse things than death, as she'd discovered. Sometimes living took far more courage. Facing another day. Enduring. Those things took strength. Far more than dying.
”
”
Maya Banks (Highlander Most Wanted (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs, #2))
“
Some people simply bury their heads in the sand and refuse to think about the sorrow of the world, but this is an unwise course, because, if we are entirely unprepared, the tragedy of life can be devastating.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Buddha)
“
You will leave her alone,” Gabriel said. “One way or another.”
“That sounds like a death threat, Walsh.”
“Then you lack imagination.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Deceptions (Cainsville, #3))
“
The night before brain surgery, I thought about death. I searched out my larger values, and I asked myself, if I was going to die, did I want to do it fighting and clawing or in peaceful surrender? What sort of character did I hope to show? Was I content with myself and what I had done with my life so far? I decided that I was essentially a good person, although I could have been better--but at the same time I understood that the cancer didn't care.
I asked myself what I believed. I had never prayed a lot. I hoped hard, I wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organized religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking, and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, 'But you were never a Christian, so you're going the other way from heaven.' If so, I was going to reply, 'You know what? You're right. Fine.'
I believed, too, in the doctors and the medicine and the surgeries--I believed in that. I believed in them. A person like Dr. Einhorn [his oncologist], that's someone to believe in, I thought, a person with the mind to develop an experimental treatment 20 years ago that now could save my life. I believed in the hard currency of his intelligence and his research.
Beyond that, I had no idea where to draw the line between spiritual belief and science. But I knew this much: I believed in belief, for its own shining sake. To believe in the face of utter hopelessness, every article of evidence to the contrary, to ignore apparent catastrophe--what other choice was there? We do it every day, I realized. We are so much stronger than we imagine, and belief is one of the most valiant and long-lived human characteristics. To believe, when all along we humans know that nothing can cure the briefness of this life, that there is no remedy for our basic mortality, that is a form of bravery.
To continue believing in yourself, believing in the doctors, believing in the treatment, believing in whatever I chose to believe in, that was the most important thing, I decided. It had to be.
Without belief, we would be left with nothing but an overwhelming doom, every single day. And it will beat you. I didn't fully see, until the cancer, how we fight every day against the creeping negatives of the world, how we struggle daily against the slow lapping of cynicism. Dispiritedness and disappointment, these were the real perils of life, not some sudden illness or cataclysmic millennium doomsday. I knew now why people fear cancer: because it is a slow and inevitable death, it is the very definition of cynicism and loss of spirit.
So, I believed.
”
”
Lance Armstrong (It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life)
“
We each cope differently with the specter of our deaths. Some people deny it. Some pray. Some numb themselves with tequila. I was tempted to do a little of each of those things. But I think we are supposed to try to face it straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage.
”
”
Lance Armstrong (It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life)
“
. When the plague struck Chicago, the townspeople here erected the gargoyles, and nary a soul was lost to the Black Death.”
“The bubonic plague predates Chicago by about five hundred years.”
He lowered himself to the bench. “I know. I was very disappointed when I found out. Almost as bad as when I learned there were no fairies. The world is much more interesting with goblins and plagues.”
“Unless you catch the plague.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Omens (Cainsville, #1))
“
Backup?" Tori said. "You mean he didn't need that?"
"Apparently not," I murmured.
Simon looked from her to me, confused, then understanding. "You guys thought..."
"That if you didn't get your medicine in the next twenty-four hours, you'd be dead?" I said. "Not exactly, but close. You know, the old 'upping the ante with a fatal disease that needs medication' twist. Apparently, it still works."
"Kind of a letdown, then, huh?"
"No kidding. Here we were, expecting to find you minutes from death. Look at you, not even gasping."
"All right, then. Emergency medical situation, take two."
He leaped to his feet, staggered, keeled over, then lifted his head weakly.
"Chloe? Is that you?" He coughed. "Do you have my insulin?"
I placed it in his outstretched hand.
"You saved my life," he said. "How can I ever repay you?"
"Undying servitude sounds good. I like my eggs scrambled."
He held up a piece of fruit. "Would you settle for a bruised apple?
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Awakening (Darkest Powers, #2))
“
I challenged that assumption by returning to a full, productive life. I had behaved, Nichols said, "as if death was an option".
”
”
Lance Armstrong (Every Second Counts)
“
There was a saying in our family that no one ever died; people just dried up, were hung on a hook, and conducted their affairs from there.
”
”
Mildred Armstrong Kalish (Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression)
“
The summer I turned sixteen I shot a man. It was 1969. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Hurricane Camille destroyed our farm. And I shot a man.
”
”
G.M. Frazier (A Death on the Wolf)
“
Petty theft, murder, forgery, arson, and the abduction of women were all capital offenses, so the death penalty for heresy was neither unusual nor extreme.50
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
Think of this: If it weren’t for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, no van Gogh, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong. The civilization that devises the infrastructure to allow these wonderful things to be created is essentially a product of war—death and suffering—and commerce—deceit and inequality. Even your liberty to discuss the shortcomings of your own species has its foundations in blood and hardship.” “That’s a depressing thought,
”
”
Jasper Fforde (The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1))
“
Ladies and Gentlemen! Silence please!" Every one was startled. They looked round-at each other, at the walls. Who was speaking? The Voice went on- a high clear voice.
You are charged with the following indictments:
Edward George Armstrong, that you did upon the 14th day of March, 1925, cause the death of Louisa Mary Clees.
Emily Caroline Brent, that upon the 5th November, 1931, you were responsible for the death of Beatrice Taylor.
William Henry Blore, that you brought about the death of James Stephen Landor on October 10th, 1928.
Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, that on the 11th day of August, 1935, you killed Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton.
Philip Lombard, that upon a date in February, 1932, you were guilty of the death of twenty-one men, members of an East African tribe.
John Gordon Macarthur, that on the 4th of January, 1917, you deliberately sent your wife's lover, Arthur Richmond, to his death.
Anthony James Marston, that upon the 14th day of November last, you were guilty of murder of John and Lucy Combes.
Thomas Rogers and Ethel Rogers, that on the 6th of May, 1929, you brought about the death of Jennifer Brady.
Lawrence John Wargrave, that upon the 10th day of June, 1930, you were guilty of the murder of Edward Seton.
Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defense?
”
”
Agatha Christie
“
In the inscriptions of Darius I, who came to the Persian throne after the death of Cyrus’s son Cambyses in 522 BCE, we find a combination of three themes that would recur in the ideology of all successful empires: a dualistic worldview that pits the good of empire against evildoers who oppose it; a doctrine of election that sees the ruler as a divine agent; and a mission to save the world.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
These days we have no true childhood, only a diseased precocity, introducing children to things that any decent man of Whittier’s day, or of Armstrong’s, would have considered unutterably vile. Therefore we have no true adulthood either, only a prolonged infantility, a curdled adolescence followed by old age and death.
”
”
Anthony Esolen
“
the true followers of Jesus imitated his kenosis. As the Christ Hymn had pointed out, Jesus had achieved his high status only by emptying himself and accepting death on a cross.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
I will love him until the death of universes not yet born.
”
”
Heather B. Armstrong
“
Mozi believed that a policy could be called virtuous only if it enriched the poor, prevented pointless death, and contributed to public order.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
We routinely and rightly condemn the terrorism that kills civilians in the name of God but we cannot claim the high moral ground if we dismiss the suffering and death of the many thousands of civilians who die in our wars as ‘collateral damage’. Ancient religious mythologies helped people to face up to the dilemma of state violence, but our current nationalist ideologies seem by contrast to promote a retreat into denial or hardening of our hearts. Nothing shows this more clearly than a remark of Madeleine Albright when she was still Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations. Later she retracted it, but among people around the world it has never been forgotten. In 1996, in CBS’s 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl asked her whether the cost of international sanctions against Iraq was justified: 'We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean that’s more children than died in Hiroshima … Is the price worth it?’ 'I think this is a very hard choice,’ Albright replied 'but the price, we think the price is worth it.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
After his death, his followers decided that Jesus had been divine. This did not happen immediately; as we shall see, the doctrine that Jesus had been God in human form was not finalized until the fourth century.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
The morgue is a Victorian update of a system established by Alfred the Great. It's the place where certain deaths are resolved - those where the cause is unclear or is the result of some intended or accidental violence. The bodies are almost always victims in some way - of crime, suicides and car crashes, but also victims of loneliness. It's where you go if you die alone in your flat and your body lies undisturbed for days. It's where you go if no one knew you were dying and no GP attended your final hours. It's where you go if no loved one held your hand as you slipped away. In one way or another, then, all the people who pass through this room are the people who die screaming.
”
”
Stephen Armstrong
“
One day in Auschwitz, a group of Jews put God on trial. They charged him with betrayal and cruelty. Like Job, they found no consolation in the usual answers to the problems of evil and suffering in the midst of this current obscenity. They could find no excuse for God, no extenuating circumstances, so they found him guilty and, presumably, worthy of death. The Rabbi pronounced the verdict. Then he looked up and said that the trial was over, it was time for the evening prayer.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
Paul’s opponents in Galatia believed that Jesus’s heroic death and resurrection had inspired a spiritual renewal movement within Israel; they advocated continuity with the past. But Paul believed that with the cross something entirely new had come into the world.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
changed the course of history, but the process was not yet complete. It was only when Jesus returned at the Parousia that “we shall all be changed” and “death be swallowed up in victory.”64 Then and only then would Christ establish the Kingdom, “deposing every sovereignty, authority, and power.”65
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
in the pre-modern world, when people wrote about the past they were more concerned with what an event had meant. A myth was an event which, in some sense, had happened once, but which also happened all the time. Because of our strictly chronological view of history, we have no word for such an occurrence, but mythology is an art form that points beyond history to what is timeless in human existence, helping us to get beyond the chaotic flux of random events, and glimpse the core of reality. An experience of transcendence has always been part of the human experience. We seek out moments of ecstasy, when we feel deeply touched within and lifted momentarily beyond ourselves. At such times, it seems that we are living more intensely than usual, firing on all cylinders, and inhabiting the whole of our humanity. Religion has been one of the most traditional ways of attaining ecstasy, but if people no longer find it in temples, synagogues, churches or mosques, they look for it elsewhere: in art, music, poetry, rock, dance, drugs, sex or sport. Like poetry and music, mythology should awaken us to rapture, even in the face of death and the despair we may feel at the prospect of annihilation. If a myth ceases to do that, it has died and outlived its usefulness.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A Short History of Myth)
“
The more deeply he entered the gentile world, the more Paul’s Christos parted company with the historical Jesus, which had never really interested him in the first place. Far more important to Paul was Jesus’s death and resurrection, the cosmic events that had transformed history and changed the fate of all peoples, regardless of their beliefs or ethnicity.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
After Moses's death, it fell to Joshua to conquer the Promised Land. The biblical book of Joshua still contains some ancient material, but this was radically revised by these same reformers, who interpreted it in the light of their peculiarly xenophobic theology. They give the impression that, acting under Yahweh's orders, Joshua massacred the entire population of Canaan and destroyed their cities.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
You cannot be a hero unless you are prepared to give up everything; there is no ascent to the heights without a prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death. Throughout our lives, we all find ourselves in situations in which we come face to face with the unknown, and the myth of the hero shows us how we should behave. We all have to face the final rite of passage, which is death.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A Short History of Myth)
“
In roughly that same time period, while General George Armstrong Custer achieved world fame in failure and catastrophe, Mackenzie would become obscure in victory. But it was Mackenzie, not Custer, who would teach the rest of the army how to fight Indians. As he moved his men across the broken, stream-crossed country, past immense herds of buffalo and prairie-dog towns that stretched to the horizon, Colonel Mackenzie did not have a clear idea of what he was doing, where precisely he was going, or how to fight Plains Indians in their homelands. Neither did he have the faintest idea that he would be the one largely responsible for defeating the last of the hostile Indians. He was new to this sort of Indian fighting, and would make many mistakes in the coming weeks. He would learn from them. For now, Mackenzie was the instrument of retribution. He had been dispatched to kill Comanches in their Great Plains fastness because, six years after the end of the Civil War, the western frontier was an open and bleeding wound, a smoking ruin littered with corpses and charred chimneys, a place where anarchy and torture killings had replaced the rule of law, where Indians and especially Comanches raided at will. Victorious in war, unchallenged by foreign foes in North America for the first time in its history, the Union now found itself unable to deal with the handful of remaining Indian tribes that had not been destroyed, assimilated, or forced to retreat meekly onto reservations where they quickly learned the meaning of abject subjugation and starvation. The hostiles were all residents of the Great Plains; all were mounted, well armed, and driven now by a mixture of vengeance and political desperation. They were Comanches, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and Western Sioux. For Mackenzie on the southern plains, Comanches were the obvious target: No tribe in the history of the Spanish, French, Mexican, Texan, and American occupations of this land had ever caused so much havoc and death. None was even a close second.
”
”
S.C. Gwynne (Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History)
“
Yet the notion of Christ’s sacrificial death was similar to the ideal of the bodhisattva, which was developing at this time in India. Like the bodhisattva, Christ had, in effect, become a mediator between humanity and the Absolute, the difference being that Christ was the only mediator and the salvation he effected was not an unrealized aspiration for the future, like that of the bodhisattva, but a fait accompli.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
Similar stories are told about the other great goddesses—Inana, Ishtar and Isis—who search for the dead god and bring new life to the soil. The victory of Anat, however, must be perpetuated year after year in ritual celebration. Later—we are not sure how, since our sources are incomplete—Baal is brought back to life and restored to Anat. This apotheosis of wholeness and harmony, symbolized by the union of the sexes, was celebrated by means of ritual sex in ancient Canaan. By imitating the gods in this way, men and women would share their struggle against sterility and ensure the creativity and fertility of the world. The death of a god, the quest of the goddess and the triumphant return to the divine sphere were constant religious themes in many cultures and would recur in the very different religion of the One God worshipped by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
It made a romantic tale. The young rouge, cheating death, returning to his grieving lover. But in reality? Ashyn had always known life did not resemble one of her book stories or Moria's bard tales, and yet there was a part of her that hoped it did. The more she saw, the more she realized she was wrong. People made up stories because that is what they wanted from their world. A place where goodness, kindness, and honor were rewarded. They were not rewarded. The people of Edgewood could attest to that. - Sea Of Shadows
”
”
Kelly Armstrong
“
Muslim fundamentalists have toppled governments and either assassinated or threatened the enemies of Islam with the death penalty. Similarly, Jewish fundamentalists have settled in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the avowed intention of driving out the Arab inhabitants, using force if necessary. Thus they believe that they are paving a way for the advent of the Messiah, which is at hand. In all its forms, fundamentalism is a fiercely reductive faith. Thus Rabbi Meir Kahane, the most extreme member of Israel’s Far Right until his assassination in New York in 1990: There
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
Muhammad had become the head of a collection of tribal groups that were not bound together by blood but by a shared ideology, an astonishing innovation in Arabian society. Nobody was forced to convert to the religion of the Quran, but Muslims, pagans and Jews all belonged to one ummah, could not attack one another, and vowed to give each other protection. News of this extraordinary new ‘supertribe’ spread, and though at the outset nobody thought that it had a chance of survival, it proved to be an inspiration that would bring peace to Arabia before the death of the Prophet in 632, just ten years after the hijrah.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Islam: A Short History (UNIVERSAL HISTORY))
“
As the Prajna-paramita Sutras (Sermons on the Perfection of Wisdom), which were compiled at the end of the first century BCE, explain, the bodhisattvas do not wish to attain their own private nirvana. On the contrary, they have surveyed the highly painful world of being, and yet desirous of winning supreme enlightenment, they do not tremble at birth-and-death. They have set out for the benefit of the world, for the ease of the world, out of pity for the world. They have resolved: “We will become a shelter for the world, the world’s place of rest, the final relief of the world, islands of the world, lights of the world, the guides of the world’s means of salvation.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
The more deeply he entered the gentile world, the more Paul’s Christos parted company with the historical Jesus, which had never really interested him in the first place. Far more important to Paul was Jesus’s death and resurrection, the cosmic events that had transformed history and changed the fate of all peoples, regardless of their beliefs or ethnicity. If they imitated Jesus’s kenosis in their daily behavior, he promised his disciples, they would experience a spiritual resurrection that brought with it a new freedom.5 The Messiah, he told the Galatians, had given “himself for our sins, to rescue us out of this present wicked age as our God and Father willed.”6
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
This, of course, directly contradicts Paul’s insistence that “in Christ” there should be full gender equality. So glaring is this discrepancy that many scholars believe that this passage was inserted into Paul’s letter at a later date by those who wanted to make Paul conform more closely to Greco-Roman norms. Paul’s letters were copied assiduously after his death and survived in 779 manuscripts dating from the third to the sixteenth century.46 There are variant versions in the earliest manuscripts of this letter, and copyists appear to have sometimes added remarks that reflected their own opinions rather than the apostle’s. One of these is almost certainly the passage quoted above.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
and by a militant rejection of all later accretions, which included medieval fiqh, mysticism and Falsafah, which most Muslims now regarded as normative. Because the Ottoman sultans did not conform to his vision of true Islam, Abd al-Wahhab declared that they were apostates and worthy of death. Instead, he tried to create an enclave of pure faith, based on his view of the first ummah of the seventh century. His aggressive techniques would be used by some fundamentalists in the twentieth century, a period of even greater change and unrest. Wahhabism is the form of Islam that is still practised today in Saudi Arabia, a puritan religion based on a strictly literal interpretation of scripture and early Islamic tradition.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles))
“
We are absolutely right to condemn the suicide bomber's targeting of innocent civilians and mourn his victims. But as we have seen, in war the state also targets such victims; during the 20th century, the rate of civilian deaths rose sharply and now stands at 90 percent. In the West we solemnize the deaths of our regular troops carefully and recurrently honor the memory of the soldier who dies do his country. Yet the civilian deaths we cause are rarely mentioned, and there has been no sustained outcry in the West against them. Suicide bombing shocks us to the core; but should it be more shocking than the deaths of thousands of children in their homelands every every year because of land mines? Or collateral damage in a drone strike?
”
”
Karen Armstrong
“
Speak here,” Ronan said. “As Ash’s guard, I ought to be privy to any plans.”
“You are hardly in any shape to function as her guard, my son. Rest, and when you’ve recovered, you can—”
“I’ve recovered enough to stay by her side,” Ronan said. “Which I will, particularly now, after what happened to the guard you assigned.”
“It was not Tarquin’s fault,” Ashyn said.
“I do not mean to minimize the tragedy of his death,” Ronan said. “But he wasn’t up to his task. You require better. You require me.”
“You have a high opinion of yourself,” Edwyn said dryly.
“No, I have a high opinion of the danger Ash faces, and I don’t trust anyone else to understand it. Clearly your guard did not expect fiend dogs.”
“No one expects fiend dogs,” Ashyn said.
“True, but at least you and I expect the unexpected.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Forest of Ruin (Age of Legends, #3))
“
One of the first things I discovered was that Paul did not write all the letters attributed to him in the New Testament. Only seven of them are judged by scholars to be authentic: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, and Romans. The rest—Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, known as the Deutero-Pauline letters—were written in his name after his death, some as late as the second century. These were not forgeries in our sense; it was common in the ancient world to write under the pseudonym of an admired sage or philosopher. These posthumous epistles tried to rein Paul in and make his radical teachings more acceptable to the Greco-Roman world. It was these later writers who insisted that women be subservient to their husbands and that slaves must obey their masters.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
Before the twentieth century, the phrase pistis Iesou Christou was regularly translated into English as “the faith or loyalty of Jesus.” It did not refer to the faith of ordinary mortals, but only to the “trust” that Jesus had in God when he accepted his death sentence and his “confidence” that God would turn it to good; and God had indeed rewarded this act of faith by inaugurating a new relationship with humanity that saved men and women from the iniquity and injustice of the old order, ensuring that all people, whatever their social status or ethnicity, could become God’s children. But ever since the publication of the American Standard Version of the Bible in 1901, this phrase has regularly been translated as “faith in Jesus Christ,” equated with an individual Christian’s belief in Jesus’s divinity and redemptive act.11 Paul went on to argue that the Torah had not been revealed for
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
Paul’s opponents in Galatia believed that Jesus’s heroic death and resurrection had inspired a spiritual renewal movement within Israel; they advocated continuity with the past. But Paul believed that with the cross something entirely new had come into the world.7 By raising Jesus, a criminal condemned by Roman law, God had taken the shocking step of embracing what the Torah deemed defiled. Jewish law decreed: “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a gibbet”; by accepting this shameful death, Jesus had made himself legally profane, voluntarily becoming an abomination. But by raising him to the highest place in Heaven, God had vindicated Jesus, cleared him of all guilt, and in the process declared Roman law null and void and the Torah’s categories of purity and impurity no longer valid. As a result, gentiles, hitherto ritually unclean, could also inherit the blessings promised to Abraham without becoming subject to Jewish law.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
During the 1950s, Logical Positivists such as A. J. Ayer (1910–91) asked whether it made sense to believe in God. The natural sciences provided the only reliable source of knowledge because it could be tested empirically. Ayer was not asking whether or not God existed but whether the idea of God had any meaning. He argued that a statement is meaningless if we cannot see how it can be verified or shown to be false. To say “There is intelligent life on Mars” is not meaningless since we can see how we could verify this once we had the necessary technology. Similarly a simple believer in the traditional Old Man in the Sky is not making a meaningless statement when he says: “I believe in God,” since after death we should be able to find out whether or not this is true. It is the more sophisticated believer who has problems, when he says: “God does not exist in any sense that we can understand” or “God is not good in the human sense of the word.” These statements are too vague; it is impossible to see how they can be tested; therefore, they are meaningless. As Ayer said: “Theism is so confused and the sentences in which ‘God’ appears so incoherent and so incapable of verifiability or falsifiability that to speak of belief or unbelief, faith or unfaith, is logically impossible.”2
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
Jesus himself remains an enigma. There have been interesting attempts to uncover the figure of the ‘historical’ Jesus, a project that has become something of a scholarly industry. But the fact remains that the only Jesus we really know is the Jesus described in the New Testament, which was not interested in scientifically objective history. There are no other contemporary accounts of his mission and death. We cannot even be certain why he was crucified. The gospel accounts indicate that he was thought to be the king of the Jews. He was said to have predicted the imminent arrival of the kingdom of heaven, but also made it clear that it was not of this world. In the literature of the Late Second Temple period, there had been hints that a few people were expecting a righteous king of the House of David to establish an eternal kingdom, and this idea seems to have become more popular during the tense years leading up to the war. Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius all note the importance of revolutionary religiosity, both before and after the rebellion.2 There was now keen expectation in some circles of a meshiah (in Greek, christos), an ‘anointed’ king of the House of David, who would redeem Israel. We do not know whether Jesus claimed to be this messiah – the gospels are ambiguous on this point.3 Other people rather than Jesus himself may have made this claim on his behalf.4 But after his death some of his followers had seen him in visions that convinced them that he had been raised from the tomb – an event that heralded the general resurrection of all the righteous when God would inaugurate his rule on earth.5 Jesus and his disciples came from Galilee in northern Palestine. After his death they moved to Jerusalem, probably to be on hand when the kingdom arrived, since all the prophecies declared that the temple would be the pivot of the new world order.6 The leaders of their movement were known as ‘the Twelve’: in the kingdom, they would rule the twelve tribes of the reconstituted Israel.7 The members of the Jesus movement worshipped together every day in the temple,8 but they also met for communal meals, in which they affirmed their faith in the kingdom’s imminent arrival.9 They continued to live as devout, orthodox Jews. Like the Essenes, they had no private property, shared their goods equally, and dedicated their lives to the last days.10 It seems that Jesus had recommended voluntary poverty and special care for the poor; that loyalty to the group was to be valued more than family ties; and that evil should be met with non-violence and love.11 Christians should pay their taxes, respect the Roman authorities, and must not even contemplate armed struggle.12 Jesus’s followers continued to revere the Torah,13 keep the Sabbath,14 and the observance of the dietary laws was a matter of extreme importance to them.15 Like the great Pharisee Hillel, Jesus’s older contemporary, they taught a version of the Golden Rule, which they believed to be the bedrock of the Jewish faith: ‘So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the message of the Law and the Prophets.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World))
“
The Greeks, on the other hand, were passionately interested in logic and reason. Plato (ca. 428–ca. 348 BCE) was continually occupied with problems of epistemology and the nature of wisdom. Much of his early work was devoted to the defense of Socrates, who had forced men to clarify their ideas by his thought-provoking questions but had been sentenced to death in 399 on the charges of impiety and the corruption of youth. In a way that was not dissimilar to that of the people of India, he had become dissatisfied with the old festivals and myths of religion, which he found demeaning and inappropriate. Plato had also been influenced by the sixth-century philosopher Pythagoras, who may have been influenced by ideas from India, transmitted via Persia and Egypt. He had believed that the soul was a fallen, polluted deity incarcerated in the body as in a tomb and doomed to a perpetual cycle of rebirth. He had articulated the common human experience of feeling a stranger in a world that does not seem to be our true element. Pythagoras had taught that the soul could be liberated by means of ritual purifications, which would enable it to achieve harmony with the ordered universe. Plato also believed in the existence of a divine, unchanging reality beyond the world of the senses, that the soul was a fallen divinity, out of its element, imprisoned in the body but capable of regaining its divine status by the purification of the reasoning powers of the mind. In the famous myth of the cave, Plato described the darkness and obscurity of man’s life on earth: he perceives only shadows of the eternal realities flickering on the wall of the cave. But gradually he can be drawn out and achieve enlightenment and liberation by accustoming his mind to the divine light.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
Among the white scouts were numbered some of the most noted of their class. The most prominent man among them was "Wild Bill".
Wild bill was a strange character, just the one which a novelist might gloat over.
Whether on foot or on horseback, he was one of the most perfect types of physical manhood I ever saw. Of his courage there could be no question; it had been brought to the test on too many occasions to admit a doubt.
His skill in the use of the rifle and pistol was unerring; while his deportment was exactly the opposite of what might be expected from a man of his surroundings. It was entirely free of bluster or bravado.
He seldom spoke of himself unless requested to do so. His conversation, strange to say, never bordered either on the vulgar or blasphemous.
His influence among the frontiersmen was unbounded, his word was law; and many are the personal quarrels and disturbances which he has checked among his comrades by his simple announcement that "this has gone far enough" if need be followed by the ominous warning that when persisted in or renewed the quarreler "must settle it with me".
Wild Bill is anything but a quarrelsome man; yet no one but himself can enumerate the many conflicts in which he has been engaged, and which have almost invariably resulted in the death of his adversary.
I have personal knowledge of at least half a dozen men whom he has at various times killed, one of these being at the time a member of my command.
Wild Bill always carried two handsome ivory-handled revolvers of the large size; he was never seen without them. Where this is the common custom, brawls or personal difficulties are seldom if ever settled by blows.
The quarrel is not from word to blow, but from a word to revolver, and he who can draw and fire first is the best man.
An item which has been floating lately through the columns of the press states that, "the funeral of 'Jim Bludso,' who was killed the other day by 'Wild Bill' took place today" and then adds: "The funeral expenses were borne by 'Wild Bill'"
What could be more thoughtful than this? Not only to send a fellow mortal out of the world, but to pay the expenses of the transit.
”
”
George Armstrong Custer (My Life on the Plains: Or, Personal Experiences with Indians)
“
The Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel had lived only for God during his childhood in Hungary; his life had been shaped by the disciplines of the Talmud, and he had hoped one day to be initiated into the mysteries of Kabbalah. As a boy, he was taken to Auschwitz and later to Buchenwald. During his first night in the death camp, watching the black smoke coiling to the sky from the crematorium where the bodies of his mother and sister were to be thrown, he knew that the flames had consumed his faith forever. He was in a world which was the objective correlative of the Godless world imagined by Nietzsche. “Never should I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live,” he wrote years later. “Never shall I forget these moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.”33 One day the Gestapo hanged a child. Even the SS were disturbed by the prospect of hanging a young boy in front of thousands of spectators. The child who, Wiesel recalled, had the face of a “sad-eyed angel,” was silent, lividly pale and almost calm as he ascended the gallows. Behind Wiesel, one of the other prisoners asked: “Where is God? Where is He?” It took the child half an hour to die, while the prisoners were forced to look him in the face. The same man asked again: “Where is God now?” And Wiesel heard a voice within him make this answer: “Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows.”34 Dostoevsky had said that the death of a single child could make God unacceptable, but even he, no stranger to inhumanity, had not imagined the death of a child in such circumstances. The horror of Auschwitz is a stark challenge to many of the more conventional ideas of God. The remote God of the philosophers, lost in a transcendent apatheia, becomes intolerable. Many Jews can no longer subscribe to the biblical idea of God who manifests himself in history, who, they say with Wiesel, died in Auschwitz. The idea of a personal God, like one of us writ large, is fraught with difficulty. If this God is omnipotent, he could have prevented the Holocaust. If he was unable to stop it, he is impotent and useless; if he could have stopped it and chose not to, he is a monster. Jews are not the only people who believe that the Holocaust put an end to conventional theology.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“
According to Luke, far from denouncing the cult, like Stephen, they worshipped together every day in the temple.22 Indeed, the revered Pharisee Gamaliel, whose views were more liberal than Paul’s, is said to have advised the Sanhedrin to leave the Jesus movement alone: If it was of human origin, it would break up of its own accord like other recent protest groups.23 But for Paul, the Hellenistic followers of Jesus were insulting everything he believed to be most sacred, and he greatly feared that their devotion to a man executed so recently by the Roman authorities would put the entire community at risk. Paul himself had never had any dealings with Jesus before his death, but he would have been horrified to learn that Jesus had desecrated the temple and argued that some of God’s laws were more important than others. For a Pharisee with extreme views, like Paul, a Jew who did not observe every single one of the commandments was endangering the Jewish people, since God could punish such infidelity as severely as he had punished the ancient Israelites in the time of Moses. But above all, Paul was scandalized by the outrageous idea of a crucified Messiah.24 How could a convicted criminal possibly restore the dignity and liberty of Israel? This was an utter travesty, a scandalon or “stumbling block.” The Torah was adamant that such a man was hopelessly polluted: “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and you hang him on a gibbet, his body must not remain on the tree overnight; you must bury him the same day, for the one who has been hanged is accursed of God, and you must not defile the land that Yahweh your God has given you.”25 True, his followers insisted that Jesus had been buried on the day of his death, but Paul was well aware that most Roman soldiers had little respect for Jewish sensibilities and might well have left Jesus’s body hanging on his cross to be consumed by birds of prey. Even though this was no fault of his own, such a man was an abomination and had defiled the Land of Israel.26 To imagine that these desecrated remains had been raised to the right hand of God was abhorrent, unthinkable, and blasphemous. It impugned the honor of God and his people and would delay the longed-for coming of the Messiah, so it was, Paul believed, his duty to eradicate this sect.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons))
“
For now that I have seen
The curd-white hawthorn once again
Break out on the new green,
And through the iron gates in the long blank wall
Have viewed across a screen
Of rosy apple-blossom the grey spire
And low red roofs and humble chimney-stacks,
And stood in spacious courtyards of old farms,
And heard green virgin wheat sing to the breeze,
And the drone of ancient worship rise and fall
In the dark church, and talked with simple folk
Of farm and village, dwelling near the earth,
Among earth's ancient elemental things:
I can with heart made bold
Go back into the ways of ruin and death
With step unflagging and with quiet breath.
(Martin Armstrong)
”
”
Brian Gardner (Up the Line to Death: The War Poets 1914-1918: an anthology)
“
Polly beat Armstrong’s nine-month-old sister to death because she would not stop crying.
”
”
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers (They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South)
“
We have to be prepared to allow a myth to change us forever. Together with the rituals that break down the barrier between the listener and the story, and which help him to make it his own, a mythical narrative is designed to push us beyond the safe certainties of the familiar world into the unknown. Reading a myth without the transforming ritual that goes with it is as incomplete an experience as simply reading the lyrics of an opera without the music. Unless it is encountered as part of a process of regeneration, of death and rebirth, mythology makes no sense.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (A Short History of Myth (The Myths))
“
As the abyss widens, though, I begin to fear that coming back to the surface may, someday, not be under my control. Because at the bottom of my abyss is not death, it's madness.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Masked Truth)
“
Ronan sighed. " You have no gift for the art of conversation, Moria. All right. I take it Ashyn is well, Please tell her ..." He struggled long enough for words that Moria sighed with impatience.
"I'll tell her you send your undying love and cannot wait to see her gentle face again."
From the look on Ronan's face, you'd think she'd suggested telling Ashyn he wished her a slow and tortured death.
"Fine," she said. "I'll tell her you asked after her and that it would be pleasant to speak with her, once she is permitted to do so."
"Yes, thank you. I have great regard for your sister, but she is a Seeker, and I have good reason for not ..."
Moria peered at him. "Not what?"
"I ... have great regard for your sister."
"Yes, yes, you said that. I didn't come to play matchmaker.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (Empire of Night (Age of Legends, #2))
“
Billie Holiday
Her imperfect life led to her becoming a legendary performer with a continuing influence on American music. Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1015 she became a songwriter and jazz singer with an unmistakable vocal style. Although she had a limited range her delivery, tempo and natural skills, held the attention of a devoted following.
Influenced by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith her success as a pop singer with the Benny Goodman Band started with "Riffin' the Scotch", which sold 5,000 copies. She continued with Count Basie and Artie Shaw and was recognized throughout the 1930s and the 1940s with songs such as “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “God Bless the Child.” Plagued with abusive relationships, drug and alcohol addiction, and even a short prison sentence she still rose to the top of the charts. Her predictable deterioration and eventual death on July 17, 1959 was caused by cirrholis of the liver.
”
”
Hank Bracker
“
I wrote an entire book about death, called 'It's not About the Bike', about confronting the possibility of it, and narrowly escaping it.
(...)
What I didn't and couldn't address at the time was the prospect of life. Once you figure out you're going to live, you have to decide how to, and that's not an uncomplicated matter.
”
”
Lance Armstrong
“
When I put down Lance Armstrong’s book, I understood something profoundly. Edie, if you can move, you’re not sick. I decided right then and there that no matter what cancer did to me I would continue to move. Movement was what the physical body was designed to do; it was how it coped and functioned. Movement was vitality. It was life.
I would move. Always. No matter what. Until my last breath, I would move.
”
”
Edie Littlefield Sundby (The Mission Walker: I was given three months to live...)
“
If I had been invited by my dear family sooner, I would've dealt with Glaemir by now," said a voice behind them.
"Aunt Helen!" Laurie exclaimed.
"Niece." The ruler of Hel wore another living dress, this one covered by death's-head moths. Aside from the tiny little skull shape on the backs of the moths, they weren't particularly odd. Helen's habit of dressing in living things, however, was a bit creepy.
"Speak of the devil," Fen murmured.
Helen laughed and shook her finger at him. "Now, now, Nephew. I'm standing here with the godlings. Would I do that if I were a devil?
”
”
K.L. Armstrong (Odin's Ravens (The Blackwell Pages, #2))
“
Think of this: If it weren’t for greed, intolerance, hate, passion and murder, you would have no works of art, no great buildings, no medical science, no Mozart, no van Gogh, no Muppets and no Louis Armstrong. The civilization that devises the infrastructure to allow these wonderful things to be created is essentially a product of war—death and suffering—and commerce—deceit and inequality. Even your liberty to discuss the shortcomings of your own species has its foundations in blood and hardship.
”
”
Jasper Fforde
“
Nell Armstrong was a demi-god, he succeded travelling to space, after numerous deaths.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“
It wasn’t belief in God, but belief in tradition, heritage and continuity that motivated me. Within my lifetime, six million Jews had died because of their religion and I too had been destined for death. It was a sacred trust to carry the flame forward to the next generation.
”
”
Diane Armstrong (Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations)
“
Armstrong’s hydro-electric machine – to its visitors. This gargantuan piece of equipment could be used to mount a truly spectacular extravaganza of sparks and explosions. The press was duly primed to note its substantial dimensions, with a boiler 7.5ft long and 3.5ft in diameter, to produce steam; the steam then came gushing out of a series of nozzles to produce the electricity, which powered the whole contraption.
”
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Iwan Rhys Morus (Shocking Bodies: Life, Death and Electricity in Victorian England)
“
Why was Nietzsche’s “God is dead” speech so refreshing? It’s because the death of the external God would force people to become gods themselves. Nietzsche’s Superman is a God substitute. If you are a Superman then you are becoming God. The Last Man wants none of that. The Last Man always wants an external God. The Last Man always wants someone else running the show, bearing the burden.
”
”
Rob Armstrong (Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers)
“
For Homer, glory was the only thing that was truly imperishable. Only the glorious live on after death, in the memories and stories of humanity. Glory is the only meaningful form of immortality. The abject creature that lives on in the underworld holds no appeal. In fact, Homer’s theology demands a dismal afterlife. That way, the heroes are fully motivated to achieve glory here and now. What else is there to aim for? The grim persistence of the soul after death is in every way unappealing. Do you want a mediocre life and an even more mediocre death?
”
”
Rob Armstrong (Homo Roboticus: The Inner Human Robot Revealed By Sleepwalking and Hypnosis)
“
it did afford him the opportunity to pursue the science of death, and I daresay he enjoys that far more than he would a standard surgical practice. His interest has always been in the science.” “A researcher rather than a practitioner.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (A Rip Through Time (A Rip Through Time #1))
“
don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, and politics can be life and death.
”
”
Mary Armstrong (The Mesilla (Two Valleys #1))
“
migration had been fueled by the Aryans’ experience of claustrophobic confinement in the Punjab; now they felt imprisoned in their overcrowded cities. It was not just a feeling: rapid urbanization typically leads to epidemics, particularly when the population rises above 300,000, a sort of tipping point for contagion.57 No wonder the Aryans were obsessed by sickness, suffering, and death and longed to find a way out.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
the epic probably reflects the period after Ashoka’s death in 232 BCE, when the Mauryan Empire began its decline and India entered a dark age of political instability that lasted until the rise of the Gupta dynasty in 320 CE.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
In 493 BCE Ajatashatru became king of Magadha; it was said that, impatient for the throne, he had murdered his father, King Bimbisara, the Buddha’s friend. Ajatashatru continued his father’s policy of military conquest and built a small fort on the Ganges, which the Buddha visited shortly before his death; it later became the famous metropolis of Pataliputra. Ajatashatru also annexed Koshala and Kashi and defeated a confederacy of tribal republics, so that when he died in 461, the Kingdom of Magadha dominated
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
From the trauma of birth to the agony of death, human existence seemed fraught with suffering, and even death brought no relief because everything and everybody was caught up in an inescapable cycle (samsara) of rebirth, so the whole distressing scenario had to be endured again and again. The
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence)
“
I saw her a few days before —’ He stopped mid-sentence and looked out of the window. He hadn’t returned in time to hear what his mother had wanted to tell him. Halina sensed that the conversation was over and wondered what lay beneath the pained look on his face. The death of a mother always left children with regrets but she had imagined it would be different for a priest.
”
”
Diane Armstrong (Winter Journey)
“
I hope everything goes smoothly this evening.’ ‘It’s certain not to, Miss Armstrong,’ he said. ‘But the test of our mettle is how well we cope with the inevitable disasters, I always say.
”
”
T.E. Kinsey (Death Around the Bend (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries, #3))
“
No one expects you to care about Nic and Hayley as much as we do,” Daniel said. “But I am glad to see you’re okay.”
“For Maya’s sake. I know.” He waved off Daniel’s denials. “I don’t expect more. And, chances are, I’ll turn out to be an ass after all.”
He said it jokingly, but he broke eye contact, and didn’t look my way either, just nudged me toward the house. I wondered if it did kind of hurt him, getting a cool reception from the guys.
That reception didn’t improve once we got in the house. Rafe was happy to see Sam was okay. Whether you like a person or not, you don’t wish them a horrible death.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
That reception didn’t improve once we got in the house. Rafe was happy to see Sam was okay. Whether you like a person or not, you don’t wish them a horrible death. Sam, though…Well, I’d spent long enough with her now to realize she was lacking certain filters most of us have.
“So, I guess you’ll be moving on, then?” she said. “Got things to do? Places to be?”
Daniel winced. Corey lifted his brows. Rafe only sputtered a laugh.
“Well, at least you didn’t say you’re sorry to see me alive,” he said.
“You know what I mean,” Sam said.
“Um, no,” I said. “We don’t. Rafe just survived a fall from a helicopter and trekked back here to meet us--”
“Meet you,” Sam said.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
That reception didn’t improve once we got in the house. Rafe was happy to see Sam was okay. Whether you like a person or not, you don’t wish them a horrible death. Sam, though…Well, I’d spent long enough with her now to realize she was lacking certain filters most of us have.
“So, I guess you’ll be moving on, then?” she said. “Got things to do? Places to be?”
Daniel winced. Corey lifted his brows. Rafe only sputtered a laugh.
“Well, at least you didn’t say you’re sorry to see me alive,” he said.
“You know what I mean,” Sam said.
“Um, no,” I said. “We don’t. Rafe just survived a fall from a helicopter and trekked back here to meet us--”
“Meet you,” Sam said. “And what I meant was that he’ll be leaving to look for his sister. Right?”
“I am looking for Annie,” Rafe said. “But I can do that with you guys, especially if she’s been captured by the same people who have Nicole and Hayley. Maya tells me you have a cell phone. It probably wasn’t a good idea to use it, but since no one swooped down while you were waiting here--”
“Which is why I insisted on waiting here.” Sam lifted her chin. “If the Nasts were tracking the phone, they’d have come here and found me alone. But no one showed up. Now, Maya, if you can stop gaping at Rafe for a few minutes, we really should come up with a plan.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
Now, Maya, if you can stop gaping at Rafe for a few minutes, we really should come up with a plan.”
I glared at her. “I spent three days thinking I’d watched him fall to his death.”
“Leave her alone, Sam,” Daniel murmured. “This isn’t the time.”
“I’m just saying it’s not the time for that either. We need to focus and having Maya moon over Rafe is making everyone uncomfortable.”
Rafe grinned. “Doesn’t bother me.”
“Because your ego really needs the encouragement.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
If we want clues, we need to look at the extracurricular activities they pushed at us. Clearly, with Daniel and me, they were trying to boost our natural talents: fighting for him and running for me. Serena, Hayley, and Nicole were all in the choir and on the swim team. Plus they’re all blonde and pretty.”
“Um, thanks,” Hayley said as she came over. “But what…” Her brow furrowed. “You think we’re mermaids?”
“Isn’t that sirens?” Corey said. “Those chicks we studied in Greek mythology. Lured guys to their deaths by singing.”
Hayley glared at him. “I thought you liked my singing.”
“Yeah, because apparently it’s magical. That’s how you seduce guys.”
“Seduce them? Or kill them?”
“Same thing, kind of, if you think about it. Like that other guy in mythology. The one who got his hair cut and lost all his power. Mr. Parks said it symbolized men losing their power by falling for women.”
“No,” I said. “Mr. Parks said it symbolizes men’s irrational fear of losing their power to women. And unless I’m remembering it wrong, mermaids don’t sing and sirens don’t swim.”
“Ariel sang in The Little Mermaid,” Corey said.
Sam came over to join us. “Do I even want to know why you remember her name?
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
It’s official,” Sam said as we walked out. “We’re screwed. The universe is conspiring to destroy us.”
“If it was, I think it could have managed that a few times by now.”
“Ah, but that’s the trick. You cheat death, it keeps trying. Didn’t you see that movie?”
“All of them, actually. Serena loved--” A brief pause. “She loved horror movies.”
“Did she? I’d have thought her more the romance type.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
It’s official,” Sam said as we walked out. “We’re screwed. The universe is conspiring to destroy us.”
“If it was, I think it could have managed that a few times by now.”
“Ah, but that’s the trick. You cheat death, it keeps trying. Didn’t you see that movie?”
“All of them, actually.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
The universe is conspiring to destroy us.”
“If it was, I think it could have managed that a few times by now.”
“Ah, but that’s the trick. You cheat death, it keeps trying.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
I’m not seeing spooky,” I said. “Dark, yes, but what’s spooky about it?”
“What’s not spooky?” Sam muttered.
Hayley pointed. “You can’t tell me that isn’t creepy.”
I followed her finger to see branches draped in elegant, pale-green Spanish moss.
“That? Seriously? It’s moss, Hayley, not an alien lifeform. We just escaped a helicopter crash and a death brush with something in the water. That was scary. This is the forest. This is where we’re going to find shelter and water.”
“Shelter? I don’t want a damned cave, Maya. I want a house, and we’re not going to find that in the middle of--”
Daniel stepped between us. “All right. This isn’t helping.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2))
“
While men like Garfield strolled the aisles of Machinery Hall in Philadelphia, marveling at the greatest inventions of the industrial age, George Armstrong Custer and his entire regiment were being slaughtered in Montana by the Northern Plains Indians they had tried to force back onto reservations. As fairgoers stared in amazement at Remington’s typewriter and Thomas Edison’s automatic telegraph system, Wild Bill Hickok was shot to death in a saloon in Deadwood, leaving outlaws like Jesse James and Billy the Kid to terrorize the West. As middle-class families waited patiently in line for their chance to marvel at the Statue of Liberty’s hand, freed slaves throughout the country still faced each day in fear and abject poverty.
”
”
Candice Millard (Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President)
“
I woke up in a weird mood. A good mood, which was the weird part, all things considered.
After I finished feeding the animals, Mom offered me another “get out of school free card.” I refused it. I needed to talk to Daniel about Mina’s and Serena’s deaths, and school was the best place for that.
I was getting my lunch ready. Mom had gone into the studio, leaving Dad on “watch our child for signs of an imminent breakdown” duty, sitting at the table, sipping his coffee.
”
”
Kelley Armstrong (The Gathering (Darkness Rising, #1))
“
Afraid of death? So very much afraid of death that you long to die?
”
”
Charlotte Armstrong (Dream Of Fair Woman)
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Through the years, you’ve released parts of you. Some went into the sewer, others you left at your friends’ houses, some on the sidewalk while riding your bike as a kid. Your body is used to being taken apart by pieces and put back together. Swapping parts is hardwired into human existence. It takes on a much larger role in death.
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Linda Armstrong (The Zombie Wizards of Ala-ka)
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If you were dead, would you want your body to decompose and be eaten by worms until it laid scattered in a zillion pieces as worm dung? Or would you rather have a purpose, find meaning in death and help the generations that come after you?
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Linda Armstrong (The Zombie Wizards of Ala-ka)
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Death lies not in being dead, but in acting dead.
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Linda Armstrong (The Zombie Wizards of Ala-ka)
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⟽ BLACK MAGIC SPELL ⟾
Black magic is really very difficult and bad art of the magic that is used to harm other person by sitting at any place in the world. In the black magic the evil spirits are captured by the black magic specialist and they do whatever the black magic specialist commands them to do. If the person is under the control of spirits then the result of black magic is death. The person who are under the possession of evil spirits and really wanted to get rid from those and searching for the solution of how to remove black magic. The black magic can only remove with the help of the black magic specialist. Our black magic specialist is the person who is expert for how to remove black magic and he has removed the really bad effects of the black magic from the affected persons. He performs the black magic worldwide or spells those are really very difficult in behalf of their client. As the witchcraft and the ritual are very difficult so one should always be prepared for it and become a brave hearted. So, if you or any of your family members is affected by the black magic then do consult the black magic specialist make all the things as it was before. +27789734524
⟽ SIGNES OF BLACK MAGIC ⟾
There are different threads to it. For example, both negative and positive energy are present among us. Some people have the power or ability to use these energies for different reasons - A negative energy can be used as black magic for destruction, taking revenge, controlling someone, etc. On the other hand, a positive energy can be used as a prayer or a healing activity and is used for purification of own soul, letting go ego, etc. and it also sometimes help the sufferers heal from the bad effects of black magics.
Your house or your life can be affected by both - black magic done by someone and negative energies surrounding you and other family members. I’ll provide more information on these.
If a black magic is done on you or on your family, the symptoms can be in multiple. Also remember, these magic’s are of different types, levels, intensity, etc. so different people will have different experiences based on the level of this magic performed on them.
⟽ COMMON SYMPTOMS ⟾
Your house will look dull despite of vibrant paints and interiors, your health will deteriorate, your skin glow will diminish, falling sick every often, bad dreams, quarrels between families, plants not growing, expenditures, joblessness for long period, etc.
⟽MAJOR SYMPTOMS ⟾
Bats flying, hearing sounds inside the house, falling things, lights can switch on and off, feeling heaviness as if someone is over you, heavy door knocks, major accidents, getting paralysed or bed ridden, terminal illness, family breaking apart, You may notice a general feeling of unease, tension, or heaviness in the air, like a dark cloud is hovering over your home. This can manifest as unexplained anxiety, fear, or irritability among family members. Gmail: chiefgiftwalusimbi@gmail.com
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chiefgift
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And then I began silently sobbing for all the children out therewhose parents don’t believe them. We so desperately do not want to feel alone.
We don’t want to feel this way.
We would do anything not to feel this way. The lengths we will go to so that we no longer feel this way. I sat there crying for those of us who believe the only way out is through death, wishing we all had someone like my mother who chooses to listen and believe. I cried harder for those of us who don’t, who do not ever make it up and out of the hole. I cried for those of us stuck in the loop of the lie, that the world would be so much better off without us.
Please believe us.
Help us find our way up and out and back to the truth that you would not be better off without us.
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Heather B. Armstrong (The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live)
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To be a Christian is to live every day of our lives in solidarity with those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, but to live in the unshakable hope of those who expect the dawn. —REVEREND FLEMING RUTLEDGE
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Kat Armstrong (The In-Between Place: Where Jesus Changes Your Story)