β
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))
β
It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and Iβ
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
β
β
Robert Frost
β
Is it fair to have given us the memory of what was and the desire of what could be when we must suffer what is?
β
β
Neil Jordan (The Dream of a Beast)
β
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
β
β
Groucho Marx
β
Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
Who says life is fair, where is that written?
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
It's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair.
β
β
Taylor Swift
β
It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.
β
β
Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
β
When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
β
β
Eleanor Roosevelt
β
I don't like this."
"To be fair, Matthias, you don't like much.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
β
Life, I've learned, is never fair. If they teach anything in schools, that should be it.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks
β
Fate is never fair. You are caught in a current much stronger than you are; struggle against it and you'll drown not just yourself but those who try to save you. Swim with it. and you'll survive
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Even I make mistakes." I put on my brash, overconfident face. "I know it's hard to believeβkind of surprises me myselfβbut I guess it has to happen. It's probably some kind of karmic way to balance out the universe. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to have one person so full of awesomeness.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, #3))
β
I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.
β
β
Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild)
β
Oh, come on!β Percy complained. βI get a little nosebleed and I wake up the entire earth? Thatβs not fair!
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5))
β
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
β
β
Oscar Wilde
β
Relax, having kids is years away. But can you imagine? Your brains, my charm, our collective good looks... then add in the usual physical abilities dhampirs get.
It's really not even fair to everyone else.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines, #4))
β
Fair speech may hide a foul heart.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2))
β
There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,β Chiron said. βAnd perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?
β
β
Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles)
β
The universe may not always play fair, but at least it's got a hell of a sense of humor.
β
β
Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City)
β
Fair means everyone gets what they need. And the only way to get what you need is to make it happen yourself.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, #1))
β
First, let no one rule your mind or body. Take special care that your thoughts remain unfettered... . Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don't follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not. Consider none your superior whatever their rank or station in life. Treat all fairly, or they will seek revenge. Be careful with your money. Hold fast to your beliefs and others will listen.
β
β
Christopher Paolini (Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle, #1))
β
Asleep by the Smiths
Vapour Trail by Ride
Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel
A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum
Dear Prudence by the Beatles
Gypsy by Suzanne Vega
Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues
Daydream by Smashing Pumpkins
Dusk by Genesis (before Phil Collins was even in the band!)
MLK by U2
Blackbird by the Beatles
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
Asleep by the Smiths (again!)
-Charlie's mixtape
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
Belief isn't simply a thing for fair times and bright days...What is belief - what is faith - if you don't continue in it after failure?...Anyone can believe in someone, or something that always succeeds...But failure...ah, now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value. Sometimes we just have to wait long enough...then we find out why exactly it was that we kept believing...There's always another secret.
β
β
Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1))
β
I think it's fair rude to make him a tree and not know what kind he is.
β
β
Tamora Pierce (Wolf-Speaker (Immortals, #2))
β
Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
β
β
Gloria Steinem
β
Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities.
Right and wrong, however, are forβwell, not unhappy people, maybe, but scarred people; scared people.
β
β
Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life)
β
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
β
β
Oscar Wilde
β
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β
[In the Universe it may be that] Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth.
β
β
Stephen Hawking
β
There are lots of ways of being miserable, but thereβs only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy thereβs no reason why you shouldnβt have a fairly good time.
β
β
Edith Wharton (Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction)
β
An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.
β
β
E.A. Bucchianeri (Brushstrokes of a Gadfly (Gadfly Saga, #1))
β
The world isn't fair, Calvin."
"I know Dad, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?
β
β
Bill Watterson (The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury)
β
Fairness," he said, 'does not govern life and death. If it did, no good person would ever die young.
β
β
Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
β
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And too often is his gold complexion dimm'd:
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or natures changing course untrimm'd;
By thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Shakespeare's Sonnets)
β
I've noticed the Fair Folk often say 'perhaps' when there is a truth they want to hide," Clary said. "It keeps you from having to give a straight answer."
"Perhaps so," said the Queen with an amused smile.
"'Mayhap' is a good word too," Alec suggested.
"Also 'perchance,'" Izzy said.
"I see nothing wrong with 'maybe'," said Simon. "A little modern, but the gist of the idea comes across.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
She moaned into her pillow. "Go away. I feel like dying."
"No fair maiden should die alone," he said, putting a hand on hers. "Shall I read to you in your final moments? What story would you like?"
She snatched her hand back. "How about the story of the idiotic prince who won't leave the assassin alone?"
"Oh! I love that story! It has such a happy ending, tooβwhy, the assassin was really feigning her illness in order to get the prince's attention! Who would have guessed it? Such a clever girl. And the bedroom scene is so lovelyβit's worth reading through all of their ceaseless banter!
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1))
β
Itβs probably my job to tell you life isnβt fair, but I figure you already know that. So instead, Iβll tell you that hope is precious, and youβre right not to give up.
β
β
C.J. Redwine (Defiance (Defiance, #1))
β
And all at once I knew how Margo Roth Spiegelman felt when she wasn't being Margo Roth Spiegelman: she felt empty. She felt the unscaleable wall surrounding her. I thought of her asleep on the carpet with only that jagged sliver of sky above her. Maybe Margo felt comfortable there because Margo the person lived like that all the time: in an abandoned room with blocked-out windows, the only light pouring in through holes in the roof. Yes. The fundamental mistake I had always madeβand that she had, in fairness, always led me to makeβwas this: Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.
β
β
John Green (Paper Towns)
β
There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet,
And those I kiss but who trample me beneath ungrateful feet.
At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair,
But I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.
By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet,
But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat.
For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,
When I kill, I do it slow...
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1))
β
What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?
β
β
George Orwell (1984)
β
Art is the reason I get up in the morning, but the definition ends there. It doesn't seem fair that I'm living for something I can't even define.
β
β
Ani DiFranco
β
Neither love nor evil conquers all, but evil cheats more.
β
β
Laurell K. Hamilton (Cerulean Sins (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #11))
β
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
β
β
Lao Tzu
β
Do you want a cookie?
- What?
- A cookie. Like an Oreo. Do you want one?
- No.
- How can you not want a cookie?
- I just don't.
- Okay, fine,let's say you did want a cookie. Let's say you were dying for a cookie, and there were cookies in the cupboard. What would you do?
- I'd eat a cookie?
- Exactly. That's all I'm saying.
- What are you saying?
- That if people want cookies, they should get a cookie. It's what people do.
- Let me guess. Dad won't let you have a
cookie?
- No. Even though I'm practically starving to death, he won't even consider it. He says I have to have a sandwich first.
- And you don't think that's fair.
- You just said you'd get a cookie if you wanted one. So why can't I? I'm not a little kid. I can make my own decisions.
- Hmm. I can see why this bothers you so
much.
- It's not fair. If he wants a cookie, he can have one. If you want a cookie,
you can have one. But if I want a cookie, the rules don't count. Like you
said, it's not fair.
- So what are you going to do?
- I'm going to eat a sandwich. Because I have to. Because the world isn't fair
to ten-year-olds.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Last Song)
β
The bridge will only take you halfway there, to those mysterious lands you long to see. Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fair, and moonlit woods where unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and share the twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known. But this bridge will only take you halfway there. The last few steps you have to take alone.
β
β
Shel Silverstein
β
Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if possible, sincerely.
β
β
Haruki Murakami (Dance Dance Dance)
β
Some things are fairly obvious when it's a seven-foot skeleton with a scythe telling you them
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Hogfather (Discworld, #20; Death, #4))
β
Nothing in life is fair. Fair is a dirty word and I'll thank you not to use that language around me.
β
β
Jeff Lindsay (Dexter in the Dark (Dexter, #3))
β
We don't need to be good. But let's try to be fair.
β
β
Holly Black (The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1))
β
Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through fog and filthy air.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Macbeth)
β
I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!
β
β
S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)
β
Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one's ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone - the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there's no fairness on earth.
β
β
Svetlana Alexievich (Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster)
β
Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.
β
β
Denis Waitley
β
Aurelia frowned. "Are you saying that you hang around the women at court to gather intel?" "Oh, Your Grace, you are quick on the uptake," he said with an impressed look on his face. "It's not fair. Flaminius always gets the hot ones. Does he have to get the smart ones too?
β
β
Therisa Peimer (Taming Flame)
β
That was the funniest thing I'd heard in days.
You're kidding, right? PLEASE tell me you have a stronger motive for me than 'fair is fair.' Life isn't FAIR, Dean....Nothing is fair, EVER. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I need to help you because FAIR IS FAIR? Try, 'I need you to help me so I won't rip out your spine and beat you with it.' I MIGHT respond to that. MAYBE.
β
β
James Patterson (School's OutβForever (Maximum Ride, #2))
β
there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life... you steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a ather. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness... there is no act more wretched than stealing.
β
β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
In most cases, the best strategy for a job interview is to be fairly honest, because the worst thing that can happen is that you won't get the job and will spend the rest of your life foraging for food in the wilderness and seeking shelter underneath a tree or the awning of a bowling alley that has gone out of business.
β
β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that centre on the sanctity of life. As a species we've fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don't believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain and life-long poverty shows us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we've made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred.
β
β
Caitlin Moran (How to Be a Woman)
β
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.
β
β
Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)
β
Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.
β
β
Joss Whedon
β
let it go -- the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise -- let it go it
was sworn to
go
let them go -- the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers -- you must let them go they
were born
to go
let all go -- the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things -- let all go
dear
so comes love
β
β
E.E. Cummings
β
I always felt like I was meant to have been born in another era, another time.
β
β
Johnny Depp
β
And that's when she put her book down. And looked at me. And said it: "Life isn't fair, Bill. we tell our children that it is, but it's a terrible thing to do. It's not only a lie, it's a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be.
β
β
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
β
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell;
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
β
I nearly dropped the plate I held. "You've asked me out tons of times."
"Not really. I've made inapproprite suggestions and frequently pushed for nudity. But I've never asked you out on a real date. And, if memory serves, you did say you'd give me a fair chance once I let you clean out my trust fund."
"I didn't clean it out," I scoffed.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Blood Promise (Vampire Academy, #4))
β
Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical sufferingβthis is an all-weather beatitude for gloom in general and fairly salutary day-time advice for everyone. But at three oβclock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesnβt workβand in a real dark night of the soul it is always three oβclock in the morning, day after day.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Crack-Up)
β
Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf?
β
β
R.L. LaFevers (Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1))
β
I've had it with being nice, understanding, fair and hopeful. I feel like being negative all day. The chip on my shoulder could sink the QE2. I've got an attitude problem and nobody better get in my way...I'm in a bad mood and the whole stupid little world is gonna pay!
β
β
John Waters (Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters)
β
When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end. But however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. (In the library, the Doctor walks back to the TARDIS. He stops, looking at the doors. Then he raises his hand, and stands there poised like that for a long moment. Finally he snaps his fingers. The doors open. He smiles slowly and walks in, joining Donna. Then he snaps his fingers again, and the doors close. River's voice continues over this.) Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call... everybody lives.
β
β
Steven Moffat
β
I'd thought once, actually, of taking your mind, if you asked. I'd thought I could help you fall asleep at night."
He opened his mouth to say something. Shut it again. His face closed for a moment, his unreadable mask falling into place. He spoke softly. "But that wouldn't be fair; for after I slept you'd be left awake, with no one to help you sleep.
β
β
Kristin Cashore (Fire (Graceling Realm, #2))
β
I need a weapon,β Valkyrie muttered.
βYouβre an Elemental with a Necromancer ring, trained in
a variety of martial arts by some of the best ο¬ghters in the world,β Skulduggery pointed out. βIβm fairly certain that makes you a weapon.β
βI mean a weapon you hold. You have a gun, Tanith has a sword... I want a stick.β
βIβll buy you a stick for Christmas.
β
β
Derek Landy (Mortal Coil (Skulduggery Pleasant, #5))
β
Revenge may be wicked, but itβs natural.
β
β
William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair)
β
You deserve better. I canβt promise you Iβll stay around, not because I donβt want to. Itβs hard to explain. Iβm a fuckup. Iβm broken, and no one can fix it. Iβve tried. Iβm still trying. I canβt love anyone because itβs not fair to anyone who loves me back. Iβll never hurt you, not like I want to hurt Roamer. But I canβt promise I wonβt pick you apart, piece by piece, until youβre in a thousand pieces, just like me. You should know what youβre getting into before getting involved.
β
β
Jennifer Niven (All the Bright Places)
β
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
β
To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries
β
β
Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion)
β
Every moment of the night
Forever changing places
And they put out the star-light
With the breath from their pale faces
β
β
Edgar Allan Poe
β
These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
β
β
Robert Fulghum (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)
β
He Is Not Dead
I cannot say, and I will not say
That he is dead. He is just away.
With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand,
He has wandered into an unknown land
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since he lingers there.
And youβoh you, who the wildest yearn
For an old-time step, and the glad return,
Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of There as the love of Here.
Think of him still as the same. I say,
He is not deadβhe is just away.
β
β
James Whitcomb Riley
β
and when love came to us twice
and lied to us twice
we decided to never love again
that was fair
fair to us
and fair to love itself.
we ask for no mercy or no
miracles;
we are strong enough to live
and to die and to
kill flies,
attend the boxing matches, go to the racetrack,
live on luck and skill,
get alone, get alone often,
and if you can't sleep alone
be careful of the words you speak in your sleep;
and
ask for no mercy
no miracles;
and don't forget:
time is meant to be wasted,
love fails
and death is useless.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
β
There is such a place as fairyland - but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.
β
β
L.M. Montgomery (The Story Girl (The Story Girl, #1))
β
You're going to meet many people with domineering personalities: the loud, the obnoxious, those that noisily stake their claims in your territory and everywhere else they set foot on. This is the blueprint of a predator. Predators prey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness. Anything that is happy and at peace they mistake for weakness. It's not your job to change these people, but it's your job to show them that your peace and gentleness do not equate to weakness. I have always appeared to be fragile and delicate but the thing is, I am not fragile and I am not delicate. I am very gentle but I can show you that the gentle also possess a poison. I compare myself to silk. People mistake silk to be weak but a silk handkerchief can protect the wearer from a gunshot. There are many people who will want to befriend you if you fit the description of what they think is weak; predators want to have friends that they can dominate over because that makes them feel strong and important. The truth is that predators have no strength and no courage. It is you who are strong, and it is you who has courage. I have lost many a friend over the fact that when they attempt to rip me, they can't. They accuse me of being deceiving; I am not deceiving, I am just made of silk. It is they who are stupid and wrongly take gentleness and fairness for weakness. There are many more predators in this world, so I want you to be made of silk. You are silk.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
I believe there's a hand that guides us. It just isn't always a gentle one. Or one that seems fair at the time. But I dunno, I try to trust in it now. When I freak, I just try to... shit, I guess trust in it. Because at the end of the day, what else can you do? Choice only gets you so far. Reasoning and planning too. The rest... it's up to someone else. Where we end up, who we know, what happens to the people we love... we don't have a lot of control over any of it.
β
β
J.R. Ward (Lover Unbound (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #5))
β
There is a point in the history of society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining "punishment" and "being supposed to punish" hurts it, arouses fear in it. "Is it not enough to render him undangerous? Why still punish?
Punishing itself is terrible." With this question, herd morality, the morality of timidity, draws its ultimate consequence.
β
β
Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil)
β
It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh - I really think that requires spirit.
It's the kind of character that I am going to develop. I am going to pretend that all life is just a game which I must play as skillfully and fairly as I can. If I lose, I am going to shrug my shoulders and laugh - also if I win.
β
β
Jean Webster (Daddy Long Legs)
β
When looking for a life partner, my advice to women is date all of them: the bad boys, the cool boys, the commitment-phobic boys, the crazy boys. But do not marry them. The things that make the bad boys sexy do not make them good husbands. When it comes time to settle down, find someone who wants an equal partner. Someone who thinks women should be smart, opinionated and ambitious. Someone who values fairness and expects or, even better, wants to do his share in the home. These men exist and, trust me, over time, nothing is sexier.
β
β
Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead)
β
Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;
In my own way, and with my full consent.
Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely
Went to their deaths more proud than this one went.
Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping
I will confess; but that's permitted me;
Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping
Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.
If I had loved you less or played you slyly
I might have held you for a summer more,
But at the cost of words I value highly,
And no such summer as the one before.
Should I outlive this anguish, and men do,
I shall have only good to say of you.
β
β
Edna St. Vincent Millay
β
Eight full lives,β I whispered against his jaw, my voice breaking. βEight full lives and I never found anyone I would stay on a planet for, anyone I would follow when they left. I never found a partner. Why now? Why you? You're not of my species. How can you be my partner?β
βIt's a strange universe,β he murmured.
βIt's not fair,β I complained, echoing Sunny's words. It wasn't fair. How could I find this, find loveβnow, in this eleventh hourβand have to leave it? Was it fair that my soul and body couldn't reconcile? Was it fair that I had to love Melanie, too? Was it fair that Ian would suffer? He deserved happiness if anyone did. Itwasn't fair or right or evenβ¦sane. How could I do this to him?
βI love you,β I whispered.
βDon't say that like you're saying goodbye.β
But I had to. βI, the soul called Wanderer, love you, human Ian. And that will never change, no matter what I might become.β I worded it carefully, so that there would be no lie in my voice.
βIf I were a Dolphin or a Bear or a Flower, it wouldn't matter. I would always love you, always remember you. You will be my only partner.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
β
Teenage girls, please donβt worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What Iβve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, itβs so wonderfully fair.
β
β
Mindy Kaling (Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns))
β
Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing weβve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, Iβve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.
β
β
Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption)
β
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!
It is my lady. Oh, it is my love.
Oh, that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses. I will answer it.β
I am too bold. 'Tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp. Her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand
That I might touch that cheek!
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
When I am an old man and I can remember nothing else, I will remember this moment. The first time my eyes beheld an angel in the flesh. βI will remember your body and your eyes, your beautiful face and breasts, your curves and this.β He traced his hand around her navel before dragging it lightly to the top of her lower curls. βI will remember your scent and your touch and how it felt to love you. But most of all, I will remember how it felt to gaze at true beauty, both inside and out. For you are fair, my beloved, in soul and in body, generous of spirit and generous of heart. And I will never see anything this side of heaven more beautiful tham you
β
β
Sylvain Reynard (Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno, #1))
β
Yes,β I whisper. The red blinking light on one of the cameras catches my eye. I know Iβm being recorded. βYes,β I say more forcefully. Everyone is drawing away from meβGale, Cressida, the insectsβgiving me the stage. But I stay focused on the red light. βI want to tell the rebels that I am alive. That Iβm right here in District Eight, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of unarmed men, women, and children. There will be no survivors.β The shock Iβve been feeling begins to give way to fury. βI want to tell people that if you think for one second the Capitol will treat us fairly if thereβs a cease-fire, youβre deluding yourself. Because you know who they are and what they do.β My hands go out automatically, as if to indicate the whole horror around me. βThis is what they do! And we must fight back!β
Iβm moving in toward the camera now, carried forward by my rage. βPresident Snow says heβs sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that?β One of the cameras follows as I point to the planes burning on the roof of the warehouse across from us. The Capitol seal on a wing glows clearly through the flames. βFire is catching!β I am shouting now, determined that he will not miss a word. βAnd if we burn, you burn with us!
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
Rules for Living by Olivia Joules
1. Never panic. Stop, breathe, think.
2. No one is thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, just like you.
3. Never change haircut or color before an important event.
4. Nothing is either as bad or good as it seems.
5. Do as you would be done by, e.g. thou shalt not kill.
6. It is better to buy one expensive thing that you really like than several cheap ones that you only quite like.
7. Hardly anything matters: if you get upset, ask yourself, "Does it really matter?"
8. The key to success lies in how you pick yourself up from failure.
9. Be honest and kind.
10. Only buy clothes that make you feel like doing a small dance.
11. Trust your instincts, not your overactive imagination.
12. When overwhelmed by disaster, check if it's really a disaster by doing the following: (a) think, "Oh, fuck it," (b) look on the bright side, and if that doesn't work, look on the funny side. If neither of the above works then maybe it is a disaster so turn to items 1 and 4.
13. Don't expect the world to be safe or life to be fair.
β
β
Helen Fielding (Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination)
β
Brod's life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and that for whatever reason, she would never be happy and honest at the same time. She felt as if she were brimming, always producing and hoarding more love inside her. But there was no release...
So she had to satisfy herself with the idea of love--loving the loving of things whose existence she didn't care at all about. Love itself became the object of her love. She loved herself in love, she loved loving love, as love loves loving, and was able, in that way, to reconcile herself with a world that fell so short of what she would have hoped for. It was not the world that was the great and saving lie, but her willingness to make it beautiful and fair, to live a once-removed life, in a world once-removed from the one in which everyone else seemed to exist.
β
β
Jonathan Safran Foer
β
Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. βNo man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.β
βBut what if he is your friend?β Achilles had asked him, feet kicked up on the wall of the rose-quartz cave. βOr your brother? Should you treat him the same as a stranger?β
βYou ask a question that philosophers argue over,β Chiron had said. βHe is worth more to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone elseβs friend and brother. So which life is more important?β
We had been silent. We were fourteen, and these things were too hard for us. Now that we are twenty-seven, they still feel too hard.
He is half of my soul, as the poets say. He will be dead soon, and his honor is all that will remain. It is his child, his dearest self. Should I reproach him for it? I have saved Briseis. I cannot save them all.
I know, now, how I would answer Chiron. I would say: there is no answer. Whichever you choose, you are wrong.
β
β
Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles)
β
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
βTo every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods,
βAnd for the tender mother
Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses
His baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens
Who feed the eternal flame,
To save them from false Sextus
That wrought the deed of shame?
βHew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?
Then out spake Spurius Lartius;
A Ramnian proud was he:
βLo, I will stand at thy right hand,
And keep the bridge with thee.β
And out spake strong Herminius;
Of Titian blood was he:
βI will abide on thy left side,
And keep the bridge with thee.β
βHoratius,β quoth the Consul,
βAs thou sayest, so let it be.β
And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless Three.
For Romans in Romeβs quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.
Then none was for a party;
Then all were for the state;
Then the great man helped the poor,
And the poor man loved the great:
Then lands were fairly portioned;
Then spoils were fairly sold:
The Romans were like brothers
In the brave days of old.
Now Roman is to Roman
More hateful than a foe,
And the Tribunes beard the high,
And the Fathers grind the low.
As we wax hot in faction,
In battle we wax cold:
Wherefore men fight not as they fought
In the brave days of old.
β
β
Thomas Babington Macaulay (Horatius)
β
A Woman's Question
Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman's heart, and a woman's life---
And a woman's wonderful love.
Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With a reckless dash of boy.
You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman's soul
Until I shall question thee.
You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God's stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.
You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts---
I look for a man and a king.
A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that his Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say: "It is very good."
I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,
As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.
I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.
If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
Are not to be won that way.
β
β
Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye)