Gaffney Quotes

I hate jealousy. At least it's its own punishment; it makes me feel like hell.

laughter is cathartic and cleansing, that it's good for the body and the soul, and when it's real it's better than sex.

You were the best thing in my life … I did love you. I do. As much as I’ve ever loved anyone, as much as I can. It feels like a lot – it takes up my whole heart.

I love the slow, warming sensation of my body going numb when I drink.

Little things. The thought of losing them makes them unbearably dear ... I only think of the sweetness. Simple things. The quarter moon, the taste of an orange. The smell of the pages of a new book.

All my life I've wanted to tell people I love them. Fear usually held me back, that they wouldn't care, or they wouldn't hear, or they would take too much from me once they knew.

Never throw love away, never neglect it. Never assume you'll find better love somewhere else. Take it wherever you're lucky enough to find it, and always try to return it in kind. Don't take so much for granted.

Bad news doesn't hurt as much, if you hear it in good company. It's like, if somebody pushes you out of a 5th floor window and you bounce off an awning, a car roof, and a pile of plastic garbage bags before you smash onto the pavement, you've got a pretty good chance of surviving.

I was small enough to mind that Rudy had a good friend other than me.

Imagine me maintaining anybody's equilibrium.

I was thinking in a Scottish brogue, because I'd just heard this guy interviewed on NPR, Lonnie McSomething.

History is the story of people’s lives. History reflects the consequences of their choice and actions – both good and bad. History is what has given you the world you live in today – both good and bad.

The essence of learning to be grateful is to learn to want what you have.

Misery alternates with euphoria.

Fear kills. Protecting yourself backfires eventually. And living in fear of pain isn't really living at all.

Topics... are what people talk about when they don't know each other well. Topics... are what men talk about.

And Honey, I just want you to know, even though I didn't see it coming, it makes absolutely no difference to your father or to me that you are a thespian.

I just tried to put myself in her place and figure out what would be the scariest thing. If I thought I might be dying. And it was being alone' ... 'To me,' she said, 'the scariest thing is oblivion. Being, and then not being.

The only cure for loneliness be givin’. When you be givin’ you ain’t got time to think ‘bout what you don’t got. But you got to give with your heart. You got to give from your heart. That’s the only sure way to beat back that old demon o’ loneliness.

Seems that folks who try to hide it the most end up judging the most. Guess they figure if they judge other people’s garbage it makes their own not quite so dirty.

she needed the quiet solitude found when the rest of the world was still asleep.

He even got an old moral lesson hammered home anew: the poor go to gaol for the same crimes with which the rich aren’t even charged.

He resorted to tyranny—the favored fallback of English aristocrats when democracy wasn’t going their way.

Skepticism is luxury.

An informed customer is a satisfied one.

What was it about a woman—a certain kind of woman—standing at the mercy of men—righteous, civic-minded men, with the moral force of public outrage on their side—that could sometimes be secretly, shamefacedly titillating?

Isabel never despaired, even though I think she knew everything that was going to happen, right from the beginning. There was a Walt Whitman poem she liked, especially the part that went - 'All goes onward and outward,/Nothing collapses/And to die is different from/What anyone supposes/And Luckier.' She tried to believe that, and it gave her some comfort, I know. She was very brave. Always. She hid her anguish and sadness, although I know she felt them. Because she wasn't losing only one person she loved - as we have. She was losing all of them.

What the hell is this stuff?" he muttered, frowning at the oily spot on the linen cloth. "Pearlman slathered it on me this morning." "It's macassar oil. Gentlemen use it to keep their hair neat. Nicholas used it," she added pointedly. "Well, tomorrow he's giving it up. I smell like a rotten apple." "You do not. And I think it looks rather nice." He sent her an incredulous look. "I look like an otter. And everything I put my head against gets greasy." "That's why someone invented the antimacassar," she told him, almost smiling. "The-aha!" He laughed as he made the connection. "Of course. First they invent something stupid, then something ugly to make up for it. We live in a wondrous age, Annie.

Mather Grouses can’t have no friends. Can’t fight, can’t talk, can’t fuck. Not really.” No, Randall thought, but not because we don’t want to. It’s because our minds keep drifting from the fighting and the fucking, always back to the me—what about me, is this a me I can live with, that I can suffer people to see, that I can suffer myself to see. His grandfather had felt all of this, surely. All Mather Grouses felt it; the same perverse self-consciousness that had driven Randall into the old hospital that day. Concern for Wild Bill Gaffney had come later, after everyone had told him why he had done it and he had believed them. He had been fearless, selfless, they said, never suspecting that what had pushed him forward through the falling debris was in fact fear. Fear that someone would witness him standing there and know he had done nothing.

Ultimately, in the very grand scheme of things, it’s irrelevant whether my life lasts fifty more years, or five. Or two. The point is to live it, not wait through it. And I’m alive now—I can pick flowers, pet the dog, eat cinnamon toast. How foolish I would be to let my mortality, which has been there all along, since the second of my birth, spoil my love of these things. So I won’t. I’ll have to remind myself constantly, but starting now, I intend to live until I die.

So quiet. So safe. I peer out into the distance, past the garden where the twins were playing, past the Gaffneys’ farmland and estate, past the sprawling wilderness, to the mountains beyond—mountains that loom in the distance and cast dark shadows over everything as the sun sets behind them. And the forest—the wild forest. I squint into the distance and make out the curious shapes of several large white birds flying in from the wilds. They’re different from any birds I’ve ever seen before, with huge, fanning wings, so light they seem iridescent. As I watch them, I’m overcome by a strange sense of foreboding, as if the earth is shifting beneath my feet. I forget, for a moment, about the basket of pig slop I’m balancing on my hip, and some large vegetable remnants fall to the ground with a dull thud. I glance down and stoop to gather them back into the basket. When I straighten again and look for the strange white birds, they’re gone.

There are many times you are going to find it difficult to believe in yourself. When you run into those times, try and believe in those who believe in you.

It is impossible to go backward and undo the past. All you can do is live with the present and try to make the best of the future.

North. He believes they saw him as

When you can find no reason to celebrate, you find one anyway. Every soul needs laughter and fun, no matter how awful the reality of the present.

Never again will I allow myself to be so caught up in the events of my world and my activities that I lose contact with my own heart and mind. All my achievements mean nothing if I lose myself in the process.

Why, that be one man who ain’t got nothin’ but hate poisonin’ his blood. But there ain’t been no one born that be that way from the start. No, somethin’ done put that poison in him. We prob’ly won’t never know what put it there, but it been put there sho ‘nuff. You gots to pity a man like that. Now, I be hatin’ the things he be doin’ as much as anybody else, but it won’t be doin’ my heart no good to be hatin’ him. That won’t do nothin’ but put poison in my own blood. No, I reckon I’ll keep on pitying that poor empty shell of a man.

over

medical

People believe easily when it doesn’t cause them any discomfort. It’s when it hurts to believe that believing means something.

too often the majority makes far less noise than a determined minority.

People don’t like to be pushed into a corner. When they are, they lose sight of what they are fighting about. They simply fight to get out of the corner. At that point, reason loses all power to affect change. It becomes as futile an effort as trying to push back the tide.

Yes, but those people simply don’t understand the will of God in all this. The scriptures are quite clear about the basis for slavery. I know some would have us go against God’s will, but they are simply ignorant.

In traditional societies, we could explain away setbacks and failures as God’s will, or fate, or bad luck. Now, there is no hiding place for failure. There is an assumption that if we

she had realized she could waste energy with anger and frustration, or simply accept what was and do the best she could to make a difference. If

I guess I needed that.” “No one can stay strong all the time in the midst of such madness,” Carrie assured her. “I’ve wondered how you managed to for so long.

Why, that be one man who ain’t got nothin’ but hate poisonin’ his blood. But there ain’t been no one born that be that way from the start. No, somethin’ done put that poison in him. We prob’ly won’t never know what put it there, but it been put there sho‘nuff. You gots to pity a man like that. Now, I be hatin’ the things he be doin’ as much as anybody else, but it won’t be doin’ my heart no good to be hatin’ him. That won’t do nothin’ but put poison in my own blood. No, I reckon I’ll keep on pitying that poor empty shell of a man.

can trust God so easily with one thing, but five minutes later something else has me anxious and worried. I’ve learned I have to ask myself in every situation if I believe God loves me. If the answer is yes, then I have to choose to trust him. It’s a daily decision.

You remember one thing, Peter. Ain’t many of us able to go out and change the whole world, but ever’one of us can help change the people God brings our way.

Can’t run from hurt, Rose. You might miss some hurt, but you’ll also miss all the joys of livin’.

For now, that means your life gonna be here on Cromwell Plantation. That leaves you only one thin’ to do. You gots to live as hard as you can where you be. You gots to look deep inside and find out all the thin’s you got to give the world. Then you got to give it. You can’t spend all your days lookin’ backward, and you can’t spend all your days lookin’ forward. It’s today that counts, Rose. Yous got to bloom where you be planted. God’s got you planted here for now.

you.” Sarah moved back to her chair and sank down. “I had a dream a few nights ago. In that dream, I was free. Free! Walking the streets of heaven hand in hand with my Jesus. There weren’t no slave or free there. Everyone be equal.” She paused. “Jesus told

herself. Moses laughed along with them. “You would be amazed the things men will say when they’re standing around on the street corner. Since my trash route runs through the heart of the business district, I hear a great many

stops every now and again to check on ya.

Matthew nodded. “Aunt Abby is one in a million. I agree with her. I think every individual should feel they alone are responsible for their thoughts and actions.

I’ve been so busy,” Carrie protested. “I barely have time to do the things I have to do.” “Nonsense.” Sarah leaned forward and fixed Carrie with her eyes. “You listen to me good, girl. You done got the healin’ gift, and you got it good. It ain’t nothin’ you done. It be a gift from God. But you better not let that gift go to waste. You got to stretch it. You got to work it. Dreams are like that, too. You got to stretch ‘em. You got to work ‘em. Most of the people in this world have dreams, but they too lazy to make ‘em come true. They want it to be easy. Big dreams don’t come easy, you hear me?” Carrie nodded, listening with all her heart. She

She told me one time that it wasn’t the material things in life that mattered. She wouldn’t be able to take them with her anyway. She said the only thing that counted was how much love you left behind.” She smiled. “Your mama left behind an awful lot of love.

I’m afraid it’s a condition of the human heart, this desire to believe we are better than other people around us. It took God quite a while to teach me I was absolutely no different from my black brothers and sisters. God sees us all the same. Given the same chances, some of us will succeed, and others won’t. Given the same chances, some will give their all to follow their dreams, while others will fall by the wayside. I pray every day that God will cleanse the darkness from my heart.

Thomas Jefferson said the relationship between a free society and education were inseparable. He

Girl, the only thing you can depend on is change. Things always gonna be changin’. But changing ain’t neither good nor bad. It’s what you do with it. You can fight it and let it get the best of you. You can feel sorry for yourself ‘cause thin’s ain’t stayin’ just like they was. Or you can look for the good in what’s new. You can search for ways to make thin’s better. It’s all how you look at it, and what you figur’ to do with it.

God gave me gifts so that I could use them to help his people. I

Everything you have told me is nothing but fear that the life they have built for themselves and always known will disappear if other people are given the same opportunities as themselves.

Aren’t I ever going to do anything but ask questions, God? Will I ever get answers?” Slowly, words her mama had said many times floated gently into her mind. Askin’ questions keeps you comin’ to God, Rose girl. You can rest sure he done got all the answers. You can also rest sure he ain’t gonna tell you till you need to know. He don’t mind the askin’ though. As long as we’re askin’ that means there be somethin’ in us that still believes he gonna tell us one day. And he will, Rose girl. When the time be right, he gonna answer all dem questions…If we done knew all the answers, there wouldn’t be no need to trust God. Wouldn’t be no need to get to know him. And that, Rose girl would be the tragedy. Knowin’ all the answers without knowing God... Why, knowin’ ‘em that way wouldn’t mean nothin’!

We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but people before us have done it, and so can we. Nothing in this life is guaranteed. You make the best choices you can and try your hardest.” He paused. “I reckon we can trust God to take care of the rest.

Trustin’ done take a lifetime, Rose girl. Every time, it seems like you got to learn it again. But it gets to be some easier. You finally figure out that God does really love you. Then the trustin’ get easier. God done already know how you feel. Let him take you through the hard times. He’ll teach you to trust...

fighting one fear after another.

Life will always flow on, it had whispered gently. You might try to stop it, but no one can alter the flow of life. You can only learn how to move with it gracefully, tumbling through the rough times, restoring yourself during the smooth times, and knowing that wherever it takes you, a mightier hand than yours is guiding you, always directing your path. Moses

People are easily deceived—their good and kindly hearts believe it all implicitly, without ever remembering the rule about hearing both sides before we form an opinion.

That is the Bregdan Principle… Every life that has been lived until today is a part of the woven braid of life. It takes every person’s story to create history. Your life will help determine the course of history. You may think you don’t have much of an impact. You do. Every action you take will reflect in someone else’s life. Someone else’s decisions. Someone else’s future. Both good and bad.

But you remember this, boy. Ain’t nothin’ better than bein’ a leader. Ain’t nothin’ better than knowin’ somethin’ you done has made life better for folks.

Within our uniqueness, we are all made in the image of God. There's a popular saying many Christians claim: "In the essentials unity, in the non-essentials liberty, and in all things love." It's not intended as an excuse to avoid critical self-examination or lively conversation. It does remind us that thoughtful Christians are free to have opinions that are radically different than ours. Our challenge is to loves through those differences, honoring each other in those differences as we each seek to follow a common God.

We have always found a rationale to fight. From the Declaration of Independence to the attack on the Twin Towers, we believe we are right and our foe should be vanquished. Over that time we have gone from claims of war as a last resort to war as a first response, and we even consider preemptive strikes. Our growth as a nation has been tied to our willingness to go into the frontier, confront and conquer the savages, and spread civilization as we know it. We have gone from a group of colonies fighting oppression to a superpower attempting to police the world.

One noticeable effect of studying data is the loss of a sense of humanity. Each statistic involves many people--people who die from gun violence...We are so much more than numbers. We all are individuals with names, faces, and personalities. We love and are beloved. We have families and friends. Each and every violent gun death is a trauma that numbers do not begin to touch.

Every life that has been lived until today is a part of the woven braid of life. It takes every person’s story to create history. Your life will help determine the course of history. You may think you don’t have much of an impact. You do. Every action you take will reflect in someone else’s life. Someone else’s decisions. Someone else’s future. Both good and bad.

You gots to live as hard as you can where you be. You gots to look deep inside and find out all the thin’s you got to give the world. Then you got to give it. You can’t spend all your days lookin’ backward, and you can’t spend all your days lookin’ forward. It’s today that counts, Rose. Yous got to bloom where you be planted. God’s got you planted here for now.

I’m realizing human nature is a very difficult thing to escape. We can be self-righteous, or realize much of what we hate in others is what we have inside ourselves.

The federal government will have become their enemy...” Thomas echoed in a disbelieving voice. “I fear there is no turning back from the

You can’t do people’s thinkin’ and feelin’ for dem, Rose. Some folks you ain’t neber gonna figure out—you just got to accept them where they be. Dere ain’t no way to get inside a person’s head and figure out what makes them be the way they be. You just got to accept them.

Dark

the twenty-five hundred acres that comprised Cromwell Plantation. She loved the land passionately. Carrie knew all its moods—all of its secrets and hidden places.

Rather than promising genuine belonging through a collective cause or consciousness, totalitarian politics represents the most refined form of the peculiar loneliness of the current age, pressing individuals into an indistinguishable mass whose sole purpose is to accelerate the necessary movements of nature and history. Her analysis thus issues an urgent call, not to dismiss these movements as aberrations but to confront the breeding ground that loneliness creates for them to enter the mainstream.

Arendt’s analysis offers an important critical perspective on this heightened togetherness, clarifying that in order for totalitarianism to have such wide and undifferentiated appeal, the masses must have already been atomized and isolated to the point of loneliness. Rather than promising genuine belonging through a collective cause or consciousness, totalitarian politics represents the most refined form of the peculiar loneliness of the current age, pressing individuals into an indistinguishable mass whose sole purpose is to accelerate the necessary movements of nature and history. Her analysis thus issues an urgent call, not to dismiss these movements as aberrations but to confront the breeding ground that loneliness creates for them to enter the mainstream.

whatever she was up to, the whole thing made him

thickets

When people fight something with hate and anger, they close the doors to actual change because they close the doors of the person’s heart

People don’t like to be pushed into a corner. When they are, they lose sight of what they are fighting about. They simply fight to get out of the corner.

there is nothing wrong with fear.” “Not as long as you don’t let it stop you,

My mama used to tell me something,” she said softly. “She used to tell me that some people stagger under the burden of failure because they were never supposed to be doing what they were doing anyway. She said some people try to do things God never gifted them for in the first place. Then they feel like miserable failures because they don’t succeed.” Rose gazed deeply into Teresa’s eyes. “My mama didn’t believe anyone was a failure. She figured those folks need to find out what they’re supposed to be doing. Once they find that out, they’ll have all the abilities and gifts they need to perform it.” She paused again. “Teresa, you’re a very special person. If you decide not to come back, don’t feel badly. It only means there is something else you’re supposed to be doing.

and

also

but

that thin’ that scares you so much. The doin’ will wring most of the fear right out

dark to continue spreading his message.

– 1864

Live and let live is Frances’s motto. “Life is short,” she likes to say. “You only get one, and if you waste it worrying about what other people think,

I know you don't want me. I wouldn't want me either. After everything I've done, nobody wants me. But it's all right. We'll get along, you'll see. I'll keep you safe, and maybe one day, your world will change for the better.

Anastasia closed her mouth and for a few moments, she seemed to be struggling with intense emotions. Then, in one swift movement, she drove the blade into the boulder with the ease of slicing through soft butter. "You'll sit right there," she ordered, looking at her with repressed fury, "and you'll listen to everything I have to say.

People believe what they want to believe. They also believe what people in leadership tell them.

You can measure a man’s freedom by the secrets he does not have to keep. You gauge a man’s courage by the ones he refuses to keep. And you know a man’s weakness by the secrets he keeps that he does not have to.

What you like least about yourself, you must learn to love the most.