“
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.
I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.
”
”
Jane Austen (Persuasion)
“
Scorned and torn, former love mates aim and shoot childish devastating daggers that penetrate beyond target to pierce the heart of their offspring.
”
”
T.F. Hodge (From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence)
“
[I]f you seek in every way to minimise my firm beliefs by your anti-feminist attacks, please recall that a small dagger or knife point can pierce a great, bulging sack and that a small fly can attack a great lion and speedily put him to flight.
”
”
Christine de Pizan (Le Débat Sur Le Roman De La Rose)
“
My candle was a little tongue of light in its vastness, that failed to pierce the opposite end of the room, and left an ocean of mystery and suggestion beyond its island of light.
”
”
E.F. Benson (The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 6 (30 short stories))
“
The lines in the corners of her eyes spoke of years of wisdom, as a tree with the number of rings increasing with each passing year. She was a small frame of a woman with piercing eyes that suggested that they knew you, understood you even.
”
”
F.C. Malby (Take Me to the Castle)
“
As the darkness deepened, the sky was streaked with veins of red, the last low beats of a dying sun. Against this scarlet canopy the hulk of the Rust Road's twin peaks stood tall, mountains of metal, unnaturally jagged. Their sharp pinnacles pierced the sky, and Jacob could not help but wonder if that explained the blood there.
”
”
Dean F. Wilson (Worldwaker (The Great Iron War, #5))
“
[F]or he had heard an inarticulate promise: he has been pierced by Spring, that sharp knife. And life unscales its rusty weathered pelt, and earth wells out in tender exhaustless strength, and the cup of a man’s heart runs over with dateless expectancy, tongueless promise, indefinable desire. Something gathers in the throat, something blinds him in the eyes, and faint and valorous horns sound through the earth.
”
”
Thomas Wolfe (Look Homeward, Angel)
“
The guy had a load of piercings, including an eye-grabbing one on his lower left lip. Not that I was looking, but if I were? I’d say it brought a lot of attention to his mouth.
”
”
G.L. Tomas (F*ths (Friends That Have Sex, #1))
“
There are times when it appears impossible to look beyond what our mind has reasoned to be truth. If given complete control, it can easily hold us captive behind seemingly impenetrable walls of fear and doubt. However, the brain has a resilient nemesis that possesses far greater powers… the human heart. Within it lies love, forgiveness and the strength that is vital to free our spirit from the mind’s iron grasp.
”
”
Tina F. Snyder (The Pierce of Shadows)
“
Trying what?" cried Maury fiercely. "Trying to pierce the darkness of political idealism with some wild, despairing urge toward truth? Sitting day after day supine in a rigid chair and infinitely removed from life staring at the tip of a steeple through the trees, trying to separate, definitely and for all time, the knowable from the unknowable? Trying to take a piece of actuality and give it glamour from your own soul to make for that inexpressible quality it possessed in life and lost in transit to paper or canvas?
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Beautiful and Damned)
“
He went three hundred yards up the slope to the other hotel, he engaged a room, and found himself washing without a memory of the intervening ten minutes, only a sort of drunken flush pierced with voices, unimportant voices that did not know how much he was loved.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night)
“
You must list every single fuck you find, regardless of whether you want to give it or not. Currently, the fucks you want to and should be giving might be stacked under and behind the ones you don’t—like giving a fuck about your sister’s general happiness but not about the details of her new boyfriend’s genital piercings.
”
”
Sarah Knight (The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don't Have with People You Don't Like Doing Things You Don't Want to Do (A No F*cks Given Guide Book 1))
“
Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” —Proverbs 12:18
”
”
Annie F. Downs (Speak Love: Making Your Words Matter)
“
Panic pierced the minds of almost everyone present, logic was pummelled into the floor, and human decency was discarded like bait for the frightful fishes that flocked towards the submarine.
”
”
Dean F. Wilson (Lifemaker (The Great Iron War, #2))
“
He wheeled off his bicycle, feeling Nicole's eyes following him, feeling her helpless first love, feeling it twist around inside him. He went three hundred yards up the slope to the other hotel, he engaged a room and found himself washing without a memory of the intervening ten minutes, only a sort of drunken flush pierced with voices, unimportant voices that did not know how much he was loved.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night)
“
On the centre of the lake, cooled by the piercing current of the Rhône, lay the true centre of the Western World. Upon it floated swans like boats and boats like swans, both lost in the nothingness of the heartless beauty.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night)
“
I've got two knives that are cast in bronze/ they pierce all the way to the soul/ they draw you in with the promise of sin/ like the moth to the flame to the coal
I've got hair like the starless night / it sticks to my lips when I smile / I'll wind it with yours and we'll drift of course/ in a ship touching hearts all the while
For they way I walk is a lantern lit/ that leads you into the night/ I'll hold you close and love you the most/ until our end is in sight
”
”
F.C. Yee (The Rise of Kyoshi (The Kyoshi Novels, #1))
“
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W. "I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.
”
”
Jane Austen (Persuasion)
“
Merger Evers/John F. Kennedy/Malcolm X/Martin Luther King/Robert Kennedy/Che Guevara/Patrice Lamumba/George Jackson/Cynthia Wesley/Addie Mae Collins/Denise McNair/Carole Robertson/Viola Liuzzo
It was a decade marked by death. Violent and inevitable. Funerals became engraved on the brain, intensifying the ephemeral nature of life. For many in the South it was a decade reminiscent of earlier times, when oak trees sighed over their burdens in the wind; Spanish moss draggled blood to the ground; amen corners creaked with grief; and the thrill of being able, once again, to endure unendurable loss produced so profound an ecstasy in mourners that they strutted, without noticing their feet, along the thin backs of benches: their piercing shouts of anguish and joy never interrupted by an inglorious fall. They shared rituals for the dead to be remembered.
”
”
Alice Walker
“
The Buddha said that suffering is like being shot by two arrows. The first arrow is the physical pain—it’s the metal piercing the skin, the force colliding into the body. The second arrow is the mental pain, the meaning and emotion we attach to the being struck, the narratives that we spin in our minds about whether we deserved or didn’t deserve what happened. In many cases, our mental pain is far worse than any physical pain. In most cases, it lasts far longer.
”
”
Mark Manson (Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope)
“
The conductor shut a door; he telephoned his confrere among the undulati, and with a jerk the car was pulled upward, heading for a pinpoint on an emerald hill above. After it cleared the low roofs, the skies of Vaud, Valais, Swiss Savoy, and Geneva spread around the passengers in cyclorama. On the centre of the lake, cooled by the piercing current of the Rhône, lay the true centre of the Western World. Upon it floated swans like boats and boats like swans, both lost in the nothingness of the heartless beauty.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night)
“
But b godliness c with contentment is great gain, 7for d we brought nothing into the world, and [3] we cannot take anything out of the world. 8But e if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9But f those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, g into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that h plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of i all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
”
”
Anonymous (Holy Bible: English Standard Version (ESV))
“
I grew up then, into this life of jazz, and fell immediately into the state of almost audible confusion. Life stood over me like an immoral schoolmistress, editing my thoughts. It seemed to me that there was no ultimate goal for man. Man was beginning a grotesque and bewildered fight with nature, that by the divine and magnificent accident has brought us to where we could fly in her face. We produce a Christ who can raise up the leper and presently, it's the salt of the Earth. If any one can find lesson in that, let him stand forth. Am I crazy trying to pierce the darkness of political idealism with some wild, despairing urge towards truth? Trying to separate the knowable from the unknowable?
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“
She had only time, however, to move closer to the table where he had been writing, when footsteps were heard returning; the door opened; it was himself. He begged their pardon, but he had forgotten his gloves, and instantly crossing the room to the writing table, and standing with his back towards Mrs. Musgrove, he drew out a letter from under the scattered paper, placed it before Anne with eyes of glowing entreaty fixed on her for a moment, and hastily collecting his gloves, was again out of the room, almost before Mrs. Musgrove was aware of his being in it - the work of an instant!
The revolution which one instant had made in Anne, was almost beyond expression. The letter, with a direction hardily legible, to 'Miss A.E. - ,' was evidently the one which he had been folding so hastily. While supposed to be writing only to Captain Benwick, he had been also addressing her! On the contents of that letter depended all which this world could do for her! Any thing was possible, any thing might be defied rather than suspense. Mrs. Musgrove had little arrangements of her own at her own table; to their protection she must trust, and sinking into the chair which he had occupied, succeeding to the very spot where he had leaned and written, her eyes devoured the following words:
'I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. - Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W.'
'I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.
”
”
Jane Austen (Persuasion)
“
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W. “I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.
”
”
Jane Austen (Persuasion)
“
I’m going to ignore the fact you just said I looked like a drug dealer.” I narrow my eyes on him.
“Bro,” he laughs, “you and I both know you look like you belong on the other side of the law.” He shakes his head, looking me over. “That’s why—I have to say—I was surprised to see your girlfriend. She couldn’t be more opposite of you if she tried. Does she even have her ears pierced?” he questions with a smile.
“I’m not going to tell you again. You don’t need to know anything about Sophie.”
“You gonna marry her?”
“Yes,” I state immediately.
“Jesus, you’ve known her for what—a day?”
“A few months, but I knew the moment I saw her,” I tell him, watching his eyes widen.
“Why am I just learning about her then?”
“First, there is not one damn reason for you to know about her. Second, I know you bitches love to sit around and gossip like a bunch of women in a knitting club, but unlike you f**kers, my business is my business.”
“Does Mom know her?” He smirks, and he knows she doesn’t.
If my mom knew about Sophie, the phone chain would have been activated, and everyone and their mothers would know about her. That’s why she will meet Sophie as soon as I get back into town; it would be f**ked up to introduce Sophie to my mom after I’ve already married her and knocked her up.
“She’ll be meeting her soon enough.” I shrug.
“You are so f**ked.” He laughs, and I couldn’t agree more.
”
”
Aurora Rose Reynolds (Until Nico (Until, #4))
“
Marlboro Man paused, his eyes piercing through to my marrow. We’d started out watching the sunset over the ranch, sitting on the tailgate of his pickup, legs dangling playfully over the edge. By the time the sun had gone down, we were lying down, legs overlapping, as the sky turned blacker and blacker. And making out wildly. Making out, oh, so very wildly.
I didn’t want to wait for him to bring it up again--the dreaded subject of Chicago. I’d avoided it like the plague for the past several days, not wanting to face the reality of my impending move, of walking away from my new love so soon after we’d found each other. But now the subject wasn’t so scary; it was safe. I’d made the decision, at least for now, to stay--I just had to tell Marlboro Man. And finally, in between kisses, the words bubbled suddenly and boldly to the surface; I could no longer contain them. But before I had a chance to say them, Marlboro Man opened his mouth and began to speak.
“Oh no,” he said, a pained expression on his face. “Don’t tell me--you’re leaving tomorrow.” He ran his fingers through my hair and touched his forehead to mine.
I smiled, giggling inside at the secret I was seconds away from spilling. A herd of cows mooed in the distance. Serenading us.
“Um…no,” I said, finding it hard to believe what I was about to tell him. “I’m not…I’m…I’m not going.”
He paused, then pulled his face away from mine, allowing just enough distance between us for him to pull focus. “What?” he asked, is strong fingers still grasping my hair. A tentative smile appeared on his face.
I breathed in a deep dose of night air, trying to calm my schoolgirl nervousness. “I, umm…” I began. “I decided to stick around here a little while.” There. I’d said it. This was all officially real.
Without a moment of hesitation, Marlboro Man wrapped his ample arms around my waist. Then, in what seemed to be less than a second, he hoisted me from my horizontal position on the bed of his pickup until we were both standing in front of each other. Scooping me off my feet, he raised me up to his height so his icy blue eyes were level with mine.
“Wait…are you serious?” he asked, taking my face in his hands. Squaring it in front of his. Looking me in the eye. “You’re not going?”
“Nope,” I answered.
“Whoa,” he said, smiling and moving in for a long, impassioned kiss on the back of his Ford F250. “I can’t believe it,” he continued, squeezing me tightly.
”
”
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels)
“
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.[b]
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you[f] I will fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
”
”
David
“
When you love someone, they become a part f who you are. They're in everything you do. They're in the air yo breathe and the water you drink, and the blood in your veins. Their touch stays in your skin and their voice stays in your ears and their thoughts stay in your mind. You know their dreams because their nightmares pierce your heart and their good dreams are your dreams too. And you don't think they're prefect, but you know their flaws, the deep down truth of them, and the shadows of all their secrets, and they don't frighten you away: in fact you love them more for it, because you don't want perfect. You want them. - Julian Blackthorn
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1))
“
Gruyère and Black Pepper Popovers This recipe was inspired by Jodi Elliott, a former co-owner and chef of Foreign & Domestic Food and Drink and the owner of Bribery Bakery, both in Austin, Texas. Butter for greasing the popover pans or muffin tins 2 cups whole milk 4 large eggs 1½ teaspoons salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 cups all-purpose flour Nonstick cooking spray ¾ cup Gruyère cheese (5 ounces), cut into small cubes, plus grated Gruyère cheese for garnishing (optional) 1. Place the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F. 2. Prepare the popover pans or muffin tins (with enough wells to make 16 popovers) by placing a dot of butter in the bottom of each of the 16 wells. Heat the pans or tins in the oven while you make the popover batter. 3. Warm the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. It should be hot, but do not bring it to a boil. Remove from the heat. 4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the salt and black pepper until smooth. Stir in the reserved warm milk. 5. Add the flour to the egg mixture and combine. The batter should have the consistency of cream. A few lumps are okay! 6. Remove the popover pans or muffin tins from the oven. Spray the 16 wells generously with nonstick cooking spray. Pour about ⅓ cup of the batter into each well. Place several cubes of cheese on top of the batter in each well. 7. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Bake the popovers until the tops puff up and are golden brown, about 40 minutes. Remember not to open the oven door while baking. You don’t want the popovers to collapse! 8. Remove the popovers from the oven and turn them onto a wire cooling rack right away to preserve their crispy edges. Using a sharp knife, pierce the base of each popover to release the steam. Sprinkle grated Gruyère over the finished popovers, if desired, and serve immediately. Makes 16 popovers
”
”
Winnie Archer (Kneaded to Death (A Bread Shop Mystery #1))
“
t h e p e r f e c t h u s b a n d (a jessie hunt psychological suspense—book 22) b l a k e p i e r c e Blake Pierce Blake Pierce is the USA Today bestselling author of the RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes seventeen books. Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising fourteen books; of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising six books; of the KERI LOCKE mystery series, comprising five books; of the MAKING OF RILEY PAIGE mystery series, comprising six books; of the KATE WISE mystery series, comprising seven books; of the CHLOE FINE psychological suspense mystery, comprising six books; of the JESSE HUNT psychological suspense thriller series, comprising twenty four books; of the AU PAIR psychological suspense thriller series, comprising three books; of the ZOE PRIME mystery series, comprising six books; of the ADELE SHARP mystery series, comprising fifteen books, of the EUROPEAN VOYAGE
”
”
Blake Pierce (The Perfect Husband (Jessie Hunt, #22))
“
He understands intuitively that appeals to a new system of governance based on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” are a pretense for establishing a political order that is hostile to his values, even if he does not yet possess the vocabulary to pierce through the shell of euphemism and describe its essence.
”
”
Christopher F. Rufo (America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything)
“
MESSIAH’S APPEARANCE. [Isa. 53:1–3] Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. HIS SUFFERING FOR OUR SINS. [Isa. 53:4–6] Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. HUMILITY OF MESSIAH’S DEATH. [Isa. 53:7–9] He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression6 and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.7 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
”
”
F. LaGard Smith (The Daily Bible® - In Chronological Order (NIV®))
“
He was in his late thirties maybe, tall and slim with pale blond hair, ruddy cheeks, and the kind of translucent Scandinavian skin that would burn instantly in the sun. His face was all interesting angles and cleft chin, creating the overall impression that he should be modeling parkas in an L.L.Bean catalog. The suit was neither particularly nice nor particularly shabby, but I recognized a familiar lump near his armpit—a shoulder holster. I was immediately wary. “Good evening, Miss Luther,” the man said, pleasantly enough. “I’m Detective Quinn with Boulder PD.” His hazel eyes pierced mine as he held out his hand, very close to mine so I wouldn’t have to work hard to reach it. His handshake was extremely gentle—not weak, exactly, but more like he feared my fingers might crumple to dust. “I’d like to speak to you about the incident at your work.” “Now?” I asked, a little incredulous. I had expected the cops to turn up with questions, particularly since Mom had warned me, but it seemed awfully late. Visiting hours had been over for a while. Quinn nodded. “As you might imagine, we’re very anxious to pursue the couple who kidnapped your niece.
”
”
Melissa F. Olson (Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic, #1))
“
Similar weapons used through the ages include a huge array of sticks, arrows, and javelins. In modern times you might consider an AK-47, F-35 Jets and Javelin Missiles. Though perhaps not as respected as the Asian ways, each of these weapons can be practiced by its user to a level of skill which resembles art. (Surely piloting a multimillion dollar jet fighter at supersonic speeds is at least as respectable as mastering Aikido?)
”
”
Phil Pierce (Martial Arts Myths: Behind the Myths!)
“
I thought about Hannah in her bed. Hannah stretched out on her back, sleeping in a cami and thong, her beautiful br**sts heaving slowly and her legs crooked apart. Or Hannah on her stomach, her heart-shaped rump in the air.
I could climb over her, wake her with a kiss. Brush my body along hers.
I felt a throb between my legs. I glared down at my cock.
"Hold your f**king horses," I muttered.
God, fuck... was this seriously my life? Stalking a girl I'd met online, parked outside her house at midnight, speaking to my dick?
”
”
M. Pierce (Night Owl (Night Owl, #1))
“
Another thing I was learning about Matt: this guarded, dark look in his eyes meant only one thing. I was about to get f**ked.
”
”
M. Pierce (Night Owl (Night Owl, #1))
“
Oh, the joys of well-mannered small talk with an ex, when last time you saw them you were puffy-eyed and snotty-nosed and your heart was breaking. It's like we're performing a respectful dance around the jagged edges of our break-up, for fear we might slip and pierce ourselves on one of the shards and bleed to death.
”
”
Alexandra Potter (Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up)
“
Capt. Wentworth's letter to Anne Elliot:
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F.W,
I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether i enter your father's house this evening or never.
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Jane Austen (Persuasion)
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The "experiment" performed on Betty Hill by the entities is also remarkable. It will be recalled that while she was in the craft, Betty was submitted to a simulated medical test. Under hypnosis, she reported that a long needle was inserted into her navel, that she felt pain, and that the pain stopped when the leader made a certain gesture with his hand in front of her eyes. A fifteenth-century French calendar, the Kalendrier des Bergiers, shows the tortures inflicted by demons on the people they have taken: the demons are depicted piercing their victims' abdomens with long needles.
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Jacques F. Vallée (Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact)
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Arthur W. Pink said it this way: “None will ever be drawn to Christ: savingly, by mere preaching; . . . there must first be the supernatural operations of the Spirit to open the sinner’s heart to receive the message!”5 As we proclaim the truth of Scripture, the Spirit of God uses it to pierce hearts among the unredeemed, convicting them of the truth and converting them from children of wrath into children of God (Heb. 4:12; 1 John 5:6).
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John F. MacArthur Jr. (Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship)
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When they first came for us with their bullets, we didn't stop moving even though the bullets moved twice as fast as the sound of our screams, and even when their heat and speed broke our skin, shattered our bones, skulls, pierced our hearts, we kept on, even when we saw the bullets send our bodies flailing through the air like flags, like the many flags and buildings that went up in place of everything we knew this land to be before. The bullets were premonitions, ghosts from dreams of a hard, fast, future. The bullets moved on after moving through us, became the promise of what was to come, the speed and the killing, the hard,f ast lines of borders and buildings. They took everything and ground it down to dust as fine as gunpowder, they fired their guns into the air in victory and the strays flew out into the nothingneww of histories written wrong and meant to be forgotten. Stray bullets and consequences are landing on our unsuspecting bodies even now.
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Tommy Orange (author)
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From this vantage point, Jacob noticed the distinctive emblem of the Resistance on a patch sewn onto the right shoulder of Rommond’s uniform. It showed a white equilateral triangle with two lines horizontally through it, all upon a royal blue field. What it meant was the subject of some discussion, but some thought it represented an uprising that pierced the ceiling of Hell and the floor of Heaven, as if to say they would resist not only the Devil, but God too.
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Dean F. Wilson (Hopebreaker (The Great Iron War, #1))
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The Buddha said that if we could train ourselves to be struck only by the first arrow, we could essentially render ourselves invincible to any mental or emotional pain.
That, with enough practiced focus, with enough antifragility, the passing sensation of an insult or an object piercing our skin, or gallons of gasoline aflame over our body, would possess the same fleeting feeling as a fly buzzing across our face.
That while pain is inevitable, suffering is always a choice.
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Mark Manson (Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope)
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When he realized that the agonizing sounds piercing his skull were his own screams, Joshua began laughing hysterically.
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M.F. Hopkins (A Good and Fair Trade (Angelo Texas, #2))
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You are a wonderful, complex, f*cked-up mess,” you once said to me. Sometimes when you passed these judgements I would flinch, as if the words were darts or sharp tools piercing my skin.
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Polly Hall (The Taxidermist's Lover)
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A sine wave is a rather simple sort of variation with time. It can be characterized, or described, or differentiated completely from any other sine wave by means of just three quantities. One of these is the maximum height above zero, called the amplitude. Another is the time at which the maximum is reached, which is specified as the phase. The third is the time T between maxima, called the period. Usually, we use instead of the period the reciprocal of the period called the frequency, denoted by the letter f. If the period T of a sine wave is 1/100 second, the frequency f is 100 cycles per second, abbreviated cps. A cycle is a complete variation from crest, through trough, and back to crest again. The sine wave is periodic in that one variation from crest through trough to crest again is just like any other.
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John R. Pierce (An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise (Dover Books on Mathematics))
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ATTITUDE TOWARD MONEY. [1 Tim. 6:6–10] But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
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F. LaGard Smith (The Daily Bible® - In Chronological Order (NIV®))
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The irony, of course, is that David’s softer side is not a trait of weakness, as one might assume, but is entirely consistent with his strong, dominant trait. To take taunting of any kind requires great strength of character. To be open to piercing rebuke requires courage and wisdom, indeed. How many of us can discern the difference between taunting and rebuke? And do we ever stop to consider the possibility that it might be God speaking to us through the abusive words and actions of our fellow man? Seeing God through the madness of mortals is, if not inborn, a strong personality trait to be cultivated.
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F. LaGard Smith (The Daily Bible Experience: 365 Life-Changing Readings to Make God's Word Personal)