Benton Quotes

I am translucent, aquatic. Drifting, aimless. She is an anchor, sinking in my sea. —BENTON JAMES KESSLER

My flaws are draped in her mercy Revered by her false perception And with her lips upon my skin She will undress my deception. —BENTON JAMES KESSLER

School prepares you for the real world... which also bites.

I have always thought that librarians are a little bit like doctors, travel agents and professors all rolled into one. We all know that a great story can lift spirits, take you anywhere in the world you want to go and in any time period to boot, and the lessons you learn from a good book can buoy your own convictions and even change your life.

Kissing the frog to get the prince is a waste of a perfectly good frog.

Books were my passion and my escape from madness.

This means that I don't have to run faster than the psychotic-maniac-vampire-cannibal, I just have to run faster than whoever is with me when the psychotic-maniac-vampire-cannibal starts chasing us.

Her tears and my soul, they live parallel lives. Run, ache, burn. Repeat. Her tears and my soul, they live parallel lives. —BENTON JAMES KESSLER

She “loved me” in quotations She kissed me in bold I TRIED TO KEEP HER in all caps She left with an ellipsis . . . —BENTON JAMES KESSLER

How Superheroes Make Money: - Spider-Man knits sweaters. - Superman screw the lids on pickle jars. - Iron Man, as you would suspect, just irons.

Isn’t it amazing how much good people can do for each other when you give them the opportunity to help?

never underestimate your dumbness!!

It seems only determined anti-romantic Ivy Benton was strong enough to scale bleeding-heart Emmett’s thousand-foot-high walls. I don’t even know if she’s realized yet just how devoted he is to her.

Vashet shook a finger and cuffed the young girl on the side of her head. It was the same scolding any child receives. Stay out of the neighbor's garden. Don't tease the Bentons' sheep. Don't play tag among the thousand spinning knives of your people's sacred tree.

I'm telling you, the gorgeous of the world can actually look pretty intimidating when they scowl. Imagine a snow-white swan with a scary tattoo holding a chain saw. There's just no way to really prepare for that.

He giggled like a puppy being tickled by a kitten wearing a duckling costume.

He pulls back enough to look me directly in the eye. “Like you? Ivy Benton, I am obsessed with you. It’s going to kill me.

The first indication of menopause is a broken thermostat. It's either that or your weight. In any case, if you don't do something, you could be dead by August. God, middle age is an unending insult.

I had the great idea of using markers to gently color the ants so I could tell them apart, but I learned that this is exactly like somebody trying to gently color on you with a thirty-story building. Without dwelling on the tragedy, I'd just like to say that I'm deeply sorry to Mr. Purple and the surviving Purple family.

The most important thing I learned is that to be truly happy, you've got to pay attention to that stupid inner voice we all have. It knows what you need and will drive you shit crazy until you listen to it.

I am the place where two rivers meet, silted with upheaval and loss.

You listen to me," he told her, his voice a low, brusque rumble. "I'd rather take corn mush from your hand - morning, noon, and night - than chicken and apple pie from any other. And that's the plain truth.

Her soul was a country he longed to explore and know as well as he did every stone that pocked that creek path.

Another maternal insight --- you always dislike about your children that which you dislike about yourself because you understand the danger about that trait. ~ Dorothea Benton Frank, The Hurricane Sisters, p. 115.

The Destructive Arts are exactly like Martial Arts, except they don't have uniforms or usefulness and the end result doesn't resemble art in any way.

Love makes the world go 'round but I'm pretty sure money has to do with it, too.

In her darkness, she is silent. In my darkness, she screams. —BENTON JAMES KESSLER

Theodore," Ben says, interrupting him. " You seem like a... nice guy." "Thanks," Theodore says, smiling. "Let me finish," Ben says, holding up a finder in warning. "Because you're about to hate me. I lied. I'm not writing a paper." He points at Glenn. "This guy told me earlier today where to show up tonight so that I could find the girl I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with. And I'm sorry, but that girl just so happens to be your date. And I'm in love with her. Like, really in love with her. Crippling, debilitating, paralyzing love. So please accept my sincerest apologies, because she's coming home with me tonight. I hope. I pray." Ben shoots me an endearing look. "Please ? Otherwise this speech will make me look like a complete fool and that won't be good when we tell our grandkids about this.

Things Isabella Wouldn't Care About: - Titanic sinking again. - Metror striking Earth and landing directly on top of world's most innocent panda. - Titanic sinking again and this time the entire crew is puppies.

Daddies always listen to their little girls.

Homework strongly indicates that the teachers are not doing their jobs well enough during the school day. It's not like they'll let you bring your home stuff to school and work on it there. You can't say, 'I didn't finish sleeping at home, so I have to work on finishing my sleep here.

So little is permissible for a woman—yet on her back every human climbs to adulthood.

a good woman's heart knows no bounds. And love is the most powerful and wondrous gift in the world. Yes, it is.

It's delta. The symbol of change. It's the only thing in life you can really count on." -Benton

You remember to trust in Heavenly Father. Life is a blessing, but it is also a testing. Take the one as you do the other and trust Him who allows all. Trust what Creator is doing, though we cannot understand it or see the full path.

Our Ancestors knew that healing comes in cycles and circles. One generation carries the pain so that the next can live and heal. One cannot live without the other, each is the other's hope, meaning & strength.

Meant to be together? Are you listening to yourself? This isn't one of your fairy tales, Fallon. This is real life, and in the real world you have to bust your ass for the happy ever after!

The following ten throws went a variety of places. I never hit the target, but I was getting closer. Isabella was laughing so hard she wrote "Please stop can't breathe" in the dirt with her finger.

The people you love never leave you ...

Let your heart sing from those wounded places. When you sing your song with everything you've got, it will not only heal you, but it will heal all of us through you.

Mrs. Palmer is a teacher so naturally I assumed she would never do anything good for me.

The difference between Marilyn’s and Jayne’s approach to intellectual pursuits is that Marilyn carried big heavy books around and hung out with brainy people to absorb their intellect, while Jayne really had a thirst for knowledge. Jayne was very proud of the fact that if she like something enough she would commit it to memory. At that time, The Satanic Bible was still in monograph form, and Jayne had pored over those pages until she knew most of it by heart...Marilyn gave me a copy of Stendhal’s On Love, and I still have a copy of Walter Benton’s This is My Beloved, which we bought together on Sunset Boulevard. Marilyn turned me on to it—wanted me to read it and write something in it for her. I got as far as writing her name in it, but I ended up with the book. It meant a lot to me during a particularly dark period in my life after I left L.A. Jayne kept insisting I read The Story of O and I, Jan Cremer. She gave me a dog-eared copy of each. It seems a distinctly feminine trait to want to share books with people they care deeply about.

When we attempt to clear up the mess others have made, or when we love the unlovely, we demonstrate the kind of weirdness God likes. We give the lie to the evolutionary survival of the fittest maxim...

HALLOWE'EN Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite All are on their rounds to-night,- In the wan moon's silver ray Thrives their helter-skelter play. Fond of cellar, barn,or stack, True unto the almanac, They present to credulous eyes Strange hobgoblin mysteries. Cabbage-stomps-straws wet with dew- Apple-skins, and chestnuts too, And a mirror for some lass, Show what wonders come to pass. Doors they move, and gates they hide, Mischiefs that on moon-beams ride Are their deeds, and, by their spells, Love records its oracles. Don't we all, of long ago, By the ruddy fireplace glow, In the kitchen and the hall, Those queer, coofllke pranks recall? Eery shadows were they then- But to-night they come again; Were we once more but sixteen, Precious would be Halloween.

Maybe as you aged, what you wanted from a relationship changed too.

That's what I wanted for myself for even just a little while-to be unaware of the rest of the world. I needed some time.

Life is a struggle, I would tell him. Some days are better than others, and every person's life is bittersweet, filled with joy and pain.

...the majority in a democracy has no more right to tyrannize over a minority than, under a different system, the latter would to oppress the former.

My pants cut the cheese. Let one fly. Baked a batch of brownies.

School prepares you for the real world but I want the fake world. TEEHEE

Buy me stuff and I'll be nicer

Your life is like a pizza. It could be round, it could be square. But you'll enjoy it most of all When it's something that you share.

Makes you grow up quick. Hard work makes you strong. I work hard every day; that's where I get my strength. That and knowing who I am.

Se le bugie fossero scritte, le cancellerei Ma sono dette; incise dentro Verità convalescenti, grido la mia espiazione Lasciami pentire contro la tua pelle. - BENTON JAMES KESSLER

How is it that shame affixes itself to the violated, and not to the violator?

She says that on the day you stop believing in love you may as will lie down and die. I think she may be right.

the Devil danced all over the place in his beautiful eyes. You never knew what kind of surprise he had for you, just to make you laugh.

Say your prayers, girl. Prayers work miracles; don't you see that much yet?

For the love of all humanity, shake what your mama gave you!

Rivera’s paintings, and Benton’s, are about something solid. The struggle and strength of the underclass, the power and bulk of their muscles on the wall representing the power of their spirit, of their souls, to endure and survive.

As we did every New Year's Eve we made ridiculous resolutions that no one would keep, and quietly we all wondered what the coming year would hold, each of us praying for our own private miracles. Good health. Better health. A marriage for this child, a good job for another. This hopefulness was something hardwired into our psyches, that a new year might mean some monumental something wonderful could happen to bring us happiness at a level we had never known. A new year was a chance to start over. Maybe even, just maybe, there would be peace on earth for one entire day.

We were an imperfect family. I knew that. But at last we were on each other's side, dug in with a new and more profound commitment. Our happiness was hard won, it was ours and I was determined to keep us whole.

Somewhere, across time and space, there's a version of me and a version of you, wearing matching rings, tangled up in front of a fireplace, together. I have to believe that's true. In another life, it would have been us, but not in this one. I can't have you in the way you deserve to be had. Know how desperately I love you. Know how sorry I am. And know that I'm doing the best that I can.

Bitterness is poison, yes, but I hold a flask of it to my lips and drink.

Words matter . . . They really do.

Funny how something that seemed so insignificant, just an old bowl with faded glazed stripes, could trigger so many memories.

Dreams made your eyes sparkle over the possibilities of doing something new and exciting. Reality made the rest of you break a sweat in panic. I was terrified.

Please. Don’t use the Lord’s name, unless you’re in prayer. It’s a hundred years in purgatory.

Miss Trudie said, “Well, like my momma used to say, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. This takes the cake.

David Harper was Hollywood handsome but he had a Conan the Barbarian temper to go with his looks.

External goals cannot hit internal targets.

I can't imagine the scientists wanting me to walk into the lab and start fiddling around with some big bowl of electrons they had out.

Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back to, and reasons to stay.

Knowing what to do doesn’t help at all when you have a habit of justifying why today isn’t the day to do the work—convincing yourself that tomorrow holds some promise today doesn’t.

because a book lets your imagination soar and a movie makes all the decisions for you. A book is almost always, but not always, a far richer experience than a book turned into a movie.

I want you to think. Gawd got his special purpose for you, just like He does for every one of us. He done give you a very good mind. The world you have when you grow up is gonna be the one you make. You use your mind and make it better.

And the day came when the risk to remain closed in a bud became more painful that the risk it took to blossom. [likely not Anaïs Nin; look under "Disputed quotes" on the Wikiquote page for her]

Don't go judging the Almighty by (our) own understanding. We're rarely given eyes to see the whole of what He's doing in our lives . . . . . That's why we are called to walk by faith, not by sight".

There are four categories of questions Emmily asks: 1. Can I please go to the bathroom? 2. Where is the bathroom? 3. Is it okay if I raise my hand and ask a question? 4. I don't understand anything you've said in the last thirty minutes. Could you explain it again? Also the last six weeks.

Ant 1: So, uh, do you ever worry that your itsy little neck is just going to snap under the weight of your head? Ant 2: Stop asking me that. You ask me that, like, every five minutes. Ant 1: Sometimes I notice my antennae out of the corner of my eye and I'm all, like: AHH! Something is on me! Get it off! Get it off! Ant 2: Yeah, the antennae again. Listen, I just remembered, I have to go walk around aimlessly now.

We can pursue our true wants, Mill writes, only when doing so harms no one to whom we are obliged.

When you start running from trouble? It confers with the devil on how to find you twice as fast.

I’ll go anywhere you see fit to take me, Jesse Bird. But I won’t set foot out of this cabin again till I’m a married woman. This time I’m going to insist.

Could you glimpse a woman’s soul with one look into her eyes?

I see a lot of people who are addicted to learning. What they need is a healthy dose of doing!

You don’t need to take notes; you need to take action.

It’s not about how much you know. It’s about what you consistently do. It’s not about taking notes; it’s about taking action.

When you realize you’ve been one of the biggest barriers to your own change and you take full responsibility, you put yourself in a place of power.

Change is a result of what you do now, not what you intend to do tomorrow.

Do not be surprised, when thee has children, to find what I have found: of all the kinds of love that bind, a mother’s love for her offspring is the strongest imperative on earth. It is as common as sunlight, as all-penetrating, as necessary to life.

All I can tell you is that every family on the planet is dysfunctional and we celebrate occasions as generously as we know how to do. We are all doing our best to appear grateful to have one another. Weren't appearances worth something?

Perhaps the twentieth-century Senator is not called upon to risk his entire future on one basic issue in the manner of Edmund Ross or Thomas Hart Benton. Perhaps our modern acts of political courage do not arouse the public in the manner that crushed the career of Sam Houston and John Quincy Adams. Still, when we realize that a newspaper that chooses to denounce a Senator today can reach many thousand times as many voters as could be reached by all of Daniel Webster’s famous and articulate detractors put together, these stories of twentieth-century political courage have a drama, an excitement—and an inspiration—all their own.

Our patterns and stories, no matter how far back they go, can be surrendered and rewritten. We can walk away from them in any moment. Every choice can be change and every moment is a blank slate.

I took his aftershave and cologne out of the medicine cabinet. It occurred to me that he’d been wearing these for Karen. I peed in the bathroom glass, drained the Aramis and poured urine into two of his cologne bottles. “Up yours,” I said quietly. I dropped the bottles in his bag and zipped it closed.

1883. Third Month 16 Some moments set my heart on fire, and that’s when language seems the smallest. Yet precisely these bursts of feeling make me long to write. I sit now in a high-walled courtyard, amid the green smells and slanted light of early spring, with that familiar burning in my heart. I’ll need to destroy these pages before returning home, but no matter; for the first time since Mother’s death, words come to me.

It was becoming more and more evident that Salem was a town that celebrated individuality, a real live-and-let-live kind of place. Melody felt a gut punch of regret. Her old nose would have fit in here. "Look!" She pointed at the multicolored car whizzing by. Its black door were from a Mercedes coupe, the white hood from a BMW; the silver trunk was Jaguar, the red convertible top was Lexus, the whitewall tires were Bentley, the sound system was Bose, and the music was classical. A hood ornament from each model dangled from the rear view mirror. Its license plate appropriately read MUTT. "That car looks like a moving Benton ad." "Or a pileup on Rodeo drive." Candace snapped a picture with her iPhone and e-mailed to her friends back home. They responded instantly with a shot of what they were doing. It must have involved the mall because Candace picked up her pace and began asking anyone under the age of fifty where the cool people hung out.

Reaching for his toothbrush, I looked at it and realized he’d been brushing his teeth for somebody else for a long time. I don’t know what possessed me to do it but I dunked it in the toilet. That pleased me so much that I rubbed it around the inside rim. That seemed so pleasant I then scrubbed up under the rim, good and hard, where no toilet brush could’ve reached in weeks.

I need love more than hope or money, wisdom or a drink Because slow negative death withers the world — and only yes can turn the tide Because love has your face and body … and your hands are tender and your mouth is sweet — and God has made no other eyes like yours.

You keep saving me.” The words were thick with tears. Thinking how much she’d been through in the past few days, thinking how close he’d come to finding her drowned just now, Jesse came around to crouch beside her, looking up into her tear-swollen face, framed in wet tangles. She looked back at him, desolate. “I thought I was going to die.” “I know it. I think you scared ten years off of me.” Wordless, she raised a hand to his face and held it there, cupping his rough-bearded jaw. He was so startled by the gesture that he couldn’t breathe, much less speak. Their gazes held, hers welling with gratitude. He was the one drowning now.

All the while I was trying to figure out if I knew anyone who had married and stayed in love for decades. I thought about Daddy and Momma. Daddy had loved Momma with a great passion. Everyone knew that. But, why? I knew why! The ugly truth was that he loved her because of how she made him feel, not because of who she was. Was that the nature of a man’s love for a woman? Not what you bring to the table, but how you make him feel? I was drinking a cup