“
When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.
”
”
Mark Twain (Notebook)
“
Ginny, listen...I can't be involved with you anymore. We've got to stop seeing each other. We can't be together."
"It's for some stupid noble reason isn't it?"
"It's been like...like something out of someone else's life these last few weeks with you. But I can't...we can't...I've got to do things alone now. Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He's already used you as bait once, and that was just because you were my best friend's sister. Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get me through you."
"What if I don't care?"
"I care. How do you think I'd feel if this was your funeral...and it was my fault...
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6))
“
To catch a wild animal, you have to use the right bait.
What happens to the bait? I haven't decided yet.
”
”
March Lions (The Last Sunset)
“
Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare.
”
”
William Blake
“
I don't judge people.
It blurs out the center of my attention,
my focus,
myself.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and said: "Wouldn't you like to have that?"
Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?
”
”
Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends & Influence People)
“
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.
”
”
Thomas Jefferson
“
Risk means 'shit happens' or 'good luck
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Many people pray to be kept out of unexpected problems.
Some people pray to be able to confront and overcome them.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Buy a gift for a dog, and you'll be amazed at the way it will dance and swerve its tail, but if don't have anything to offer to it, it won't even recognize your arrival; such are the attributes of fake friends.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“
Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.
”
”
Molière (Tartuffe)
“
When you don't know where to start,
just go to a place you miss so much.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Conversation between a princess and an outlaw:
"If I stand for fairy-tale balls and dragon bait--dragon bait--what do you stand for?"
"Me? I stand for uncertainty, insecurity, bad taste, fun, and things that go boom in the night."
"Franky, it seems to me that you've turned yourself into a stereotype."
"You may be right. I don't care. As any car freak will tell you, the old models are the most beautiful, even if they aren't the most efficient. People who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve."
"Well, you may get off on being a beautiful stereotype, regardless of the social consequences, but my conscience won't allow it."
"And I goddamn refuse to be dragon bait. I'm as capable of rescuing you as you are of rescuing me."
"I'm an outlaw, not a hero. I never intended to rescue you. We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
”
”
Tom Robbins (Still Life with Woodpecker)
“
Lena was an introvert. She knew she had trouble connecting with people. She always felt like her looks were fake bait, seeming to offer a bridge to people, which she couldn't easily cross.
”
”
Ann Brashares (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Sisterhood, #1))
“
Looks like the wrong kind of bait can get you the right kind of fish.
”
”
Jennifer E. Smith (This Is What Happy Looks Like (This is What Happy Looks Like, #1))
“
The only clothes Amanda has are the ones on her back. (Kyrian)
From what I saw, she had no clothes whatsoever on her back. Her front neither. (Nick)
One day, Gaitor bait... (Kyrian)
Note to self- be nice to woman, keep mouth shut. (Nick)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Night Pleasures (Dark-Hunter #1))
“
Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.
”
”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“
I'm great as bait! All the vampires want to eat me!
”
”
Jeaniene Frost (Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1))
“
Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.
”
”
Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
“
Love hurts when it changes us.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
When you were young, you thought time was a burden, something to be discharged as fast as possible so you could be grown-up. But it was such a bait-n-switch – when you were an adult, you came to realize that minutes and hours were the single most precious thing you had.
”
”
J.R. Ward (Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #10))
“
Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare.
”
”
John Dryden
“
It's sometimes funny to watch some people doing
something the wrong way but doing it confidently.
Even more funny, they succeeded.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
You know" - Hale's breath was warm against Kat's ear in the chilly ballroom- "I don't know that both of us really have to be here...."
The slide changed. While hundreds of mathematicians waited with baited breath, the boy beside Kat whispered,
"I could go make some calls... check on some things..."
"Play some blackjack?"
"Well, when in Rome..."
"Rome is tomorrow, babe," Kat reminded him.
He nodded. "Right.
”
”
Ally Carter (Heist Society (Heist Society, #1))
“
Don't pretend to comfort me, my friend.
I might also pretend to not let you down.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
No need to flatter me, Miss Price. I believe your bait worked. I’m hooked. Line and sinker.
”
”
Fisher Amelie (Vain (The Seven Deadly, #1))
“
Lief. That's not nice, considering all your sister has done for you," admonished Perl.
"Oh right. How could I forget that she made me bait for a snake, left me on house arrest in Ixia, and smuggled me into the Keep in a coffin.
”
”
Maria V. Snyder (Fire Study (Study, #3))
“
Using my nipples as bait, I went fishing for compliments. I got a few bites, but nothing to write about in Field & Stream.
”
”
Jarod Kintz (This Book is Not for Sale)
“
Knowledge that is acquired
is not like this. Those who have it worry if
audiences like it or not.
It's a bait for popularity.
Disputational knowing wants customers.
It has no soul...
The only real customer is God.
Chew quietly
your sweet sugarcane God-Love, and stay
playfully childish.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Essential Rumi (Mystical Classics of the World))
“
So, Diana thought, that was the bait she had to lay out for Jack. Of course. What else? He might lust for Diana, and long for Brianna, but Jack’s true love was made of silicon.
”
”
Michael Grant (Hunger (Gone, #2))
“
Nothing else you want to do after all your dreams come true.
You've become numb. You shouldn't have ever stopped dreaming.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Not to mention, we’re using you for bait. (Syn)
Are you that drunk? (Nykyrian)
What? I wasn’t supposed to tell her that? (Syn)
I’m bait? (Kiara)
No, you’re not bait. Ignore the alcoholic whose view of reality is distorted by his brain-damaged hallucinations. (Nykyrian)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Born of the Night (The League, #1))
“
Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
”
”
Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
“
I’ve seen knives pierce the chest,
Children dying in the road
Crawling things hooked and baited,
Rapists bound and then castrated,
Villains singed in public square.
Yet none these sights did make me cringe
Like when my Love cut all her hair.
”
”
Roman Payne
“
Oh good. I love being bait for a homicidal mutilator."
Stephanie Plum
”
”
Janet Evanovich (Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum, #2))
“
I could be held back just by being needed. Please try not to need me. That's the worst bait of all to a lonely man.
”
”
John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
“
I dodged behind Mac for cover and refused to take the bait. I glanced at my nonexistent watch. 'Oops, look at the time. Guess I have to be going now. Let's not do this again sometime, okay?'
Before I could move, Pritkin was there, jamming the medallion into the skin of my upper arm.'Ow!'He looked at me expectantly. I glared at him. 'That hurt!'
What do you see?'
A big red mark,
”
”
Karen Chance (Claimed by Shadow (Cassandra Palmer, #2))
“
Love is a trick played on us by the forces of evolution. Pleasure is the bait laid down by the same. There is only power. Power is of the individual mind but the mind's power is not enough. Power of the body decides everything in the end and only might is right.
”
”
T.H. White (The Once and Future King)
“
For every man there exists bait he cannot resist swallowing.
”
”
Marisha Pessl (Night Film)
“
I'm investigating people who sacrifice trained killers to dark gods.
Perfect, it will keep him occupied.
In what capacity?
Bait.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, #5))
“
No need to feel guilty if you can't be a good man all the time.
But anytime your heart is feeling so eager to do even a small good deed,
then it might be a good chance for you…
to be a better man.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
If you find yourself easily provoked,
then just change the channel.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Baited. Hook. Line. And. Mother-fucking. Sinker.
”
”
Gail McHugh (Pulse (Collide, #2))
“
Pleasure is the bait of sin
”
”
Plato
“
Unhappiness is often caused by tendency to find fault with others.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Pada Suatu Hari Nanti
pada suatu hari nanti
jasadku tak akan ada lagi
tapi dalam bait-bait sajak ini
kau takkan kurelakan sendiri
pada suatu hari nanti
suaraku tak terdengar lagi
tapi di antara larik-larik sajak ini
kau akan tetap kusiasati
pada suatu hari nanti
impianku pun tak dikenal lagi
namun di sela-sela huruf sajak ini
kau takkan letih-letihnya kucari
”
”
Sapardi Djoko Damono
“
When you fully focus your mind,
you make others attracted to you.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
If I ask God to punish my enemy with vengeful prayers,
then He is fair to allow the enemy to do the same for me.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Many realities hidden behind wall of perception.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
If humor and rumor are needed more than faith and truth,
then it tells me something about the kind of world we live today.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Shane said, "Don't worry. I'll protect you."
Claire hit him in the shoulder. "I don't need you to protect me."
"Then why am I going first?"
"So you can take the first punch while I throw the second?"
"So I'm bait? Ouch. You've been in Morganville way too long, girl.
”
”
Rachel Caine (Fall of Night (The Morganville Vampires, #14))
“
If you feel obsessed to prove something to the world,
then you'd need world attention to be able to prove it.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Temptation is stronger in the minds of people who are in doubt.
Prayer makes it weaker.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Which of these tasty morsels do you think is the special bait?’
Sam pointed at the bull’s head. ‘Go big or go home?’
‘She said to the homeless kid.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1))
“
To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason?
I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge.
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example?
Why, revenge.
The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)
“
You're dirty, Kels."
"That's like Satan calling me a bad boy.
”
”
Abigail Roux (Shock & Awe (Sidewinder, #1))
“
There are words in the soul of a newborn baby, wanting and waiting to be written.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
In a fight, your doubt is a target of enemy's attack.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Girls don’t fight fair. They pull your hair and gauge you and pinch you; then they run off gasping to mommy when you try and defend yourself with a fist. Then you get locked into time out, and for what? No, my friend, the secret is, don’t snap at the bait. Let it dangle. Swim around it. Laugh it off. After a while they’ve given up and try to lure someone else.
”
”
Wendelin Van Draanen
“
You could lose the ones you loved in the blink of an eye—and he was willing to bet, when it happened, you weren’t thinking about all the reasons that could have kept you apart. You thought of all the reasons that kept you together.
And, no doubt, how you wished you’d had more time. Even if you’d had centuries…
When you were young, you thought time was a burden, something to be discharged as fast as possible so you could be grown-up. But it was such a bait-n-switch—when you were an adult, you came to realize that minutes and hours were the single most precious thing you had.
No one got forever. And it was a fucking crime to waste what you were given.
”
”
J.R. Ward (Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #10))
“
Always try to be joyful and proactively benign to the people.
By doing so everyday, people have no control at all over my mood.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Law is made by the winner to preserve victory over the loser.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Everyone under the age of sixty called it the War Between the States, while everyone over sixty called it the War of Northern Aggression, as if somehow the North had baited the South into war over a bad bale of cotton.Read
”
”
Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1))
“
How miserably hypocritical, you might say, but no sooner am I offered a chance to flee Hell than I yearn to stay. Few families hold their relations as closely as do prisons. Few marriages sustain the high level of passion that exists between criminals and those who seek to bring them to justice. It’s no wonder the Zodiac Killer flirted so relentlessly with the police. Or that Jack the Ripper courted and baited detectives with his - or her - coy letters. We all wish to be pursued. We all long to be desired.
”
”
Chuck Palahniuk (Damned (Damned, #1))
“
A man of calm is like a shady tree.
People who need shelter come to it.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Now you may have gotten the impression that there are absolutely no uses for Librarians. I'm sorry if I implied that. Librarians are very useful. For instance, they are useful if you are fishing for sharks and need some bait. They're also useful for throwing out windows to test the effects of concrete impact on horn-rimmed glasses. If you have enough Librarians, you can build bridges out of them. (Just like witches.)
And, unfortunately, they are also useful for organizing things.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia (Alcatraz, #3))
“
Ask a sage, he will explain.
Ask a fool, he will complain.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Love hurts, if rejected or betrayed.
If not at all, then love is all around.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
There is no such thing as magic, supernatural, miracle;
only something that's still beyond logic of the observer.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Like it or not, there are people who are capable to love
genuinely and kill brutally. The amazing thing about that,
few of those could even sleep well like babies in the night.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
If I lie about truth which you will know somehow later,
then you would call me a liar. But If you're willing to dig
further about truth that force me do it, then you would
understand my reason. But you wouldn't acknowledge it.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
He is lost in Agamemnon and Odysseus' wily double meanings, their lies and games of power. They have confounded him, tied him to a stake and baited him. I stroke the soft skin of his forehead. I would untie him if I could. If he would let me.
”
”
Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles)
“
Many lies lie between one truth.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
When people stargazing, they stare at stars,
and many other things which they've already
presumed commonly and universally as stars.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
If there were a master of stupidity in this world,
I would really love to listen to his success story.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Dia, yang tidak pernah kamu mengerti. Dia, racun yang membunuhmu perlahan. Dia, yang kamu reka dan kamu cipta. Sebelah darimu menginginkan agar dia datang, membencimu hingga muak dia mendekati gila, menertawakan segala kebodohannya, kehilafan untuk sampai jatuh hati kepadamu, menyesalkan magis yang hadir naluriah setiap kalian berjumpa. Akan kamu kirimkan lagi tiket bioskop, bon restoran, semua tulisannya --dari mulai nota sebaris sampai doa berbait-bait. Dan beceklah pipi-nya karena geli, karena asap dan abu dari benda-benda yang dia hanguskan--bukti bahwa kalian pernah saling tergila-gila--beterbangan masuk ke matanya. Semoga dia pergi dan tak pernah menoleh lagi. Hidupmu, hidupnya, pasti akan lebih mudah.
”
”
Dee Lestari (Filosofi Kopi: Kumpulan Cerita dan Prosa Satu Dekade)
“
If anyone ever told five-year-olds the truth about life, he thought, there’d be a rash of kindergarten suicides.
”
”
P.J. Tracy (Live Bait (Monkeewrench, #2))
“
The spirit finds a way to be born.
Instinct seeks for ways to survive.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Mangarap ka at abutin mo ito. Wag mo sisihin ang sira mong pamilya, palpak mong syota, pilay mong tuta, o mga lumilipad na ipis...Kung may pagkukulang sayo ang mga magulang mo, pwede kang manisi at magrebelde... tumigil sa pag-aaral, mag drugs ka, magpakulay ng buhok sa kilikili... Sa bandang huli, ikaw din ang biktima... Rebeldeng walang napatunayan at bait sa sarili.
”
”
Bob Ong (Bakit Baliktad Magbasa Ng Libro Ang Mga Pilipino? (Mga Kwentong Barbero ni Bob Ong))
“
The concept of randomness and coincidence will be obsolete when people can finally define a formulation of patterned interaction between all things within the universe.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
Overconfidence blurs out the risk. Inferiority magnifies it.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
There has to be new words
to explain new worlds.
”
”
Toba Beta (Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza)
“
If we don’t risk being hurt, we cannot give unconditional love. Unconditional love gives others the right to hurt us.
”
”
John Bevere (The Bait of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense)
“
God spreads the heavens above us like great wings
And gives a little round of deeds and days,
And then come the wrecked angels and set snares,
And bait them with light hopes and heavy dreams,
Until the heart is puffed with pride and goes
Half shuddering and half joyous from God's peace;
And it was some wrecked angel, blind with tears,
Who flattered Edane's heart with merry words.
Come, faeries, take me out of this dull house!
Let me have all the freedom I have lost;
Work when I will and idle when I will!
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
I would take the world
And break it into pieces in my hands
To see you smile watching it crumble away.
Once a fly dancing in a beam of the sun,
Or the light wind blowing out of the dawn,
Could fill your heart with dreams none other knew,
But now the indissoluble sacrament
Has mixed your heart that was most proud and cold
With my warm heart for ever; the sun and moon
Must fade and heaven be rolled up like a scroll
But your white spirit still walk by my spirit.
When winter sleep is abroad my hair grows thin,
My feet unsteady. When the leaves awaken
My mother carries me in her golden arms;
I'll soon put on my womanhood and marry
The spirits of wood and water, but who can tell
When I was born for the first time?
The wind blows out of the gates of the day,
The wind blows over the lonely of heart,
And the lonely of heart is withered away;
While the faeries dance in a place apart,
Shaking their milk-white feet in a ring,
Tossing their milk-white arms in the air;
For they hear the wind laugh and murmur and sing
Of a land where even the old are fair,
And even the wise are merry of tongue;
But I heard a reed of Coolaney say--
When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung,
The lonely of heart is withered away.
”
”
W.B. Yeats (The Land of Heart's Desire)
“
Offended people still may experience miracles, words of utterance, strong preaching, and healing in their lives. But these are gifts of the Spirit, not fruits. We will be judged according to fruit, not gifting. A gift is given. Fruit is cultivated.
”
”
John Bevere (The Bait Of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense)
“
You ugly rat-faced birds.
You call yourself a bird?
You call yourself an owl?
You ain't no decent kind of fowl!
They call you Jatt?
They call you Jutt?
I'm gonna toss you in a rut!
Then I'm gonna punch you in the gut!
Then your gonna wind up on your butt!
Think you're all gizzard!
I seen better lizards.
One-Two-Three-Four,
You're goin' down, won't ask for more.
Five-Six-Seven-Eight,
You ain't better than fish bait...
Nine-Ten-Eleven-Twelve,
I'm gonna send you straight to hell.
-Twilight
”
”
Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
“
Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand.
Unless, of course, you can literally believe all that stuff about family reunions 'on the further shore,' pictured in entirely earthly terms. But that is all unscriptural, all out of bad hymns and lithographs. There's not a word of it in the Bible. And it rings false. We know it couldn't be like that. Reality never repeats. The exact same thing is never taken away and given back. How well the Spiritualists bait their hook! 'Things on this side are not so different after all.' There are cigars in Heaven. For that is what we should all like. The happy past restored.
”
”
C.S. Lewis (A Grief Observed)
“
I don’t think—”
“Clearly. Why start now?”
Ivan’s face flushed in anger. “You don’t—”
Sturmhond leaned in close, the laughter gone from his voice, his easy demeanor replaced by something with a sword’s edge. “I don’t care who you are on land. On this ship, you’re nothing but ballast. Unless I put you over the side, in which case you’re shark bait. I like shark. Cooks up tough, but it makes for a little variety. Remember that the next time you have a mind to threaten anyone aboard this vessel.” He stepped back, his jolly manner restored. “Go on now, shark bait. Scurry back to your master.”
“I won’t forget this, Sturmhond,” Ivan spat.
The captain rolled his eyes. “That’s the idea.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Siege and Storm (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #2))
“
Gran, for the gods' love, it's talk like yours that starts riots!" I said keeping my voice down. "Will you just put a stopper in it?"
She looked at me and sighed. "Girl, do you ever take a breath and wonder if folk don't put out bait for you? To see if you'll bite? You'll never get a man if you don't relax."
My dear old Gran. It's a wonder her children aren't every one of them as mad as priests, if she mangles their wits as she mangles mine.
"Granny, "I told her, "this is dead serious. I can't relax, no more than any Dog. I'm not shopping for a man. That's the last thing I need.
”
”
Tamora Pierce (Bloodhound (Beka Cooper, #2))
“
She had found a jewel down inside herself and she had wanted to walk where people could see her and gleam it around. But she had been set in the market-place to sell. Been set for still bait. When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Then after that some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. So they covered each one over with mud. And the lonesomeness in the sparks made them hunt for one another, but the mud is deaf and dumb. Like all the other tumbling mud-balls, Janie had tried to show her shine.
”
”
Zora Neale Hurston
“
The Voyager
We are all lonely voyagers sailing on life's ebb tide,
To a far off place were all stripling warriors have died,
Sometime at eve when the tide is low,
The voices call us back to the rippling water's flow,
Even though our boat sailed with love in our hearts,
Neither our dreams or plans would keep heaven far apart,
We drift through the hush of God's twilight pale,
With no response to our friendly hail,
We raise our sails and search for majestic light,
While finding company on this journey to the brighten our night,
Then suddenly he pulls us through the reef's cutting sea,
Back to the place that he asked us to be,
Friendly barges that were anchored so sweetly near,
In silent sorrow they drop their salted tears,
Shall our soul be a feast of kelp and brine,
The wasted tales of wishful time,
Are we a fish on a line lured with bait,
Is life the grind, a heartless fate,
Suddenly, "HUSH", said the wind from afar,
Have you not looked to the heavens and seen the new star,
It danced on the abyss of the evening sky,
The sparkle of heaven shining on high,
Its whisper echoed on the ocean's spray,
From the bow to the mast they heard him say,
"Hope is above, not found in the deep,
I am alive in your memories and dreams when you sleep,
I will greet you at sunset and with the moon's evening smile,
I will light your path home.. every last lonely mile,
My friends, have no fear, my work was done well,
In this life I broke the waves and rode the swell,
I found faith in those that I called my crew,
My love will be the compass that will see you through,
So don't look for me on the ocean's floor to find,
I've never left the weathered docks of your loving mind,
For I am in the moon, the wind and the whale's evening song,
I am the sailor of eternity whose voyage is not gone.
”
”
Shannon L. Alder
“
Holmes took up the stone and held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found in the banks of the Amoy River in soutern China and is remarkable in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the gallows and the prison?
”
”
Arthur Conan Doyle (The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, #7))
“
He stared right back at Blaylock and let everything he had in his heart show in his face.
He just let that shit fly.
Because there was a lesson in this Fade ceremony tonight: You could lose the ones you loved in the blink of an eye - and he was willing to bet, when it happened, you weren't thinking about all the reasons that could have kept you apart. You thought of all the reasons that kept you together.
And, no doubt, how you wished you'd had more time. Even if you'd had centuries...
When you were young, you thought time was a burden, something to be discharged as fast as possible so you could be grown-up. But it was such a bait-and-switch - when you were an adult, you came to realize that minutes and hours were the single most precious thing you had.
No one got forever. And it was a fucking crime to waste what you were given.
-Qhuinn
”
”
J.R. Ward (Lover Reborn (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #10))
“
The Great Mother aborts children, and is the dead fetus; breeds pestilence, and is the plague; she makes of the skull something gruesomely compelling, and is all skulls herself. To unveil her is to risk madness, to gaze over the abyss, to lose the way, to remember the repressed trauma. She is the molestor of children, the golem, the bogey-man, the monster in the swamp, the rotting cadaverous zombie who threatens the living. She is progenitor of the devil, the “strange son of chaos.” She is the serpent, and Eve, the temptress; she is the femme fatale, the insect in the ointment, the hidden cancer, the chronic sickness, the plague of locusts, the cause of drought, the poisoned water. She uses erotic pleasure as bait to keep the world alive and breeding; she is a gothic monster, who feeds on the blood of the living.
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief)
“
The Aristocrat
The Devil is a gentleman, and asks you down to stay
At his little place at What'sitsname (it isn't far away).
They say the sport is splendid; there is always something new,
And fairy scenes, and fearful feats that none but he can do;
He can shoot the feathered cherubs if they fly on the estate,
Or fish for Father Neptune with the mermaids for a bait;
He scaled amid the staggering stars that precipice, the sky,
And blew his trumpet above heaven, and got by mastery
The starry crown of God Himself, and shoved it on the shelf;
But the Devil is a gentleman, and doesn't brag himself.
O blind your eyes and break your heart and hack your hand away,
And lose your love and shave your head; but do not go to stay
At the little place in What'sitsname where folks are rich and clever;
The golden and the goodly house, where things grow worse for ever;
There are things you need not know of, though you live and die in vain,
There are souls more sick of pleasure than you are sick of pain;
There is a game of April Fool that's played behind its door,
Where the fool remains for ever and the April comes no more,
Where the splendour of the daylight grows drearier than the dark,
And life droops like a vulture that once was such a lark:
And that is the Blue Devil that once was the Blue Bird;
For the Devil is a gentleman, and doesn't keep his word.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton (The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Volume 10: Collected Poetry, Part 1)
“
So? If I die, then I die! The loss to the world won’t be great. Yes, and I’m fairly bored with myself already. I am like a man who is yawning at a ball, whose reason for not going home to bed is only that his carriage hasn’t arrived yet. But the carriage is ready . . . farewell!
I run through the memory of my past in its entirety and can’t help asking myself: Why have I lived? For what purpose was I born? . . .
There probably was one once, and I probably did have a lofty calling, because I feel a boundless strength in my soul . . .
But I didn’t divine this calling. I was carried away with the baits of passion, empty and unrewarding. I came out of their crucible as hard and cold as iron, but I had lost forever the ardor for noble aspirations, the best flower of life.
Since then, how many times have I played the role of the ax in the hands of fate! Like an instrument of execution, I fell on the head of doomed martyrs, often without malice, always without regret . . .
My love never brought anyone happiness, because I never sacrificed anything for those I loved: I loved for myself, for my personal pleasure.
I was simply satisfying a strange need of the heart, with greediness, swallowing their feelings, their joys, their suffering—and was never sated. Just as a man, tormented by hunger, goes to sleep in exhaustion and dreams of sumptuous dishes and sparkling wine before him. He devours the airy gifts of his imagination with rapture, and he feels easier. But as soon as he wakes: the dream disappears . . . and all that remains is hunger and despair redoubled!
And, maybe, I will die tomorrow! . . . And not one being on this earth will have ever understood me totally. Some thought of me as worse, some as better, than I actually am . . . Some will say “he was a good fellow,” others will say I was a swine. Both one and the other would be wrong.
Given this, does it seem worth the effort to live? And yet, you live, out of curiosity, always wanting something new . . . Amusing and vexing!
”
”
Mikhail Lermontov (A Hero of Our Time)
“
Does it occur to you that if he set his mind to it, Steve could be a truly excellent supervillain?” Clint said into the comm unit, not bothering with any sort of segue. He knew very well who it was.
“We have a contingency plan in place for that,” Coulson said without missing a beat.
In the background, Steve said, “Wait, what?”
“Oh, c'mon.” Stark sounded seriously insulted. “If anyone here is going to go the black leather and weather control ray route, it's gonna be me, let's not even kid ourselves.”
“Every active SHIELD employee has a wallet card instructing them what to do in the event you go supervillain, Stark. It's standard equipment.”
A beat of silence. “What?” Tony asked.
“I got one,” Bruce said. “Want to see it?”
“If you show it to him, it'll defeat the purpose of having a plan,” Natasha said. “And I like this plan, it's a good plan, I do not want to go through them trying to come up with something else.”
“Yes, I want to see it,” Tony said. “Thor, did you get a card?”
“Verily. Their plan is most sound. I believe we will be able to subdue you with great swiftness, before you have much chance to hurt yourself or others. The damage to property will, of course, be massive, but such things are to be expected.”
“What the hell? You will not be able to subdue me quickly. Screw you, I am wily and brilliant.”
“I didn't get one,” Steve said, and there was a loud sound of no one being surprised.
“It's not a good idea to warn the bait that-” Clint started...
”
”
Scifigrl47 (Ordinary Workplace Hazards, Or SHIELD and OSHA Aren't On Speaking Terms (In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury), #2))
“
Magnus threw the monkey a fig. The monkey took the fig.
"There," said Magnus. "Let us consider the matter settled."
The monkey advanced, chewing in a menacing fashion.
"I rather wonder what I am doing here. I enjoy city life, you know," Magnus observed. "The glittering lights, the constant companionship, the liquid entertainment. The lack of sudden monkeys."
He ignored Giuliana's advice and took a smart step back, and also threw another piece of fruit. The monkey did not take the bait this time. He coiled and rattled out a growl, and Magnus took several more steps back and into a tree.
Magnus flailed on impact, was briefly grateful that nobody was watching him and expecting him to be a sophisticated warlock, and had a monkey assault launched directly to his face.
He shouted, spun, and sprinted through the rain forest. He did not even think to drop the fruit. It fell one by one in a bright cascade as he ran for his life from the simian menace. He heard it in hot pursuit and fled faster, until all his fruit was gone and he ran right into Ragnor.
"Have a care!" Ragnor snapped.
He detailed his terrible monkey adventure twice.
"But of course you should have retreated at once from the dominant male," Giuliana said. "Are you an idiot? You are extremely lucky he was distracted from ripping out your throat by the fruit. He thought you were trying to steal his females."
"Pardon me, but we did not have the time to exchange that kind of personal information," Magnus said. "I could not have known! Moreover, I wish to assure both of you that I did not make any amorous advances on female monkeys." He paused and winked. "I didn't actually see any, so I never got the chance."
Ragnor looked very regretful about all the choices that had led to his being in this place and especially in this company. Later he stooped and hissed, low enough so Giuliana could not hear and in a way that reminded Magnus horribly of his monkey nemesis: "Did you forget that you can do magic?"
Magnus spared a moment to toss a disdainful look over his shoulder.
"I am not going to ensorcel a monkey! Honestly, Ragnor. What do you take me for?
”
”
Cassandra Clare (The Bane Chronicles)
“
These are lines from my asteroid-impact novel, Regolith:
Just because there are no laws against stupidity doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be punished.
I haven’t faced rejection this brutal since I was single.
He smelled trouble like a fart in the shower.
If this was a kiss of gratitude, then she must have been very grateful.
Not since Bush and Cheney have so few spent so much so fast for so long for so little.
As a nympho for mind-fucks, Lisa took to politics like a pig to mud.
She began paying men compliments as if she expected a receipt.
Like the Aerosmith song, his get-up-and-go just got-up-and-went.
“You couldn’t beat the crap out of a dirty diaper!”
He embraced his only daughter as if she was deploying to Iraq.
She was hotter than a Class 4 solar flare!
If sex was a weapon, then Monique possessed WMD
I haven’t felt this alive since I lost my virginity.
He once read that 95% of women fake organism, and the rest are gay.
Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholder, but ugly is universal.
Why do wives fart, but not girlfriends?
Adultery is sex that is wrong, but not necessarily bad.
The dinosaurs stayed drugged out, drooling like Jonas Brothers fans.
Silence filled the room like tear gas.
The told him a fraction of the truth and hoped it would take just a fraction of the time.
Happiness is the best cosmetic,
He was a whale of a catch, and there were a lot of fish in the sea eager to nibble on his bait.
Cheap hookers are less buck for the bang,
Men cannot fall in love with women they don’t find attractive, and women cannot fall in love with men they do not respect.
During sex, men want feedback while women expect mind-reading.
Cooper looked like a cow about to be tipped over.
His father warned him to never do anything he couldn’t justify on Oprah.
The poor are not free -- they’re just not enslaved. Only those with money are free.
Sperm wasn’t something he would choose on a menu, but it still tasted better than asparagus.
The crater looked alive, like Godzilla was about to leap out and mess up Tokyo.
Bush follows the Bible until it gets to Jesus.
When Bush talks to God, it’s prayer; when God talks to Bush, it’s policy.
Cheney called the new Miss America a traitor – apparently she wished for world peace.
Cheney was so unpopular that Bush almost replaced him when running for re-election, changing his campaign slogan to, ‘Ain’t Got Dick.’
Bush fought a war on poverty – and the poor lost.
Bush thinks we should strengthen the dollar by making it two-ply.
Hurricane Katrina got rid of so many Democratic voters that Republicans have started calling her Kathleen Harris.
America and Iraq fought a war and Iran won.
Bush hasn’t choked this much since his last pretzel.
Some wars are unpopular; the rest are victorious.
So many conservatives hate the GOP that they are thinking of changing their name to the Dixie Chicks.
If Saddam had any WMD, he would have used them when we invaded. If Bush had any brains, he would have used them when we invaded.
It’s hard for Bush to win hearts and minds since he has neither.
In Iraq, you are a coward if you leave and a fool if you stay.
Bush believes it’s not a sin to kill Muslims since they are going to Hell anyway. And, with Bush’s help, soon.
In Iraq, those who make their constitution subservient to their religion are called Muslims. In America they’re called Republicans.
With great power comes great responsibility – unless you’re Republican.
”
”
Brent Reilly
“
Tristan’s Mom: What are these?
Tristan: Your granddaughters.
Tristan’s Dad: Don’t worry honey, you don’t look old enough to be a mother let alone a
grandmother.
Tristan’s Mom: Again with the flattery, thank you dear. Where did they come from?
Tristan: Camie gave birth last night.
Jeff: I didn’t know she was pregnant.
Tristan: She wasn’t. It was a miracle.
Tristan’s Mom: Do they have names?
Tristan: Phineas and Ferb.
Jeff: From the cartoon?
Tristan’s Dad: That figures, he named the dog Scooby.
Tristan’s Mom: They sound like boy names.
Tristan: Mom! Shhh, you’ll give them a complex.
Jeff: If that Ferb one climbs my legs again I’m drop kicking it.
Tristan: That’s child abuse and I’ll press charges. Besides, they just miss their mom.
Jeff: I’m calling CPS (cat protective services)…
Tristan: What for?
Jeff: Because you’re making your kids live in a broken home unnecessarily.
Tristan: I’m not talking to you anymore.
Jeff: Fine, as long as you to talk to her.
Tristan: Back off.
Jeff: Nope, not gonna do it.
Tristan: I’m warning you man.
Jeff: You miss her too.
Tristan: Yeah, so?
Jeff: So do something about it.
Tristan: Happy? Last night was miserable and I think it’s too late.
Jeff: You still have a 12 year old ace in the hole.
Tristan: Saving it as a last resort.
Tristan’s Dad: Honey, do you have a clue as to what they’re talking about?
Tristan’s Mom: No and I don’t want one.
Jeff: I’m just helping my nieces get their parents back together. Dude, it’s time. Make the call.
Tristan: Alright, I did it. But I get the feeling I’m about to do business with the mob. I hope I don’t
wake up with the head of my horse in bed with me tonight.
Jeff: Well, a good father will do anything he can to protect his family, even if that means he runs
the risk of sleeping with the fishes.
Tristan: Okay girls, your aunt helped Daddy come up with a plan and if it works you should get to
see Mommy today. Cross your paws, or claws, or whatever…just cross something for luck.
”
”
Jenn Cooksey (Shark Bait (Grab Your Pole, #1))