β
Change, like healing, takes time.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I do know who you are. I just needed to be reminded.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Dead people can be our heroes because they cant disappoint us later; they only improve over time, as we forget more and more about them.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
I donβt know how long it takes for me to realize that isnβt going to happen,
that she is gone. But when I do I feel all the strength go out of me, and I fall to my knees beside the table and I think I cry, then, or at least I want to, and everything inside me screams for just one more kiss, one more word, one more glance, one more.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
We could really use the Avengers right about now."
"Screw that. We need Loki," Daemon retorted.
General Eaton arched a brow. "Well, unfortunately, the Marvel Universe isn't real, so...
β
β
Jennifer L. Armentrout (Opposition (Lux, #5))
β
I regret..." Tobias tilts his head, and sighs. "I regret my choice."
"What Choice?"
"Dauntless," he says. "I was born Abnegation. I was planning on leaving Dauntless, and becoming factionless. But I met her, and... I felt like maybe I could make something more of my decision."
Her.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Tris," he says. "What did they do to you? You're acting like a lunatic."
"That's not very nice of you to say," I say. "They put me in a good mood, that's all. And now I really want to kiss you, so if you could just relax-
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
My name is Four,β I say. βCall me βStiffβ again and you and I will have a problem.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Transfer (Divergent, #0.1))
β
You die, I die too.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Tris," Tobias says, crouching next to me. His face is pale, almost yellow.
There is too much I want to say. The first thing that comes out is, "Beatrice."
He laughs weakly.
"Beatrice," he amends, and touches his lips to mine. I curl my fingers into his shirt.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
If we stay together, I'll have to forgive you over and over again, and if you're still in this, you'll have to forgive me over and over again too. So forgiveness isn't the point. What I really should have been trying to figure out is whether we were still good for each other or not
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I'll be your family now," he says.
"I love you," I say. (....)
He stares at me. I wait with my hands clutching his arms for stability as he considers his response.
He frowns at me. "Say it again."
"Tobias," I say, "I love you.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Are you asking me to undress, Tris?'
A nervous laugh gurgles from my throat. 'Only ... partially
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
One thing I know: For helping me forget how awful the world is, I prefer her to alcohol.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
Can you tell me where to find Tobias'? I ask. When I imagine his face, affection for him bubbles up inside of me and all I want to do is kiss him. 'Four, I mean. He's so handsome, isn't he? I don't really understand why he likes me so much. I'm not very nice, am I?'
-Tris
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Whoa there, Tobias," says the man to my left. "Weren't you raised a Stiff? I thought the most you people did was... graze hands or something."
"Then how do you explain all the Abnegation children?" Tobias raises his eyebrows.
"They are brought into being by sheer force of will," the woman on the arm of the chair interjects. "Didn't you know that, Tobias?"
"No, I wasn't aware." He grins. "My apologies.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
His eyes search the crowd until they find my face. My heartbeat lives in my throat; lives in my cheeks.
"I still don't understand," he says softly, "how she knew that it would work.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
I only came for Cake" -Tobias Eaton, Divergent
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
What did you do?β I mumble. He is just a few feet away from me now, but not close enough to hear me. As he passes me he stretches out his hand. He wraps it around my palm and squeezes. Squeezes, then lets go. His eyes are bloodshot; he is pale. βWhat did you do?β This time the question tears from my throat like a growl. I throw myself toward him, struggling against Peterβs grip, though his hands chafe. βWhat did you do?β I scream. βYou die, I die tooβ Tobias looks over his shoulder at me. βI asked you not to do this. You made your decision. These are the repercussions.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
All I can do is stand still- I feel like if I just stand still, I can stop it from being true, I can pretend that everything is all right.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
How have I never realized before that for all the strong, kind parts of him, there are also hurting, broken parts?
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
Stiff. Thatβs why youβre strong, get it? - Tobias Eaton
β
β
Veronica Roth (Free Four: Tobias Tells the Divergent Knife-Throwing Scene (Divergent, #1.5))
β
she sighs, then breaks a piece off the muffin in my hand. 'Hey. There are plenty more just five feet to your right.'
'then you shouldn't be so concerned about losing some of yours.' she says, grinning.
'Fair enough.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
Donβt worry about me handling the pain," I say. "Iβve had a lot of practice.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Transfer (Divergent, #0.1))
β
I glance at Tris. She grins at me, then leans in to whisper something to Christina.
"Are you here to help or what, Stiff?" I say.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
In the days that follow, it's movement, not stillness, that helps to keep the grief at bay.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
One Choice, Breaks free of his past
One Choice, Embraces his future
One Choice, Exposes the dangers
One Choice, Changes him- forever
One Choice will free him
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
Maybe time would not feel as heavy if I didn't have this guilt - the guilt of knowing the truth and stuffing it down where no one can see it.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Because even a sliver of distance between us is infuriating.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I just wanted to thank you' he says, his voice low.
'A group of scientists told you that my genes were damaged, that there was something wrong with me - they showed you the test results that proved it. And even I started to believe it.'
He touches my face, his thumb skimming my cheekbone, and his eyes are on mine, intense and insistent.
'You never believed it,' he says 'Not for a second. You always insisted I was... I don't know, whole.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I am not Tobias Eaton, not anymore, never again. I am Dauntless.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
Dauntless,' he says. 'I was born for Abnegation. I was planning on leaving Dauntless, and becoming factionless. But then I met her, and...I felt like maybe I could make something more of my decision.'
Her.
For a moment, it's like I'm looking at a different person, sitting in Tobias's skin, one whose life is not as simple as I thought. He wanted to leave Dauntless, but he stayed because of me. He never told me that.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
I open the door to the fear landscape room and flip open the small black box that was in my back pocket to see the syringes inside. This is the box I have always used, padded around the needles; it is a sign of something sick inside me, or something brave.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
Today you will choose your factions. Until this point you have followed your parentsβ paths, your parentsβ rules. Today you will find your own path, make your own rules.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Transfer (Divergent, #0.1))
β
My name is Tobias Eaton," Tobias says. "I don't think you want to push me off this train."
The effect of the name on the people in the car is immediate and bewildering: they lower their weapons. They exchange meaningful looks.
"Eaton? Really?" Edward says, eyebrows raised. "I have to admit, I did not see that coming." He clears his throat. "Fine, you can come. But when we get to the city, you've got to come with us."
Then he smiles a little. "We know someone who's been looking for you, Tobias Eaton.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Intentions are the only thing they care about. They try to make you think they care about what you do, but they don't. They don't want you to act a certain way, they want you to think a certain way. So you're easy to understand. So you wont pose a threat to them.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
Please. They're like the Cult of Four.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
Iβd rather eat out of a can than be strangled by a faction.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Transfer (Divergent, #0.1))
β
I guess I always knew there was something wrong with me, but I thought it was because of my father, or my mother, and the pain they bequeathed to me like a family heirloom, handed down from generation to generation.
- Tobias Eaton
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I've made my peace with Caleb, but I still can't be around him for long. His gestures, his inflection, his manner, they are hers. They make him into just a whisper of her, and that is not enough of her, but it is also far too much.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I have to get out.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Transfer (Divergent, #0.1))
β
Youβre too important to just β¦ die.β He shakes his head. He wonβt even look at meβhis eyes keep shifting across my
face, to the wall behind me or the ceiling above me, to everything but me. I am too stunned to be angry.
βIβm not important. Everyone will do just fine without me,β I say.
βWho cares about everyone? What about me?
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
You don't have to tell me everything right away, but I have to tell you everything right away? Can't you see how stupid that is?
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Sometimes people just want to be happy, even if itβs not real.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
I don't have the right word for how she looks, but even now, with parts of her face swollen and discolored, there's something striking about her, something I haven't seen before.
In that moment I'm able to accept the inevitability of how I feel, though not with joy. I need to talk to someone. I need to trust someone. And for whatever reason, I know, I know it's her.
I'll have to start by telling her my name.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
I am a child. I am two feet tall, and asking if she loves me.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
In them we find administrators and teachers and counselors and leaders and protectors. In them we find our sense of belonging, our sense of community, our very lives.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
I can't move, can't speak. She chose me. She chose me.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
People are not always what they say there are - or even what they think they are. There is but One who sees us objectively, and heave reason to be thankful that He is called the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Forgiving
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
β
Tris.β
I keep staring.
βTris.β
I finally look at him.
βI just donβt want to lose you.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
I can be a new person,someone who doesn't put up with cutting comments from Erudite know-it-alls.Someone who can cut back.Someone who's finally ready to fight.
Four.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Transfer (Divergent, #0.1))
β
There is a reason you donβt know all the things I know. -Marcus Eaton
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
I can see her clearly, standing on the rock beside Peg Gratton, unflinching before Eaton and the rest of the race committee. I can't remember when I've been that brave, and it shames me. The truth is, I feel myself being fascinated and repelled by her; She's both a mirror of myself and a door to part of the island that i'm not. It's like when the mare goddess looked into my eye; I felt that there was a part of myself that I didn't know.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races)
β
Sometimes I just... want to see it again. Want to see you awake.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
I still want to smack him. Or remind him that the last transfer we had from Abnegation, who is sitting right next to him, managed to knock out some of his teeth, so who knows what this next one will do.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
I can't really believe that it's over. "I'll speak for her." Every face turns to where Sean Kendrick stands a little apart from the crowd, his arms crossed. "This island runs on courage, not blood," he says. His face is turned towards me, but his eyes are on Eaton and his groups. In the hush after he speaks, I can hear my heart thudding in my ears.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races)
β
Inquisitiveness is self-serving, Johanna. -Marcus Eaton
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Trust me when I tell you, Eaton boy, that resisting is worth doing.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
I struggle for air, but it's not because of my aching legs; it's because of my weak heart, growing stronger with each passing second.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
You are not a burden. You are not a waste of time. You are very wanted. And anyone who makes you feel youβre anything less deserves Rhett Eatonβs fist to their face. Or yours. You can hit back too, you know? Iβll bail you out every fucking time.
β
β
Elsie Silver (Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1))
β
I'LL FIGHT THE BAD DREAMS OFF IF THEY COME TO GET YOU
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
There are no safe rooms, no safe truths, no safe secrets to tell.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
If you die, I die with you.
β
β
Tobias Eaton
β
The agnostic has a very curious notion of religion. He is convinced that a man who says 'I believe in God' should at once become perfect; if this does not happen, then the believer must be a fraud and a hypocrite. He thinks that adherence to a religion is the end of the road, whereas it is in fact only the beginning of a very long and sometimes very rough road. He looks for consistency in religious people, however aware he may be of inconsistencies in himself
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
β
We're sorry for frightening you, Tris,' another voice says, 'but anonymity is integral to our operation. We mean you no harm.'
'Let go of me then!' I say, almost growling. All the hands holding me on the wall fall away.
'Who are you?' I demand.
'We are the Alliegiant,' the voice replies. 'And we are many, yet we are no one....'
I can't help it: I laugh.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren't all that different.
β
β
Victoria Roth
β
He pushes his hair, soaked from the snow, out of his eyes. "So what are we going to do, break a window? Look for a back door?"
"I'm just going to walk in," I say. "I'm her son."
"You also betrayed her and left the city when she forbade anyone from doing that," he says, "and she sent people after you to stop you. People with guns."
"You can stay here if you want," I say.
"Where the serum goes, I go," he says. "But if you get shot at, I'm going to grab it and run."
"I don't expect anything more."
He is a strange sort of person.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
The modern Westerner, persuaded that he has a right to "think for himself" and imagining that he exercises this right, is unwilling to acknowledge that his every thought has been shaped by cultural and historical influences and that his opinions fit, like pieces of jigsaw puzzle, into a pattern which has nothing random about it.
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
β
I like to hurt people too. I can make the cruelest choice. The difference is, sometimes I don't, and you always do, and that makes you evil.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
Choices can be made again."
-Evelyn Johnson (Eaton)
β
β
Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
β
Me enamorΓ© de Γ©l. Pero no solamente estoy con Γ©l por defecto, como si no hubiera nadie mΓ‘s disponible para mΓ. Estoy con Γ©l porque lo elijo, cada dΓa que me despierto, cada dΓa que peleamos o nos mentimos el uno al otro o nos decepcionamos. Lo elijo una y otra vez y Γ©l me elije a mΓ.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
You know, the kind of person who gets this tattoo is probably the kind that should keep it very quiet," she says, looking at me from the corner of her eye. "Or else someone will start thinking they're Divergent.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
Meanwhile, the question is not whether we should 'lose ourselves' - since all do so in one way or another - but where we lose ourselves: in light or in darkness, in good dreams or in nightmares, in truth or in falsehood.
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
β
Something is unfolding, being revealed to me. I see that there's a whole world of of girls and their doings that has been unknown to me, and that I can be part of without making any effort at all. I don't have to keep up with anyone, run as fast, aim as well, make loud explosive noises, decode messages, die on cue. I don't have to think about whether I do these things well, as well as a boy. All I have to do is sit on the floor and cut frying pans our of the Eaton's Catalogue with embroidery scissors, and say I've done it badly.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (Cat's Eye)
β
Maybe you were cut out for Candor, Four, because you're a terrible liar.
β
β
Veronica Roth (The Traitor (Divergent, #0.4))
β
Most of the time I can tell when people are lying, and this must be a lie, because Tris is still alive, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed and her small body full of power and strenght, standing in a shaft of light in the atrium.
Tris is still alive, she wouldn't leave me here alone, she wouldn't go to the Weapons Lab instead of Caleb.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
A man might spend a lifetime reading spiritual books and studying the writings of the great mystics. He might feel that he had penetrated the secrets of the heavens and the earth, but unless this knowledge was incorporated into his very nature and transformed him, it was sterile. I began to suspect that a simple man of faith, praying to God with little understanding but with a full heart, might be worth more than the most learned student of the spiritual sciences.
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
β
Sometimes your brain canβt compute what your eyes see. Sometimes you need to stare, hoping maybe youβll wake up and find out everything was a dream. Unfortunately for me, I didnβt wake up.
β
β
Jennifer M. Eaton (Fire in the Woods (Fire in the Woods, #1))
β
Iβm not anyone,β he says. βIβm nobody. Thatβs what being factionless is.
β
β
Veronica Roth
β
Kip: Donβt be such a pussy, Eaton. Rhett: Better. Thank you.
β
β
Elsie Silver (Flawless (Chestnut Springs, #1))
β
You are a national treasure, Harvey Eaton.
β
β
Elsie Silver (Reckless (Chestnut Springs, #4))
β
Submission, when it is submission to the truth β and when the truth is known to be both beautiful and merciful β has nothing in common with fatalism or stoicism as these terms are understood in the Western tradition, because its motivation is different. According to Fakhr ad-Din ar-RazT, one of the great commentators upon the Quran: The worship of the eyes is
weeping, the worship of the ears is listening, the worship of the tongue is praise, the worship of the hands is giving, the worship of the body is effort, the worship of the heart is fear and hope, and the worship of the spirit is surrender and satisfaction in Allah.
β
β
Fakhr Al-Din Al-Razi
β
I want to be Brave, and Selfless,
and smart, and Kind, and honest.
β
β
Tobias Eaton
β
Hay tantas maneras de ser valiente en este mundo. A veces la valentΓa implica dar tu vida por algo mΓ‘s grande que tΓΊ, o por alguien mΓ‘s. A veces se trata de renunciar a todo lo que has conocido, o a todo el mundo que alguna vez has amado, para el bien de algo mejor. Pero a veces no es asΓ,
A veces no es mΓ‘s que apretar los dientes por el dolor y por el trabajo de cada dΓa, el lento paseo hacia una vida mejor. Ese es el tipo de valentΓa que debo tener ahora.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
His gestures, his inflections, his manner, they are hers. They make him into just a whisper of her, and that is not enough of her, but it is also far too much.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Allegiant (Divergent, #3))
β
What makes you different makes you dangerous
β
β
Tobias Eaton
β
Men who scorn the idea of submission to the divine Will and are outraged by the notion of a God who requires submission are among the first to demand total submission to the process in which we are involved and seem to attach a kind of moral imperative to willing participation in it. Any other attitude, so they say, is reactionary or escapist or anti-social. Perhaps, after all, they have found a divinity to worship; and, if they have, the only charitable comment must be: God help them!
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World (Islamic Texts Society))
β
Although signs may be found in everything that comes to us, as though a river at our doorstep carried these messages on its surface, the Quran (like other sacred books) speaks in terms of empirical experience, since it is intended to endure through the ages and cannot bind itself to the βscientificβ theories of any particular time. Its images are the phenomena of nature as they appear to us in our experience β the rising and setting of the sun, the domed sky above and the mountains, which are like weights set upon the earth. Scientific observations change according to the preconceptions of the observer and the instruments at his disposal, and the speculations which blinkered human minds construct on the basis of these observations change no less swiftly. But manβs experience of the visual universe does not change. The sun βrisesβ for me today as it βroseβ for the man of ten thousand years ago.
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
β
I have a scar - a faint gouge in my knee from when I fell down on the sidewalk as a child. It's always seemed stupid to me that none of the pain I've experienced has left a visible mark; sometimes, without a way to prove it to myself, I began to doubt that I had lived through it at all, with the memories becoming hazy over time. I want to have some kind of reminder that while wounds heal, they don't disappear forever - I carry them everywhere, always, and that is the way of things, the way of scars.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Four: A Divergent Story Collection (Divergent, #0.1-0.4))
β
Those who know in their hearts that they are not really necessary -- and are entirely replaceable-- must inevitably be tempted to misrepresent the nature of their work and build up a false notion of its importance. A further alienation from truth takes place, a further loss of contact with reality. And one thing we can be sure of is that self-deception, whether on the level of the wind and the rain or on that of spiritual reality, must always come up against the real sooner or later, and that its destruction is very painful.
β
β
Charles Le Gai Eaton (King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World (Islamic Texts Society))
β
I begin to want things I've never wanted before: braids, a dressing-gown, a purse of my own. Something is unfolding, being revealed to me. I see that there's a whole world of girls and their doings that has been unknown to me, and that I can be part of it without making any effort at all. I don't have to keep up with anyone, run as fast, aim as well, make loud explosive noises, decode messages, die on cue. I don't have to think whether I've done these things well, as well as a boy. All I have to do is sit on the floor and cut frying pans out of the Eaton's Catalogue with embroidery scissors, and say I've done it badly. Partly this a relief.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (Catβs Eye)
β
At the mention of children, Connor halted his steps. For a moment Beatrice thought he was going to storm off, turn away from her and never look back.
Instead he fell to one knee before her. Time went momentarily still. In some dazed part of her mind Beatrice remembered Teddy, kneeling stiffly at her feet as he swore to be her liege man. This felt utterly different. Even kneeling, Connor looked like a warrior, every line of his body radiating a tensed power and strength.
"It kills me that I don't have more to offer you," he said roughly. "I have no lands, no fortune, no title. All I can give you is my honor, and my heart. Which already belongs to you."
She would have fallen in love with him right then, if she didn't already love him so fiercely that every cell of her body burned with it.
"I love you, Bee. I've loved you for so long I've forgotten what it felt like not to love you."
"I love you, too." Her eyes stung with tears.
"I get that you have to marry someone before your dad dies. But you can't marry Teddy Eaton."
She watched as he fumbled in his jacket for something - had he bought a ring? She thought wildly - but what he pulled out instead was a black Sharpie. Still kneeling before her, he slid the diamond engagement ring off Beatrice's finger and tucked it in the pocket of her jacket. Using the Sharpie, he traced a thin loop around the skin of Beatrice's finger, where the ring had been.
"I'm sorry it isn't a real ring, but I'm improvising here." There was a nervous catch to Connor's voice that Beatrice hadn't heard before. But when he looked up and spoke his next words, his face glowed with a fierce, fervent hope.
"Marry me.
β
β
Katharine McGee (American Royals (American Royals, #1))
β
Sadly but, perhaps, not altogether unexpectedly this society has had very limited success in achieving what is supposed to be the justification for its existence-- the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest possible number of people. In so far as its citizens are saved from the major anxieties and responsibilities which normally surround the business of being a man, they transfer what appears to be an unvarying human capacity for worry to the most trivial things, making mountains out of molehills on a vast scale; and they have 'nervous breakdowns' over problems which men and women living under sterner conditions would hardly find time to notice.
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Charles Le Gai Eaton (King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World (Islamic Texts Society))
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The Qur'an, set on a shelf with other books, has a function entirely different to theirs and exists in a different dimension. It moves an illiterate shepherd to tears when recited to him, and it has shaped the lives of millions of simple people over the course of almost fourteen centuries; it has nourished some of the most powerful intellects known to the human record; it has stopped sophisticates in their tracks and made saints of them, and it has been the source of the most subtle philosophy and of an art which expresses its deepest meaning in visual terms; it has brought the wandering tribes of mankind together in communities and civilizations upon which its imprint is apparent even to the most casual observer.
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Charles Le Gai Eaton (Islam and the Destiny of Man)
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His hands shift to my shoulders, and his fingers brush over the edge of my bandage. He pulls back with a puckered brow.
βAre you hurt?β he asks.
βNo. Itβs another tattoo. Itβs healed, I justβ¦wanted to keep it covered up.β
βCan I see?β
I nod, my throat tight. I pull my sleeve down and slip my shoulder out of it. He stares down at my shoulder for a second, and then runs his fingers over it. They rise and fall with my bones, which stick out farther than Iβd like. When he touches me, I feel like everywhere his skin meets mine is changed by the connection. It sends a thrill through my stomach. Not just fear. Something else, too. A wanting.
He peels the corner of the bandage away. His eyes roam over the symbol of Abnegation, and he smiles.
βI have the same one,β he says, laughing. βOn my back.β
βReally? Can I see it?β
He presses the bandage over the tattoo and pulls my shirt back over my shoulder.
βAre you asking me to undress, Tris?β
A nervous laugh gurgles from my throat. βOnlyβ¦partially.
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Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
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The Hermit
Iβd gladly climb the highest steeple
To escape those middle minded people
Jet Set Wedding
I wake up screaming clutching my wedding band
The garnet ring is still a constant companion on my finger
But what happened to the marriage?
Fruitland Ave
He taught her not to love nor hate
And he my friend was double gate
The Closing
(On Death and Acceptance)
When he died the funeral took place at her bank
And sadly enough sheβs down to her very last frank
The Misogynist
He sits on his throne a hilltop alone
For womenβs neurosis cause menβs psychosis
Home Sweet Home
The neurotic builds the dreamhouse
The psychotic becomes his spouse
Monogamy
Iβd rather be someoneβs concubine, smell the honeysuckle
Taste the wine, than end up being a clinging vine
The Gour Maid
I like champagne, and french brie, and camembert
And men that donβt get in my hair
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Elissa Eaton (Too Old to be a Hooker, Too Young to be a Madam)
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Everything becomes a blur when you travel beyond a certain speed. Distant objects may still be clear in outline, but the blurred foreground makes it impossible to attend to them. This landscape is unreal and the passengers in the express train turn to their books, their thoughts or their private fantasies.
The subjectivism of our age has a good deal to do with this imprisonment in a speeding vehicle, and the fact that we made this vehicle ourselves, with all the tireless care that children give to a contrivance of wood and wire, does not save us from the sense of being trapped without hope of escape.
A further effect of such vertiginous speed is a kind of anaesthesia, entirely natural when the operation of the senses by which we normally make contact with our environment is suspended. With no opportunity to assimilate what is going on, our powers of assimilation are inevitably weakened and certain numbness sets in; nothing is fully savoured and nothing is properly understood. Even fear (which exists to forewarn us of danger) is suspended. This would be so even if speed of change were the only factor involved, but the kind of environment in which a large part of humanity lives today --- the environment created by technology at the service of immediate, short-term needs β does much to intensify this effect. Outside of works of art which embody something beyond our physical needs, our own constructions bore us. Those who, when they have built something and admired the finished product for a decent moment, are ready to pull it down and start on something new have good sense on their side.
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Charles Le Gai Eaton (King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World (Islamic Texts Society))
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We are all of us exposed to grief: the people we love die, as we shall ourselves in due course; expectations are disappointed and ambitions are thwarted by circumstance. Finally, there are some who insist upon feeling guilty over the ill they have done or simply on account of the ugliness which they perceive in their own souls. A solution of a kind has been found to this problem in the form of sedatives and anti-depressant drugs, so that many human experiences which used to be accepted as an integral part of human life are now defined and dealt with as medical problems. The widow who grieves for a beloved husband becomes a 'case', as does the man saddened by the recollection of the napalm or high explosives he has dropped on civilian populations. One had thought that guilt was a way, however indirect, in which we might perceive the nature of reality and the laws which govern our human experience; but it is now an illness that can be cured.
Death however, remains incurable. Though we might be embarrassed by Victorian death-bed scenes or the practices of mourning among people less sophisticated than ourselves, the fact of death tells us so much about the realities of our condition that to ignore it or try to forget it is to be unaware of the most important thing we need to know about our situation as living creatures. Equally, to witness and participate in the dying of our fellow men and women is to learn what we are and, if we have any wisdom at all, to draw conclusions which must in their way affect our every thought and our every act.
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Charles Le Gai Eaton (King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World (Islamic Texts Society))
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So many ruins bear witness to good intentions which went astray, good intentions unenlightened by any glimmer of wisdom. To bring religion to the people is a fine and necessary undertaking, but this is not a situation in which the proposed end can be said to justify the means. The further people have drifted from the truth, the greater is the temptation to water down the truth, glossing over its less palatable aspects and, in short, allowing a policy of compromise to become one of adulteration. In this way it is hoped that the common man β if he can be found β will be encouraged to find a small corner in his busy life for religion without having to change his ways or to grapple with disturbing thoughts. It is a forlorn hope. Standing, as it were, at the pavementβs edge with his tray of goods, the priest reduces the price until he is offering his wares for nothing: divine judgement is a myth, hell a wicked superstition, prayer less important than decent behaviour, and God himself dispensable in the last resort; and still the passers-by go their way, sorry over having to ignore such a nice man but with more important matters demanding their attention. And yet these matters with which they are most urgently concerned are, for so many of them, quicksands in which they feel themselves trapped. Had they been offered a real alternative, a rock firm-planted from the beginning of time, they might have been prepared to pay a high price.
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Charles Le Gai Eaton (King of the Castle: Choice and Responsibility in the Modern World (Islamic Texts Society))