“
Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back.
”
”
Criss Jami (Venus in Arms)
“
But it is when the storm rages that we fully understand the courage the lighthouse represents. When the sea becomes a tempestuous beast, the lighthouse transforms to an urgent beacon signaling the way toward shelter, courageously defying the elements.
”
”
Steve Pemberton (The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World)
“
One of the deepest motives (as you are aware) in the human beast (so deep that many have failed to detect it) is Alliteration.
”
”
Lewis Carroll
“
The human creature is so astonishing, but count on it before anything else to be just that-a creature. A laughing animal, a dangerous one, a clever one, a scared one, but always acting for a reason-a motive that will move the beast towards its desires.
”
”
Jeffery Deaver (The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme, #1))
“
We were nine, and therefore invincible.
”
”
Ashley Poston (Among the Beasts & Briars)
“
This is only the beginning of your story, not the end.
”
”
Ashley Poston (Bookish and the Beast (Once Upon a Con, #3))
“
These letters and words, when placed in the right order, would conjure all manner of exotic beasts and people from the shadows, would reveal the motives and minds of insects and of cats. They were spells, spelled with words to make worlds, waiting for me, in the pages of books.
”
”
Neil Gaiman (Unnatural Creatures: Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman)
“
They were waiting for me in the books and in stories, after all, hiding inside the twenty six characters and a handful of punctuation marks. These letters and words, when placed in the right order, would conjure all manner of exotic beasts and people from the shadows, would reveal the motives and minds of insects and of cats. They were spells, spelled with words to make worlds, waiting for me, in the pages of books.
”
”
Neil Gaiman (Unnatural Creatures)
“
I radiate with the light that all women share. I cherish that light and acknowledge it in every woman I pass.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I face my trauma because I believe in breaking cycles, not repeating them.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
Nonetheless the man (Hitler) had a remarkable ability to transform himself into something far more compelling, especially when speaking in public or during private meetings when some topic enraged him. He had a knack as well for projecting an aura of sincerity that blinded onlookers to his true motives and beliefs..
”
”
Erik Larson (In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin)
“
What do Halloween creatures eat?
Hot spider soup with pumpkin meat
and toasted, no-salt, bat-wing chips,
served best with Transylvania dips.
A thistle-horehound salad mix
has added crunch from sun-dried ticks.
The plat du jour is hairy beast
fried crisp in grimy goblin grease.
Now, don’t forget dessert so sweet;
try puss-cream pie or candied feet!
”
”
Richelle E. Goodrich (Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year)
“
Margery," I blurted out in a passion of frustration. "I don't know what to make of you!"
Nor I you, Mary. Frankly, I cannot begin to comprehend the motives of a person who dedicates a large portion of her life to the contemplation of a God in whom she only marginally believes."
I felt stunned, as if she had struck me in the diaphragm. She looked down at me, trying to measure the effect of her words.
Mary, you believe in the power that the idea of God has on the human mind. You believe in the way human beings talk about the unknowable, reach for the unattainable, pattern their imperfect lives and offer their paltry best up to the beingless being that created the universe and powers its continuation. What you balk as it believing the evidence of your eyes, that God can reach out and touch a single human life in a concrete way." She smiled a sad, sad smile. "You mustn't be so cold, Mary. If you are, all you will see is a cold God, cold friends, cold love. God is not cold-never cold. God sears with heat, not ice, the heat of a thousand suns, heat that inflames but does not consume. You need warmth, Mary-you, Mary, need it. You fear it, you flirt with it, you imagine that you can stand in its rays and retain your cold intellectual attitude towards it. You imagine that you can love with your brain. Mary, oh my dear Mary, you sit in the hall and listen to me like some wild beast staring at a campfire, unable to leave, fearful of losing your freedom if you come any closer. It won't consume you; I won't capture you. Love does not do either. It only brings life. Please, Mary, don't let yourself be tied up by the bonds of cold academia."
Her words, the power of her conviction, broke over me like a great wave, inundating me, robbing me of breath, and, as they receded in the room, they pulled hard at me to folllow. I struggled to keep my footing against the wash of Margery's vision, and only when it began to lose its strength, dissipated against the silence in the room, was I seized by a sudden terror at the nearness of my escape.
”
”
Laurie R. King (A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, #2))
“
Men are beasts, selfish and brutal. However gentle the words, there are always darker motives underneath.
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5))
“
Art is a mythical beast. It takes out all your primal instincts to awaken your dormant myth.
”
”
Talismanist Giebra (Talismanist: Fragments of the Ancient Fire. Philosophy of Fragmentism Series.)
“
I forgive myself for not being who I wanted to be in the past so I can focus on being who I want to be now.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I accept when I am wrong because that only makes me strong.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I am a woman regardless if I am the woman you think I should be.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
An orphan is not weak because reality makes them stronger than a beast
”
”
Remon Rakibul
“
I am more than what others want of me. I am more than what society expects of me. I will not let my life be defined by a box meant to hold me down.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
My voice is my own. When I am quiet, it is because I want to be. When I am loud, it is not out of rebellion. My voice is not a reaction to you. It's an expression of me.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
Stop Complaining like a bitch and start training like a beast.
.
توقف عن الشكوى مثل العاهرة وابدأ التدرب مثل الوحش
”
”
Hicham LM Kamelionaire
“
Greedy lovely beast
who consumed my heart,
devoured my soul,
and left me with a madness;
a wicked devil’s tongue.
Now I write you in my 2 a.m. poems,
and savor every fleshly word.
”
”
Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
“
Opportunities present themselves only to the patient, man and beast, and only they take advantage of those opportunities.
”
”
Jiang Rong
“
It is perfectly fine if I prioritize my career aspirations over having a child. Not every woman wants to be a mother, and that is okay.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
No one can take away my heritage or history. At the same time, it is up to me to discover and embrace that knowledge.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
My family may have expectations of me, but in the end, I have to be the one at peace with my choices.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I only preserve traditions that bring joy, not traditions that keep people from it.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
People may "other" me for the color of my skin and the shape of my eyes. This is their weakness. It is not mine.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
My kindness is not naivety. It is a strength not to be messed with.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
If you behave like a beastly dragon, do not be surprised when wary folks point swords at you.
”
”
Richelle E. Goodrich (Being Bold: Quotes, Poetry, & Motivations for Every Day of the Year)
“
I will not be guilted or shamed into being something I am not.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I am learning to say no to my family. I am learning to say no to my friends. I am learning to say no to my work. Setting boundaries is a good thing.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I am an Asian goddess! I love myself and show others they can love themselves as well.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I can listen to what my elders have to say and still do the opposite of what they think is right. It is my life to live. I am responsible for it.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I do not need to find happiness. I can create happiness all on my own.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
There shall be confusion also in many places, and the fire shall be oft sent out again, and the wild beasts shall change their places, and menstruate women shall bring forth monsters:
”
”
COMPTON GAGE
“
There are consequences to every action I take, but that does not keep me from acting. It motivates me to choose wisely, to be responsible, and understand the power that I have within me.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
That brought the smile back to the old woman’s face. “This one at least is honest,” she announced, “but you, ser … I have known a dozen Westerosi knights and a thousand adventurers of the same ilk, but none so pure as you would paint yourself. Men are beasts, selfish and brutal. However gentle the words, there are always darker motives underneath. I do not trust you, ser.
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5))
“
Who's cooking your food anyway? What strange beasts lurk behind the kitchen doors? You see the chef: he's the guy without the hat, with the clipboard under his arm, maybe his name stitched in Tuscan blue on his starched white chef's coat next to those cotton Chinese buttons. But who's actually cooking your food? Are they young, ambitious culinary school grads, putting in their time on the line until they get their shot at the Big Job? Probably not. If the chef is anything like me, the cooks are a dysfunctional, mercenary lot, fringe-dwellers motivated by money, the peculiar lifestyle of cooking and grim pride. They're probably not even American.
”
”
Anthony Bourdain (Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly)
“
He is not a challenge, he is not a conquest. You were once that for him, back when he used to call you a little beast and defeated you handily, time and again. You got the feeling over time and then again that he didn’t want to win, when he sparred with you. That was the motivation you needed. The opportunity presented itself; his weakness presented itself. You took it, you beat him, you got better, you stayed neck and neck. Just stay strong, was the first directive. Get stronger, was the next. Don’t die, was the final, and that is where you remain. Daunting, to excel at a game that you must eventually lose. Unless you really are an angel. Unless he really is already a ghost.
”
”
Vee Hoffman
“
. . . Neither ecological nor social engineering will lead us to a conflict-free, simple path . . . Utilitarians and others who simply advise us to be happy are unhelpful, because we almost always have to make a choice either between different kinds of happiness--different things to be happy _about_--or between these and other things we want, which nothing to do with happiness.
. . . Do we find ourselves a species naturally free from conflict? We do not. There has not, apparently, been in our evolution a kind of rationalization which might seem a possible solution to problems of conflict--namely, a takeover by some major motive, such as the desire for future pleasure, which would automatically rule out all competing desires. Instead, what has developed is our intelligence. And this in some ways makes matters worse, since it shows us many desirable things that we would not otherwise have thought of, as well as the quite sufficient number we knew about for a start. In compensation, however, it does help us to arbitrate. Rules and principles, standards and ideals emerge as part of a priority system by which we guide ourselves through the jungle. They never make the job easy--desires that we put low on our priority system do not merely vanish--but they make it possible. And it is in working out these concepts more fully, in trying to extend their usefulness, that moral philosophy begins. Were there no conflict, it [moral philosophy] could never have arisen.
The motivation of living creatures does got boil down to any single basic force, not even an 'instinct of self-preservation.' It is a complex pattern of separate elements, balanced roughly in the constitution of the species, but always liable to need adjusting. Creatures really have divergent and conflicting desires. Their distinct motives are not (usually) wishes for survival or for means to survival, but for various particular things to be done and obtained while surviving. And these can always conflict. Motivation is fundamentally plural. . . An obsessive creature dominated constantly by one kind of motive, would not survive.
All moral doctrine, all practical suggestions about how we ought to live, depend on some belief about what human nature is like.
The traditional business of moral philosophy is attempting to understand, clarify, relate, and harmonize so far as possible the claims arising from different sides of our nature.
. . . One motive does not necessarily replace another smoothly and unremarked. There is _ambivalence_, conflict behavior.
”
”
Mary Midgley (Beast and Man)
“
But still, it was not the desire to ‘write’ that was his real motive. To get out of the money-world—that was what he wanted. Vaguely he looked forward to some kind of moneyless, anchorite existence. He had a feeling that if you genuinely despise money you can keep going somehow, like the birds of the air. He forgot that the birds of the air don’t pay room-rent. The poet starving in a garret—but starving, somehow, not uncomfortably—that was his vision of himself.
The next seven months were devastating. They scared him and almost broke his spirit. He learned what it means to live for weeks on end on bread and margarine, to try to ‘write’ when you are half starved, to pawn your clothes, to sneak trembling up the stairs when you owe three weeks’ rent and your landlady is listening for you. Moreover, in those seven months he wrote practically nothing. The first effect of poverty is that it kills thought. He grasped, as though it were a new discovery, that you do not escape from money merely by being moneyless. On the contrary, you are the hopeless slave of money until you have enough of it to live on—a ‘competence’, as the beastly middle-class phrase goes.
”
”
George Orwell (Keep the Aspidistra Flying)
“
to stand up for human goodness is to take a stand against the powers that be. For the powerful, a hopeful view of human nature is downright threatening. Subversive. Seditious. It implies that we’re not selfish beasts that need to be reined in, restrained and regulated. It implies that we need a different kind of leadership. A company with intrinsically motivated employees has no need of managers; a democracy with engaged citizens has no need of career politicians.
”
”
Rutger Bregman (Humankind: A Hopeful History)
“
He is a man-beast, carnivore incarnate, motivated by carnal avarice and wearing only the mask of civility.
She could sip from that cup.
It is his presumption that deters her: his belief that he has already caught Maud in his paw.
”
”
Emmanuelle de Maupassant (The Gentlemen's Club)
“
People will love people
no matter what
terrible shit they do.
We forgive people, even when
they don’t ask for forgiveness.
When there is no
atonement,
no penance.
Why do we love people?
Why do we forgive evil?
Stupidity—
Shallowness—
the darkest motives.
We forgive
because we are attached,
we have known them a long time,
we have put them into the
category of family or friend.
We want to have sex with them.
Because they entertain us.
We even forgive child molesters
if they make good movies.
The unspeakable truth
is that we need written laws
that have mystic origins—
with weapons to keep
them upheld.
Because we are too
forgiving of our friends
and family. We take their side,
even when we know
they are wrong, and lying.
The world would collapse
into chaos without law
not because we are
savage beasts, but because
we are so forgiving.
”
”
Noah Cicero (Bipolar Cowboy)
“
(Inevitably, someone raises the question about World War II: What if Christians had refused to fight against Hitler? My answer is a counterquestion: What if the Christians in Germany had emphatically refused to fight for Hitler, refused to carry out the murders in concentration camps?) The long history of Christian “just wars” has wrought suffering past all telling, and there is no end in sight. As Yoder has suggested, Niebuhr’s own insight about the “irony of history” ought to lead us to recognize the inadequacy of our reason to shape a world that tends toward justice through violence. Might it be that reason and sad experience could disabuse us of the hope that we can approximate God’s justice through killing? According to the guideline I have proposed, reason must be healed and taught by Scripture, and our experience must be transformed by the renewing of our minds in conformity with the mind of Christ. Only thus can our warring madness be overcome. This would mean, practically speaking, that Christians would have to relinquish positions of power and influence insofar as the exercise of such positions becomes incompatible with the teaching and example of Jesus. This might well mean, as Hauerwas has perceived, that the church would assume a peripheral status in our culture, which is deeply committed to the necessity and glory of violence. The task of the church then would be to tell an alternative story, to train disciples in the disciplines necessary to resist the seductions of violence, to offer an alternative home for those who will not worship the Beast. If the church is to be a Scripture-shaped community, it will find itself reshaped continually into a closer resemblance to the socially marginal status of Matthew’s nonviolent countercultural community. To articulate such a theological vision for the church at the end of the twentieth century may be indeed to take most seriously what experience is telling us: the secular polis has no tolerance for explicitly Christian witness and norms. It is increasingly the case in Western culture that Christians can participate in public governance only insofar as they suppress their explicitly Christian motivations. Paradoxically, the Christian community might have more impact upon the world if it were less concerned about appearing reasonable in the eyes of the world and more concerned about faithfully embodying the New Testament’s teaching against violence. Let it be said clearly, however, that the reasons for choosing Jesus’ way of peacemaking are not prudential. In calculable terms, this way is sheer folly. Why do we choose the way of nonviolent love of enemies? If our reasons for that choice are shaped by the New Testament, we are motivated not by the sheer horror of war, not by the desire for saving our own skins and the skins of our children (if we are trying to save our skins, pacifism is a very poor strategy), not by some general feeling of reverence for human life, not by the naive hope that all people are really nice and will be friendly if we are friendly first. No, if our reasons for choosing nonviolence are shaped by the New Testament witness, we act in simple obedience to the God who willed that his own Son should give himself up to death on a cross. We make this choice in the hope and anticipation that God’s love will finally prevail through the way of the cross, despite our inability to see how this is possible. That is the life of discipleship to which the New Testament repeatedly calls us. When the church as a community is faithful to that calling, it prefigures the peaceable kingdom of God in a world wracked by violence.
”
”
Richard B. Hays (The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics)
“
SHAKESPEARE
What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more
(Hamlet)
There is no one kind of Shakespearean hero, although in many ways Hamlet is the epitome of the Renaissance tragic hero, who reaches his perfection only to die. In Shakespeare's early plays, his heroes are mainly historical figures, kings of England, as he traces some of the historical background to the nation's glory. But character and motive are more vital to his work than praise for the dynasty, and Shakespeare's range expands considerably during the 1590s, as he and his company became the stars of London theatre. Although he never went to university, as Marlowe and Kyd had done, Shakespeare had a wider range of reference and allusion, theme and content than any of his contemporaries. His plays, written for performance rather than publication, were not only highly successful as entertainment, they were also at the cutting edge of the debate on a great many of the moral and philosophical issues of the time.
Shakespeare's earliest concern was with kingship and history, with how 'this sceptr'd isle' came to its present glory. As his career progressed, the horizons of the world widened, and his explorations encompassed the geography of the human soul, just as the voyages of such travellers as Richard Hakluyt, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Drake expanded the horizons of the real world.
”
”
Ronald Carter (The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain and Ireland)
“
There is nothing, though, in “An International Episode” or “Daisy Miller,” fine as they are, that prepares us for the subtle psychological realism of James’s depictions of the elusiveness of self-knowledge and the terrors of confronting one’s concealed motivations in the three premier stories of this volume, “The Aspern Papers,” “The Turn of the Screw,” and “The Beast in the Jungle.” Beginning in the 1880s with Portrait of a Lady (1881), which literary historians tend to think of as James’s breakthrough novel, the fate of Americans in Europe and the interaction between European sophistication and American innocence became more a matter of the heart and psyche than one of manners, social relations, and cultural differences.
”
”
Henry James (The Turn of The Screw and Other Short Novels (Signet Classics))
“
It was a sordid scene. Philip leaned over the rail, staring down, and he ceased to hear the music. They danced furiously. They danced round the room, slowly, talking very little, with all their attention given to the dance. The room was hot, and their faces shone with sweat. It seemed to Philip that they had thrown off the guard which people wear on their expression, the homage to convention, and he saw them now as they really were. In that moment of abandon they were strangely animal: some were foxy and some were wolflike; and others had the long, foolish face of sheep. Their skins were sallow from the unhealthy life the led and the poor food they ate. Their features were blunted by mean interests, and their little eyes were shifty and cunning. There was nothing of nobility in their bearing, and you felt that for all of them life was a long succession of petty concerns and sordid thoughts. The air was heavy with the musty smell of humanity. But they danced furiously as though impelled by some strange power within them, and it seemed to Philip that they were driven forward by a rage for enjoyment. They were seeking desperately to escape from a world of horror. The desire for pleasure which Cronshaw said was the only motive of human action urged them blindly on, and the very vehemence of the desire seemed to rob it of all pleasure. The were hurried on by a great wind, helplessly, they knew not why and they knew not whither. Fate seemed to tower above them, and they danced as though everlasting darkness were beneath their feet. Their silence was vaguely alarming. It was as if life terrified them and robbed them of power of speech so that the shriek which was in their hearts died at their throats. Their eyes were haggard and grim; and notwithstanding the beastly lust that disfigured them, and the meanness of their faces, and the cruelty, notwithstanding the stupidness which was the worst of all, the anguish of those fixed eyes made all that crowd terrible and pathetic. Philip loathed them, and yet his heart ached with the infinite pity which filled him.
He took his coat from the cloak-room and went out into the bitter coldness of the night.
”
”
W. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage)
“
I want to share three warnings. First, to stand up for human goodness is to stand up against a hydra–that mythological seven-headed monster that grew back two heads for every one Hercules lopped off. Cynicism works a lot like that. For every misanthropic argument you deflate, two more will pop up in its place. Veneer theory is a zombie that just keeps coming back. Second, to stand up for human goodness is to take a stand against the powers that be. For the powerful, a hopeful view of human nature is downright threatening. Subversive. Seditious. It implies that we’re not selfish beasts that need to be reined in, restrained and regulated. It implies that we need a different kind of leadership. A company with intrinsically motivated employees has no need of managers; a democracy with engaged citizens has no need of career politicians. Third, to stand up for human goodness means weathering a storm of ridicule. You’ll be called naive. Obtuse. Any weakness in your reasoning will be mercilessly exposed. Basically, it’s easier to be a cynic. The pessimistic professor who preaches the doctrine of human depravity can predict anything he wants, for if his prophecies don’t come true now, just wait: failure could always be just around the corner, or else his voice of reason has prevented the worst. The prophets of doom sound oh so profound, whatever they spout. The reasons for hope, by contrast, are always provisional. Nothing has gone wrong–yet. You haven’t been cheated–yet. An idealist can be right her whole life and still be dismissed as naive. This book is intended to change that. Because what seems unreasonable, unrealistic and impossible today can turn out to be inevitable tomorrow. The time has come for a new view of human nature. It’s time for a new realism. It’s time for a new view of humankind.
”
”
Rutger Bregman
“
In the uncertain hour before the morning
Near the ending of interminable night
At the recurrent end of the unending
After the dark dove with the flickering tongue
Had passed below the horizon of his homing
While the dead leaves still rattled on like tin
Over the asphalt where no other sound was
Between three districts whence the smoke arose
I met one walking, loitering and hurried
As if blown towards me like the metal leaves
Before the urban dawn wind unresisting.
And as I fixed upon the down-turned face
That pointed scrutiny with which we challenge
The first-met stranger in the waning dusk
I caught the sudden look of some dead master
Whom I had known, forgotten, half recalled
Both one and many; in the brown baked features
The eyes of a familiar compound ghost
Both intimate and unidentifiable.
So I assumed a double part, and cried
And heard another's voice cry: 'What! are you here?'
Although we were not. I was still the same,
Knowing myself yet being someone other—
And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed
To compel the recognition they preceded.
And so, compliant to the common wind,
Too strange to each other for misunderstanding,
In concord at this intersection time
Of meeting nowhere, no before and after,
We trod the pavement in a dead patrol.
I said: 'The wonder that I feel is easy,
Yet ease is cause of wonder. Therefore speak:
I may not comprehend, may not remember.'
And he: 'I am not eager to rehearse
My thoughts and theory which you have forgotten.
These things have served their purpose: let them be.
So with your own, and pray they be forgiven
By others, as I pray you to forgive
Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is eaten
And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.
For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
But, as the passage now presents no hindrance
To the spirit unappeased and peregrine
Between two worlds become much like each other,
So I find words I never thought to speak
In streets I never thought I should revisit
When I left my body on a distant shore.
Since our concern was speech, and speech impelled us
To purify the dialect of the tribe
And urge the mind to aftersight and foresight,
Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age
To set a crown upon your lifetime's effort.
First, the cold friction of expiring sense
Without enchantment, offering no promise
But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit
As body and soul begin to fall asunder.
Second, the conscious impotence of rage
At human folly, and the laceration
Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.
And last, the rending pain of re-enactment
Of all that you have done, and been; the shame
Of motives late revealed, and the awareness
Of things ill done and done to others' harm
Which once you took for exercise of virtue.
Then fools' approval stings, and honour stains.
From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit
Proceeds, unless restored by that refining fire
Where you must move in measure, like a dancer.'
The day was breaking. In the disfigured street
He left me, with a kind of valediction,
And faded on the blowing of the horn.
-T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding
”
”
T.S. Eliot
“
AJ huffed a heavy sigh. “I’m not good at this.”
She sat on the edge of the bed with her hands tucked under her legs. “Good at what?”
“This…” he motioned between them “…this relationship stuff. I should care enough to ask you more about your past, the blood thing, the ridiculous profession you’ve chosen, the reason why you’re living with your brother … but I’m too fucking selfish. I can barely deal with my own pathetic life, I just—”
She shook her head. “It’s fine. I have nothing to tell.”
His head jerked back a fraction as his eyelids fluttered with rapid blinks. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Jillian lifted a single shoulder. “You act like I’m on a cliff’s edge just waiting, begging you to ask me about my past and my ‘issues,’ but I’m not. The fact that you don’t ask me about it is why this…” she mimicked his motion between them “…relationship works.”
He nodded with an absent stare.
She’d gone too far. It was a slippery balance between too much and not enough. It’s human nature to desire what’s perceived as the unattainable. Was she making her past seem too unattainable?
“Don’t.”
AJ’s gaze snapped to hers. “Don’t what?”
“I was simply stating a fact. Don’t interpret it as a game. I’m not playing hard to get with my emotions. It’s not a trap.”
He rested his hands on his hips and stared at his feet.
“It’s a gift, AJ. You will never have to be my gallant knight on his trusty steed, drawing your sword to defend my honor. I will never gawk at sparkly diamonds in the jewelry store window or ask you where you see our relationship going.”
“You sound callous, but I know you’re not. I’ve experienced your compassion.”
“That’s a gift too. I’ve never been compassionate toward you with an ulterior motive. I’m not callous. I’m strong. It takes a lot of strength to give unconditionally because the ego is a savage, demanding beast.”
He narrowed his eyes a bit. “So nothing … you don’t want anything from me in return.”
Jillian smirked, prowling toward him. “I’m compassionate, not a saint.” She slid her hands under his shirt, tracing the definition of each firm plane of muscle.
He quirked a brow. “So you want me for my body?”
A provocative smirk stole her lips as she pushed up his shirt and teased her teeth over his skin. “I think we both know it’s not for your stellar personality.”
“You’re such a bitch,” he growled, grabbing her ass and lifting her up.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and laughed. “But an honest bitch.
”
”
Jewel E. Ann (End of Day (Jack & Jill, #1))
“
God designed love to make the world living;
so if world's dying, we know what's missing.
When missing, God designed another thing:
"This one is hatred-to do repairing."
Oh, how the world treats hatred as beastly;
yet sans hatred, who'll fight depravity?
Hatred used to correct is celestial;
but when used to oppress, it is bestial.
”
”
Rodolfo Martin Vitangcol
“
In every person lies a beast and a giant.
Be careful which of them you awaken to the world with your interactions with people.
”
”
Faithful Akpaloo
“
Let's not heal the unfound wounds
For they are path to light
Let's carry the concealed pain
For it carries the hidden treasure
Let's not paint the old walls
For they are ugly but serene and strong
Let's kiss the broken self
For the broken are actually beasts.
”
”
Rather Zain
“
Motivated by fear and driven by the elusive dream of normalcy, people will continue lining up for future jabs until the final one, which I believe is the mark of the Beast, fundamentally changes them into what the WEF states will cause people to “rethink what it means to be human.
”
”
Terry James (TRAJECTORY: Tracking the Approaching Tribulation Storm)
“
Second, to stand up for human goodness is to take a stand against the powers that be. For the powerful, a hopeful view of human nature is downright threatening. Subversive. Seditious. It implies that we’re not selfish beasts that need to be reined in, restrained and regulated. It implies that we need a different kind of leadership. A company with intrinsically motivated employees has no need of managers; a democracy with engaged citizens has no need of career politicians.
”
”
Rutger Bregman (Humankind: A Hopeful History)
“
Do not blame my heart’s appetite
for how it chooses to feast,
for my heart is a wild lover,
an all-consuming beast.
”
”
Melody Lee (Moon Gypsy)
“
But what is this? This is not very far removed from the fantasy of our nursery tiger hunter who sees ferocious beasts in the clothes closet and under the couch and who must attack with his trusty tommy gun before the beast attacks him. But there is this important difference. Our nursery hunter keeps his tigers in their place. They don’t roam the streets and imperil good citizens. They aren’t real. Almost any two and a half year old will admit, if pressed, that there isn’t really a tiger under the couch. And he very sensibly deals with his imaginary tigers by means of the imagination. It’s a pretend fight with a pretend tiger. But our older child who attacks other children because of his fantasied fear of attack, has let his tigers get out of the parlor, so to speak. They have invaded his real world. They will cause much trouble there and they can’t be brought under control as nicely as the parlor tigers can. When these “tough guys,” the aggressive and belligerent youngsters, reveal themselves in clinical treatment we find the most fantastic fears as the motive force behind their behavior. When our therapy relieves them of these fears, the aggressive behavior subsides. In
”
”
Selma H. Fraiberg (The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood)
“
Strength is silence.
Strength is encouraging others, while weak.
Strength is helping others succeed when no one has helped you.
Strength is choosing not to bring others down when you can.
Strength is a beautiful beast.
Strength is within me.
”
”
Marion Bekoe
“
DEVELOPING A SINGLE COMBAT MIND-SET
I know I have said this before, but I will hammer this point home again: You must firmly believe in what you are doing and why you are doing it. It can be for your country, the organization, your team, or your buddy next to you. It can be that inner drive that says don’t quit and do your best. Whatever motivates you, you need to harness it and keep it strong in its place. Reflect on it as needed to keep your energies channeled for the time that will come for you to earn your keep. The stronger your belief, the stronger your mind-set.
This resolve or strength will also help ensure your survival. With it, you will train harder and push farther than someone who does not have it. Use this strength to develop your own personal beast and then keep it in its place.
”
”
Paul R. Howe (Leadership And Training For The Fight: A Few Thoughts On Leadership And Training From A Former Special Operations Soldier)
“
Vote wisely, not blindly, to change the world into prosperity, harmony, justice, equality, and peace and empower humanity, not the political beasts and their evil interests to raise and encourage wars and kill innocent people.”
"Overcome your covetous ambitions to have peace of mind and satisfaction; do not let your covetous ambitions overcome you; otherwise, they will bury you in grievous consequences.”
Israel shamelessly rejected the order by the judges of the International Court of Justice that Israel must halt its attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah; thus, the ICJ order and the United Nations resolutions did not impact Israel’s genocide.
I know how the ICJ, the United Nations, and the world will react to such bare violations, breaching and even disregarding international law by the Israeli bloody beast of this century., encouraged and motivated by the USA and European Union, avoiding and ignoring their laws that only apply to weak and needy countries.
It is not only a significant insult to the ICJ verdict, which has been declined and trashed as well. Israeli attacks show and prove that they neither respect nor value the international law and communities of civilised democracies.
The question is not this, but how the ICJ and the United Nations will take the next steps to stop the inhuman behaviour and genocide in Palestine by Israel since October 2023, and how and why the United States, the West, and the world have remained silent and are deliberately closing their eyes on Israeli inhumanity and genocide.
Where is humanity, where is international law, where is transparent justice, fairness, equality, and the worth of human lives for small and large states and communities regardless of any distinctions, according to the charter of the United Nations? — Who will decide: genocide or the last resort of Israel dropping atom bombs on Palestine?
It usually seems that the ICJ has become like the third-world courts, run by the political or armed forces mafia; their verdicts never prevail. Where are the experts and scholars of international law? What damn they think about the behaviour and declination of the ICJ verdict by Israel?
It will be too late. There will be nothing and no one superpower. The world is heading towards the doom of the devil. Awaken, open your eyes, and stop it before we can say sorry.
”
”
Ehsan Sehgal
“
But motivation—like relationships—is a complex beast. Our teams will be motivated by a combination of things. We can’t focus on one way of motivating and ignore the others. So get to know your team members and what makes them tick. A great manager tailors how they motivate each of their team members.
”
”
Rachel Pacheco (Bringing Up the Boss: Practical Lessons for New Managers)
“
Fearless is another word for self-confidence, staying fearless like a beast, and not giving up on being successful is an achievement in itself…
”
”
RJ Yolande Mendes
“
To introduced myself to you in this nightmare story.I'm a victim of rape on my childhood stage l'd experienced rape in my life the victim were my sibblings and community members as I told you that on my growth. My mum was upsent it were only my dad, sister and brother in my house my dad were living with heart condition desease than my mom choose to hunting work live us with dad on my toddler stage hape you imagine the situation.By telling you this I don'nt expected your pitty or. being sorry for me but I'm going somewhere I want to
speak with someone who condem,look him or herself down lost confident with same and other stuation.There's hope if l managed to survive on my situations you can to.God favoured me my introduced himself to me on my teenage stage ashored me that he love me and transformed my life mostly healed me day by day couse this situations is deep it a proccess to be heal in it l use to say it like living in fire where you need to live with God himself
in it.Why I say this? allow me to say it some sort of journey of chosen people.The reason is other people take it easy as we have different categories of help and high science source to cure this the truth is it can't why?Rape destroy the whole life of person as human divided into 3 part which is body,soul spirit as I experience it not once several times till I reach the stage where I can rescure myself by confronting the victims,shortly it spoiled my whole 3 part you see I needed my creater to rebuid me and that not heppening overnight I personally say rape victims needed. Lifesaviour and Lifeguide who is God himself to rescue and guide you in life journey course this thing is a beast that never die if you never experience it you'll never understand it thanks for your trying don't need to.what I need is your support,how? pray for me,not feeling sorry,give hope,listen me,never judge ,stop gossip rather ask the ask,allow me to take my own decisions, give me time,be partient of me,avoid to remind me my past,believe in me,be careful on showing me my weekest sport rather put me on the spot where I can see for myself, give me chance of proving myself. This is what I can do;Forgive,move on,not forget,love other people not trust them 100% ,(truely fall in love conditional),Over protective while others says I'm selfish,depend on God's hand 100%, sensetive person, enjoy my space,help others, prayful person,other people says I'm moody person when I separate myself to meet with God in his present,can think wise things and do big things,focus on something that can keep my mind busy to escape on thinking about past,fight to change, enjoy to spend time with fruitfull freinds, rocking on doing my own business, on my own space,Not easy to accept people in my space till I know him or her better,enjoy nature things,love to be me,layalt pertionate & kind person.
”
”
Nozipho N.Maphumulo
“
I embrace and celebrate the color of my skin. Why should I reject the skin color that reflects the work my ancestors did tending to their harvests, creating homes for their families and protecting their lands?
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I define my roles as a woman, whether that means a mother at home, a CEO, both, neither
or more.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I will not fall into the trap of being told to eat more and then being called fat at the same party. Only I control what I eat and how I feel about my body.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I work hard and deserve to be valued and
treated with respect
at work.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I have scars. They are not ugly. There is no
need for shame. My scars are part of my story.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
The world keeps changing, creating new possibilities. Therefore I can keep changing and become even more than I thought possible.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
I am short. I am smart. I am strong. I am hilarious!
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
Man ends up being motivated by the motives which they say he has. A beast if they say that his soul dies with the souls of beasts; an animal with shame, at least, if they say that he has an immortal soul.
”
”
Nicolás Gómez Dávila
“
no room for supernatural rewards and punishments. On this issue, an entire world separated Greek paideia from the fear of Hell that was supposed to motivate both the good Muslim and the good Christian. In the blunt words of John Chrysostom, deportment alone was not enough. There was only so much that the grooming of paideia could do: “How shall we tie down this wild beast [adolescent sexual urges]? How shall we place a bridle upon it? I know none, save only the restraint of hell-fire.”6
”
”
Peter Brown (Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History)
“
Now, now-don’t strain that magnificent brain of yours trying to work out my motives-we have a lunatic clank to destroy!
”
”
Kaja Foglio (The Beast of the Rails (The Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne Volume 1)(Girl Genius, #14))
“
Ignoranța familiei mele în ceea ce privește lumea în care trăiesc a constituit întotdeauna un motiv de îngrijorare pentru mine și n-am lăsat niciodată să-mi scape vreo ocazie de a le împărtăși cunoștințe.
”
”
Gerald Durrell (Birds, Beasts and Relatives (Corfu Trilogy, #2))
“
Here is Catmull describing the need to maintain the balance between loonshots and franchises—“the Beast”—in film: Originality is fragile. And, in its first moments, it’s often far from pretty. This is why I call early mock-ups of our films “Ugly Babies.” They are not beautiful, miniature versions of the adults they will grow up to be. They are truly ugly: awkward and unformed, vulnerable and incomplete. They need nurturing—in the form of time and patience—in order to grow. What this means is that they have a hard time coexisting with the Beast.… When I talk about the Beast and the Baby, it can seem very black and white—that the Beast is all bad and the Baby is all good. The truth is, reality lies somewhere in between. The Beast is a glutton but also a valuable motivator. The Baby is so pure and unsullied, so full of potential, but it’s also needy and unpredictable and can keep you up at night. The key is for your Beast and your Babies to coexist peacefully, and that requires that you keep various forces in balance.
”
”
Safi Bahcall (Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries)
“
Great men are not motivated by what is necessary, satisfactory or practical. Great men are motivated by what is… great. That which is necessary merely facilitates beauty and greatness.
”
”
Jack Donovan (A More Complete Beast)
“
you are already a follower of Yeshua (Jesus), then I pray the challenges and information presented within these pages will motivate you to study the Word of God like never before. I pray that what is presented
”
”
Martin Sondermann (Mark(s) of the Beast: It's More Than Just a Number)
“
Rivers, armed men, clawed and horned beasts, should not be trusted, including women, and members of the royal family.
”
”
Rajen Jani (Old Chanakya Strategy: Aphorisms)
“
As women, like all forces of nature and works of art, our beauty is formed through refraction, revealed in dimension and contrast, shadow and light, our benevolence becoming both the result and the salve, the subject and lens. The road may be beastly but the result, if allowed, can be spectacular.
”
”
Amie Gabriel (KINTSUKUROI HEART: More Beautiful For Having Been Broken)
“
They are so motivated to possess that thing they want, that it can raise a specter of irritability in them until they get it. Sadly, covetousness is a beast that cannot be fed, a sort of materialistic gateway drug, and, if they do finally obtain the coveted object, it can be a setup to want more.
”
”
Ramani S. Durvasula ("Don't You Know Who I Am?": How to Stay Sane in an Era of Narcissism, Entitlement, and Incivility)
“
A fool should be kept afar, for he is a mere two-legged beast, whose inappropriate sharp words pierces like an unseen thorn.
”
”
Rajen Jani (Old Chanakya Strategy: Aphorisms)
“
Among birds, the crow is degraded; among beasts, the dog; among ascetics, the sinner; and among all, one who criticizes others is degraded.
”
”
Rajen Jani (Old Chanakya Strategy: Aphorisms)
“
A goad controls an elephant, a slap of the hand controls a horse, a stick controls horned beasts, and a hand holding a sword controls an evil person.
”
”
Rajen Jani (Old Chanakya Strategy: Aphorisms)
“
Meat-eating, alcohol-drinking, foolish, unlearned, beastly men, are burdens whose weight the earth suffers.
”
”
Rajen Jani (Old Chanakya Strategy: Aphorisms)
“
A snake, a king, a wild beast, a stinging wasp, a child, someone else’s dog, and a fool; these seven, if asleep, should not be awakened.
”
”
Rajen Jani (Old Chanakya Strategy: Aphorisms)
“
To the right the reptilian bodies flew up and aside, as if bulldozed. Someone strong and very motivate was tearing down the battlefield.
"What the hell is that?" Alix said.
"That's my honey-bunny."
Curran burst into the open, a seven-and-a-half-foot-tall monster clothed in steel muscle and gray fur. Faint stripes crossed his limbs like dark whip marks. Blood dripped from his clawed hands. On the left side, a patch of his skin was missing, muscle exposed and raw.
He grabbed the nearest lizard, twisted it with a loud snap, and tossed it aside. "Hey, baby."
"Hi." I beheaded a lizard. "Where are the kids?"
"With the MSDU." He disemboweled a beast with a quick swipe of his claws. "You're having all this fun without me."
"I'm not doing much. Just having tea and cookies." I cut at another lizard. "Thinking deep thoughts." I love you.
"Then I'll join you."
He loved me, too.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Shifts (Kate Daniels, #8))
“
My nose does not look like Barbie's nose and that's perfectly fine.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast
“
Fear is a forceful and powerful motivator
”
”
Rachel Barnard (At One's Beast)
“
Elle sighed and seated herself on a couch. Collecting solid facts and enemy plans is much easier—and far more preferable—than trying to make sense of the questionable motives and drama that surround the prince.
”
”
K.M. Shea (Beauty and the Beast (Timeless Fairy Tales, #1))
“
It's the 21st century. I am not submissive. I can own property. You cannot call me exotic.
”
”
The Thoughtful Beast