β
If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
β
β
Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)
β
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
β
β
Mark Twain
β
I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3))
β
I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
Sleep is good, he said, and books are better.
β
β
George R.R. Martin
β
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway
β
I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.
β
β
Charles J. Sykes (Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write or Add)
β
A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.
β
β
C.S. Lewis
β
Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
β
β
Vincent van Gogh
β
The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.
β
β
C.S. Lewis
β
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.
β
β
Leo Tolstoy (The Kreutzer Sonata)
β
In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.
β
β
Mark Twain
β
A good friend will always stab you in the front.
β
β
Oscar Wilde
β
When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'.
β
β
Groucho Marx
β
Whatever you are, be a good one.
β
β
Abraham Lincoln
β
Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse.
β
β
Thomas Szasz
β
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.
β
β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
Books. Cats. Life is Good.
β
β
Edward Gorey
β
This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
β
There are no good girls gone wrong - just bad girls found out.
β
β
Mae West
β
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet (Penny Books))
β
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
β
β
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
β
It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.
β
β
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
β
Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
β
β
Winston S. Churchill
β
The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.
β
β
Abigail Van Buren
β
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
β
β
Maya Angelou
β
People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.
β
β
Lemony Snicket (The Grim Grotto (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #11))
β
Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.
β
β
Stephen King
β
The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
β
β
Kent M. Keith (The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council)
β
May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
β
β
Neil Gaiman
β
Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.
β
β
Christopher Paolini (Eragon (Inheritance, #1))
β
What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
β
β
Mortimer J. Adler
β
She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).
β
β
Lewis Carroll (Aliceβs Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass)
β
There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.
β
β
Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
β
Life becomes easier and more beautiful when we can see the good in other people.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett
β
This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
β
People aren't born good or bad. Maybe they're born with tendencies either way, but its the way you live your life that matters.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Investigation?" Isabelle laughed. "Now we're detectives? Maybe we should all have code names."
"Good idea," said Jace. "I shall be Baron Hotschaft Von Hugenstein.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so muchβthe wheel, New York, wars and so onβwhilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than manβfor precisely the same reasons.
β
β
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikerβs Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1))
β
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where β"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.
β
β
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
β
Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.
β
β
William Faulkner
β
You smell good, too,β said Patch
Itβs called a shower.β I was staring straight ahead. When he didnβt answer, I turned sideways. βSoap. Shampoo. Hot water.β
Naked. I know the drill.
β
β
Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, #1))
β
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.
β
β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.
β
β
J.K. Rowling
β
Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit (The Lord of the Rings, #0))
β
And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.
β
β
John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
β
Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.
Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.
Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.
Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3))
β
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
β
β
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship)
β
Don't take life too seriously. Punch it in the face when it needs a good hit. Laugh at it.
β
β
Colleen Hoover (Slammed (Slammed, #1))
β
Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.
β
β
Neil Gaiman
β
If you have two friends in your lifetime, you're lucky. If you have one good friend, you're more than lucky.
β
β
S.E. Hinton
β
People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.
β
β
Gregory Maguire (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1))
β
Usually I'm remarkably good natured. Try me on a day that doesn't end in y.
β
β
Cassandra Clare
β
I, myself, am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.
β
β
Augusten Burroughs
β
Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.
β
β
C.S. Lewis
β
But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.
β
β
Aldous Huxley (Brave New World)
β
Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that youβve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you canβt wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid itβs like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didnβt exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long dayβs work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, thereβs no need for continuous conversation, but you find youβre quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that thereβs a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure thatβs so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in your life?' rather He will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?
β
β
Mother Teresa
β
It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
β
β
Arthur Conan Doyle
β
There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between.
β
β
Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls)
β
Both Rowling and Meyer, theyβre speaking directly to young people. β¦ The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer canβt write worth a darn. Sheβs not very good.
β
β
Stephen King
β
How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em.
β
β
Shel Silverstein
β
That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (Women)
β
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
β
β
Lao Tzu
β
Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again."
"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?"
"Yes. I want to ruin you."
"Good," I said. "That's what I want too.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (Women)
β
let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences
β
β
Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)
β
I like good strong words that mean somethingβ¦
β
β
Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)
β
The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.
β
β
William Wordsworth (Lyrical Ballads)
β
A good book is an event in my life.
β
β
Stendhal (The Red and the Black)
β
There are good days and hard days for meβeven now. Donβt let the hard days win.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2))
β
Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
β
β
Dr. Seuss
β
Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memory you can take out and unfold in your darkest times, pressing down on the corners and peering in close, hoping you still recognize the person you see there.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
β
β
Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's Fan)
β
because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff. Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-canβt-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what theyβre saying is βyou like stuff.β Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, βyou are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousnessβ.
β
β
John Green
β
I had already found that it was not good to be alone, and so made companionship with what there was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all else.
β
β
Joshua Slocum (Sailing Alone around the World)
β
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge youβll never walk alone.
...
We leave you a tradition with a future.
The tender loving care of human beings will never become obsolete.
People even more than things have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.
Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, youβll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
Your βgood old daysβ are still ahead of you, may you have many of them.
β
β
Sam Levenson (In One Era & Out the Other)
β
Why were you lurking under our window?"
"Yes - yes, good point, Petunia! What were you doing under our windows, boy?"
"Listening to the news," said Harry in a resigned voice.
His aunt and uncle exchanged looks of outrage.
"Listening to the news! Again?"
"Well, it changes every day, you see," said Harry.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5))
β
Theyβre not hideous,β said Tessa.
Will blinked at her. βWhat?β
βGideon and Gabriel,β said Tessa. βTheyβre really quite good-looking, not hideous at all.β
βI spoke,β said Will, in sepulchral tones, βof the pitch-black inner depths of their souls.β
Tessa snorted. βAnd what color do you suppose the inner depths of your soul are, Will Herondale?β
βMauve,β said Will.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, #2))
β
So you're always honest," I said.
"Aren't you?"
"No," I told him. "I'm not."
"Well, that's good to know, I guess."
"I'm not saying I'm a liar," I told him. He raised his eyebrows. "That's not how I meant it, anyways."
"How'd you mean it, then?"
"I just...I don't always say what I feel."
"Why not?"
"Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)
β
If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire)
β
there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock.
people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.
people just are not good to each other
one on one.
the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.
we are afraid.
our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners.
it hasn't told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.
or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone
untouched
unspoken to
watering a plant.
β
β
Charles Bukowski (Love Is a Dog from Hell)
β
You will lose someone you canβt live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesnβt seal back up. And you come through. Itβs like having a broken leg that never heals perfectlyβthat still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.
β
β
Anne Lamott
β
You wonβt understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you areβnot smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgivingβand then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how badβor goodβit might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.
β
β
Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life)
β
And I thought about how many people have loved those songs. And how many people got through a lot of bad times because of those songs. And how many people enjoyed good times with those songs. And how much those songs really mean. I think it would be great to have written one of those songs. I bet if I wrote one of them, I would be very proud. I hope the people who wrote those songs are happy. I hope they feel it's enough. I really do because they've made me happy. And I'm only one person.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting β
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
β
β
Mary Oliver
β
Augustus Waters was a self-aggrandizing bastard. But we forgive him. We forgive him not because he had a heart as figuratively good as his literal one sucked, or because he knew more about how to hold a cigarette than any nonsmoker in history, or because he got eighteen years when he should've gotten more.'
'Seventeen,' Gus corrected.
'I'm assuming you've got some time, you interupting bastard.
'I'm telling you,' Isaac continued, 'Augustus Waters talked so much that he'd interupt you at his own funeral. And he was pretentious: Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonances of human waste production. And he was vain: I do not believe I have ever met a more physically attractive person who was more acutely aware of his own physical attractiveness.
'But I will say this: When the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and they tell me to try them on, I will tell the scientists to screw off, because I do not want to see a world without him.'
I was kind of crying by then.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
It's just that most really good-looking people are stupid, so I exceed expectations.'
'Right, it's primarily his hotness,' I said.
'It can be sort of blinding,' he said.
'It actually did blind our friend Isaac,' I said.
'Terrible tragedy, that. But can I help my own deadly beauty?'
'You cannot.'
'It is my burden, this beautiful face.'
'Not to mention your body.'
'Seriously, don't even get me started on my hot bod. You don't want to see me naked, Dave. Seeing me naked actually took Hazel Grace's breath away,' he said, nodding toward the oxygen tank.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
I've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone." I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.
β
β
Franz Kafka
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I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.
I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.
I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.
I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.
I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.
I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.
I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.
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Neil Gaiman (American Gods (American Gods, #1))
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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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A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own even if she never wants
to or needs to...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
something perfect to wear if the employer or date of her
dreams wants to see her in an hour...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a youth she's content to leave behind....
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her old age....
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black
lace bra...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who
lets her cry...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone
else in her family...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a
recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honored...
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a feeling of control over her destiny...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
HOW TO QUIT A JOB,
BREAK UP WITH A LOVER,
AND CONFRONT A FRIEND WITHOUT RUINING THE FRIENDSHIP...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but it's over...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't
take it personally...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table...
or a charming inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...
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Pamela Redmond Satran