“
There used to be days that I thought I was okay, or at least that I was going to be. We'd be hanging out somewhere and everything would just fit right and I would think 'it will be okay if it can just be like this forever' but of course nothing can ever stay just how it is forever.
”
”
Nina LaCour (Hold Still)
“
I wish you more happiness than can fit in a person.
”
”
Nina LaCour (We Are Okay)
“
Take a drink every time you hear you’re not enough.
Not the right fit.
Not the right look.
Not the right focus.
Not the right drive.
Not the right time.
Not the right job.
Not the right path.
Not the right future.
Not the right present.
Not the right you.
Not you.
(Not me?)
There’s just something missing.
From us.
What could I have done?
Nothing. It’s just…
(Who you are.)
I didn’t think we were serious.
(You’re just too…
…sweet.
…soft.
…sensitive.)
I just don’t see us ending up together.
I met someone.
I’m sorry
It’s not you.
Swallow it down.
We’re not on the same page.
We’re not in the same place.
It’s not you.
We can’t help who we fall in love with.
(And who we don’t.)
You’re such a good friend.
You’re going to make the right girl happy.
You deserve better.
Let’s stay friends.
I don’t want to lose you.
It’s not you.
I’m sorry.
”
”
Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
We felt so small with the city lights stretching forever below us, and we yelled at the top of our lungs because we were just these small humans but we felt more longing than could ever fit inside us.
”
”
Nina LaCour (The Disenchantments)
“
I wish her more happiness than can fit in a person. I wish her the kind of happiness that spills over.
”
”
Nina LaCour (We Are Okay)
“
He was wearing a plain white oxford unbuttoned over a T-shirt, but something about the way they fit made him look put together, like an Abercrombie model (well, like an Abercrombie model who had remembered to put on a shirt that morning).
”
”
Claire LaZebnik (Epic Fail)
“
I realize this fits into the way I've always seen myself, which is: art, attempted, though often spoiled by the demands of another's taste.
”
”
Ryan La Sala (The Honeys)
“
She will grow out of it, her parents say - but instead, Adeline feels herself growing in, holding tighter to the stubborn hope of something more.
The world should be getting larger. Instead, she feels it shrinking, tightening like chains around her limbs as the flat lines of her own body begin to curve out against it, and suddenly the charcoal beneath her nails is unbecoming, as is the idea that she would choose her own company over Arnaud's or George'sm or any man who might have her.
She is at odds with everything, she does not fit, an insult to her sex, a stubborn child in a woman's form, her head bowed and arms wrapped tight around her drawing pad as if it were a door.
”
”
Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
What is was, was that we complemented each other. We just fit in this way that made strangers ask us if we were sisters, even though her hair was blond and curly and mine was straight and dark. Even though her eyes were blue and mine were brown. Maybe it was the way we acted, or spoke, just moved. The way we would look at something and both have the same thought at the same moment, and turn to each other at the same time and start to say the same thing.
”
”
Nina LaCour (Hold Still)
“
— Kai aime aussi la lune, fit la voix de Jacob me forçant à me tourner vers lui, il dit qu'elle lui tient compagnie, que les étoiles veillent sur lui.
”
”
theblurredgirl (Lakestone)
“
You go through life thinking there's so much you need. Your favorite jeans and sweater. The jacket with the faux-fur lining to keep you warm. Your phone and your music and your favorite books. Mascara. Irish breakfast tea and cappuccinos from Trouble Coffee. You need your yearbooks, every stiffly posed school-dance photo, the notes your friends slipped into your locker. You need the camera you got for your sixteenth birthday and the flowers you dried. You need your notebooks full of the things you learned and don't want to forget. You need your bedspread, white with black diamonds. You need your pillow - it fits the way you sleep. You need magazines promising self-improvement. You need your running shoes and your sandals and your boots. Your grade report from the semester you got straight As. Your prom dress, your shiny earrings, your pendants on delicate chains. You need your underwear, your light-colored bras and your black ones. The dream catcher hanging above your bed. The dozens and dozens of shells in glass jars... You think you need all of it. Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.
”
”
Nina LaCour (We Are Okay)
“
Are you born again?" he asked, as we taxied down the runway. He was rather prim and tense, maybe a little like David Eisenhower with a spastic colon. I did not know how to answer for a moment.
"Yes," I said. "I am."
My friends like to tell each other that I am not really a born-again Christian. They think of me more along the lines of that old Jonathan Miller routine, where he said, "I'm not really a Jew -- I'm Jew-ish." They think I am Christian-ish. But I'm not. I'm just a bad Christian. A bad born-again Christian. And certainly, like the apostle Peter, I am capable of denying it, of presenting myself as a sort of leftist liberation-theology enthusiast and maybe sort of a vaguely Jesusy bon vivant. But it's not true. And I believe that when you get on a plane, if you start lying you are totally doomed.
So I told the truth; that I am a believer, a convert. I'm probably about three months away from slapping an aluminum Jesus-fish on the back of my car, although I first want to see if the application or stickum in any way interferes with my lease agreement. And believe me, all this boggles even *my* mind. But it's true. I could go to a gathering of foot-wash Baptists and, except for my dreadlocks, fit right in. I would wash their feet; I would let them wash mine.
”
”
Anne Lamott
“
She missed him the way someone might miss the sun in winter, though they still dread its heat. She missed the sound of his voice, the knowing in his touch, the flint-on-stone friction of their conversations, the way they fit together.
”
”
Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
Ce gamin de 20 ans se fit remarquer dès sa tendre enfance, par d'étranges dispositions. C'était un rêveur, un original. Une jeune fille tomba amoureuse de lui ; il la prit, et la vendit à une maison close.
”
”
Mikhail Bulgakov
“
Vîrsta ne schimbă atît de mult, uneori uiţi că ai fost copil, ai impresia că te-ai născut aşa, bătrîn, şi totuşi sînt unele fleacuri care-ţi rămîn adînc înrădăcinate. Clişee unde adultul dă mîna cu puştiul care trăgea la fit şi tocea peste vară la teorema lui Pitagora. De cînd mă ştiu, prima ninsoare m-a scos din minţi... Îmi venea să urlu de bucurie... Ca şi mirosul ăla special din martie. Un miros de verde, de pămînt...
”
”
Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu (Cianură pentru un surâs (Melania Lupu #1))
“
La fièvre fit plus d'animaux que les ovaires n'en firent jamais.
”
”
Henri Michaux (Plume: précédé de Lointain intérieur)
“
We are the puzzle pieces who seldom fit with other puzzle pieces. We inhabit singledom as our natural resting state...Secretly, we are romantics, romantics of the highest order. We want a miracle. Out of millions we have to find the one who will understand. For the quirkyalone, there is no patience for dating just for the sake of not being alone. On a fine but by no means transcendent date, we dream of going home to watch television. We would prfer to be alone with our own thoughts than with a less than perfect fit...but when the quirkyalone collides with another, ooh la la. The earth quakes.
”
”
Sasha Cagen
“
Le souvenir de cette nuit me hante encore, comme celui d'un moment d'intimité où nous chassions la mort; je savais déjà qu'aucune autre compagne de m'offrirait semblable étreinte, et cette pensée me fit peur.
”
”
Marc Levy (Le premier jour)
“
You entered,
Abrupt like “Take it!”,
Mauling suede gloves, you tarried,
And said:
“You know,-
I’m soon getting married.”
Get married then.
It’s all right,
I can handle it.
You see - I’m calm, of course!
Like the pulse
Of a corpse.
Remember?
You used to say:
“Jack London,
Money,
Love and ardour,”--
I saw one thing only:
You were La Gioconda,
Which had to be stolen!
And someone stole you.
Again in love, I shall start gambling,
With fire illuminating the arch of my eyebrows.
And why not?
Sometimes, the homeless ramblers
Will seek to find shelter in a burnt down house!
You’re mocking me?
“You’ve fewer emeralds of madness
than a beggar kopecks, there’s no disproving this!”
But remember
Pompeii came to end thus
When somebody teased Vesuvius!
Hey!
Gentlemen!
You care for
Sacrilege,
Crime
And war.
But have you seen
The frightening terror
Of my face
When
It’s
Perfectly calm?
And I feel-
“I”
Is too small to fit me.
Someone inside me is getting smothered.
”
”
Vladimir Mayakovsky
“
All girls are prone to dreaming. She will grow out of it, her parents say—but instead, Adeline feels herself growing in, holding tighter to the stubborn hope of something more. The world should be getting larger. Instead, she feels it shrinking, tightening like chains around her limbs as the flat lines of her own body begin to curve out against it, and suddenly the charcoal beneath her nails is unbecoming, as is the idea that she would choose her own company over Arnaud’s or George’s, or any man who might have her. She is at odds with everything, she does not fit, an insult to her sex, a stubborn child in a woman’s form, her head bowed and arms wrapped tight around her drawing pad as if it were a door.
”
”
Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
«El principal problema de la humanidad es que tenemos emociones paleolíticas, instituciones medievales y tecnología de dioses»
— E.O. Wilson
”
”
Marcos Vázquez García (Fitness revolucionario. Lecciones ancestrales para una salud salvaje (Libros singulares) (Spanish Edition))
“
That I dream, and that my wishes
Are to do what's right, since we
Even in dreams should do what's fitting.
”
”
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (Life Is a Dream)
“
«La vida solo puede ser comprendida mirando hacia atrás, pero solo puede ser vivida mirando hacia delante»
— Søren Kierkegaard
”
”
Marcos Vázquez García (Fitness revolucionario. Lecciones ancestrales para una salud salvaje (Libros singulares) (Spanish Edition))
“
¡No metáis en la cabeza lo que os quepa en el bolsillo! ¡No metáis en el bolsillo lo que os quepa en la cabeza!"
"No ye may thrust your head in what I fit in your pocket! No ye may thrust in his pocket that you fit on the head!"
"Cebinize sığanı kafanıza sokmayın! Kafanıza sığanı cebinize tıkmayın!
”
”
Miguel de Unamuno (Niebla)
“
Sobre la falda tenia
el libro abierto;
en mi mejilla tocaban
sus rizos negros;
no veiamos las letras
ninguno, creo;
mas guardabamos entrambos
hondo silencio.
Cuanto duro? Ni aun entonces
pude saberlo;
solo se que no se oia
mas que el aliento,
que apresurado escapaba
del labio seco.
Solo se que nos volvimos
los dos a un tiempo,
y nuestros ojos se hallaron,
y sono un beso.
Creacion de Dante era el libro,
era su Infierno.
Cuando a el bajamos los ojos,
yo dije, tremulo:
Comprendes ya que un poema
cabe en un verso?"
Y ella respondio, encendida:
Ya lo comprendo!"
On her skirt she had
an open book
on my cheek
her black locks of hair
we didn't see the letters
any of them, I think
though we kept between us
a deep silence
How much did it last? Not even then
I could know
I only know that I couldn't hear
anything more than her breath
that fastly went out
of her dry lips
I only know that we both
turned our sight at same time
and our eyes met the other
and a kiss was heard
The creation of Dante was the book
it was its Inferno
when we both turned down the eyes to it
I said, trembling:
'Do you already understand that a poem
fits in a verse?''
And she answered lightened up:
I understand!
”
”
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
“
That’s twenty Slater children if we all meet the quota,” Branna mused. “Twenty-five when Damien eventually settles down.” I blew out a large breath. “Our poor fuckin’ fannies.” We burst into a fit of laughter.
”
”
L.A. Casey (Aideen (Slater Brothers, #3.5))
“
Je fus nommé historiographe de France; et le roi me fit présent d'une charge de gentilhomme ordinaire de sa chambre; je conclus que pour faire la plus petite fortune, il valait mieux dire quatre mots à la maîtresse d'un roi, que d'écrire cent volumes.
”
”
Voltaire (Mémoires)
“
If there’s anything you’ve taught me, it’s that when you love someone, you love all of them, and not just the parts they want you to see. You have to embrace the ugly parts. The parts that are hard, that are scared. The ones that are awkward and don’t fit in.
”
”
Brooke Blaine (Licked (L.A. Liaisons, #1))
“
The way they talk about themselves—with such frankness—it feels like all people are wet clay, all the shapes that define us self-imposed. I realize this fits into the way I’ve always seen myself, which is: art, attempted, though often spoiled by the demands of another’s taste. It makes me wonder what shape I’d be if I’d never met another human being.
”
”
Ryan La Sala (The Honeys)
“
Derrière eux, la mer joua quelques minutes avec le soleil comme avec un ballon. Enfin, d'une chiquenaude, elle le fit basculer dans l'hémisphère sud.
”
”
Malika Ferdjoukh (Bettina (Quatre Soeurs, #3))
“
L'amour fit en lui ce qu'il fait en tous les autres: il lui donna l'envie de parler.
”
”
Madame de La Fayette (La Princesse de Montpensier)
“
Les enfants seuls savent ce qu’ils cherchent, fit le petit prince. Ils perdent du temps pour une poupée de chiffons, et elle devient très importante, et si on la leur enlève, ils pleurent…
”
”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“
Most of us probably fall several times a day into a fit somewhat like this: The eyes are fixed on vacancy, the sounds of the world melt into a confused unity, the attention is dispersed so that the whole body is felt, as it were, at once, and the foreground of consciousness is filled, if by anything, by a sort of solemn sense of surrender to the empty passing of time. In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing: getting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who has spoken to us, trying to make the next step in our reasoning. But somehow we cannot start; the pensée de derrière la tête [thought at the back of the head] fails to pierce the shell of lethargy that wraps our state about. Every moment we expect the shell to break, for we know no reason why it should continue. But it does continue, pulse after pulse, and we float with it, until—also without reason that we can discover—an energy is given, something—we know not what—enables us to gather ourselves together, we wink our eyes, we shake our head, the background ideas become effective, and the wheels of life go round again.
”
”
William James (Psychology: The Briefer Course)
“
Even when she had to make some one a present of the kind called 'useful,' when she had to give an armchair or some table-silver or a walking-stick, she would choose 'antiques,' as though their long desuetude had effaced from them any semblance of utility and fitted them rather to instruct us in the lives of the men of other days than to serve the common requirements of our own.
”
”
Marcel Proust (Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1))
“
No doubt it was ridiculous to be so sensitive. But there was something almost agonising about speaking and being misunderstood or found unintelligible, something that got right to the heart of all my fears about aloneness. No one will ever understand you. No one wants to hear what you say. Why can't you fit in, why do you have to stick out so much? It wasn't hard to see why someone in this position might come to mistrust language, doubting its ability to bridge the gap between bodies, traumatised by the revealed gulf, the potentially lethal abyss that lurks beneath each carefully proferred sentence. Dumbness in this context might be a way of evading hurt, dodging the pain of failed communication by refusing to participate in it at all. That's how I explained my growing silence, anyway; as an aversion akin to someone wishing to avoid a repeated electric shock.
”
”
Olivia Laing (The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone)
“
I always consider myself either anonymous or odd looking,’ he once wrote, ‘and there is an unspoken bond between people in the world that don’t fit in or are not attractive in the general societal sense.
”
”
Olivia Laing (The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone)
“
Le fabricateur souverain
nous créa besaciers tous de même manière,
tant ceux du temps passé que du temps d’aujourd’hui :
Il fit pour nos défauts la poche de derrière,
Et celle de devant pour les défauts d’autrui.
”
”
Jean de la Fontaine (Fables)
“
Here, throw them all away, all the things you’ve ever desired, toss them into the road, into some ditch, the things you used to think. The things you loved. And look how paltry, how measly they were. That man and that mountain. They make a woman want a small life. A runty life like a pretty little pebble. A life that can fit in your pocket. Like a ring, or a hazelnut. They don’t tell a woman she can choose things that aren’t small.
”
”
Irene Solà (Canto jo i la muntanya balla)
“
You laugh as you sing about dying, you drug yourself up, but you can still see clearly, and you die as you break into a fit of laughter, because asi es la vida in this soup of islands stewed in hunger and the desire to be someone else.
”
”
Mayra Santos-Febres (Sirena Selena)
“
Page 41
- Alors qu'est ce que tu décides? Tu me suis ou pas?
Pitié accepte, ne me force pas à te tuer...
- Par simple curiosité, que ferais-tu si je refusais?
J'hésitais un instant à répondre mais optai pour la franchise. Clarence n'était pas un mauvais bougre, il avait le droit de savoir ce qui l'attendait.
- Je devrais te liquidier, répondis-je d'un ton glacial.
Une vie contre des milliers d'autres, le choix n'était pas très compliqué.
- Tu sais que tu es pire partenaire que j'aie jamais eue? fit-il non sans humour.
Je haussais les épaules.
- Pourquoi? Parce que je veux préserver la paix?
- Non, parce que tu as une manière très personnelle d'argumenter.
- Le moyen le plus efficace de défendre une opinion est de tuer ceux qui ne la partagent pas.
- C'est quoi ca? Un extrait du guide du parfait dictateur?
- Non, un vieil adage familial, fis je en lui tendant la main pour l'aider à se relever.
- Eh ben désolé de te dire ca, mais ta famille craint! fit-il en se redressant.
- Oui et encore, t'es très en dessous de la vérité, soupirai-je...
”
”
Cassandra O'Donnell (Potion macabre (Rebecca Kean, #3))
“
To endure all things, with an equable and peaceful mind, not only brings with it many blessings to the soul; but it also enables us, in the midst of our difficulties, to have a clear judgment about them, and to minister the fitting remedy for them.
”
”
Juan de la Cruz (The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume 1 of 2: The Ascent of Mount Carmel - The Dark Night of the Soul.)
“
... they imagine that the life they are obliged to lead is not that for which they are really fitted, and they bring to their regular occupations either a fantastic indifference or a sustained and lofty application, scornful, bitter, and conscientious.
”
”
Marcel Proust (Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1))
“
[...] they imagine that the life they are obliged to lead is not that for which they are really fitted, and they bring to their regular occupations either a fantastic indifference or a sustained and lofty application, scornful, bitter and conscientious.
”
”
Marcel Proust (Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1))
“
It’s crap when people say you shouldn’t try to change someone. The whole nature of a relationship is compromise, and compromise is change. It can be scary as hell changing what you know to fit with someone else, so I think you’re entitled to drag your feet a bit.
”
”
L.A. Fiore (Beautifully Forgotten (Beautifully Damaged, #2))
“
I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?
London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam uti chelidon—O swallow swallow
Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih shantih shantih
”
”
T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land)
“
- Dégage je t'ai dit !
- Je te fais une contre-proposition, lança Ellana que le poing brandi du barbu ne paraissait pas impressionner le moins du monde. Tu quittes l'auberge maintenant, sans bruit, avec la promesse de ne plus jamais y remettre les pieds, et je ne te casse pas en mille morceaux.
Le colosse ouvrit la bouche pour un cri ou peut-être un rire, mais la voix de Jilano le lui vola.
- C'est un marché de dupe ! s'écria-t-il sur un ton plein de verve.
- Et pourquoi donc ? fit mine de se fâcher Ellana.
- Parce que même si tu tapes fort, tu lui casseras au maximum une douzaine d'os. Allez, vingt parce que c'est toi. On est loin des mille morceaux que tu revendiques.
Ellana soupira.
- C'est une expression, il ne faut pas la prendre au pied de la lettre.
- Sans doute, mais ce monsieur pourrait s'estimer grugé.
- Très bien. Voilà ma contre-proposition réactualisée. Tu quittes l'auberge maintenant, sans bruit, avec la promesse de ne plus jamais y remettre les pieds et je ne te casse pas en douze morceaux. Peut-être vingt parce que c'est moi.
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Ellana, l'Envol (Le Pacte des MarchOmbres, #2))
“
Mazie, Mazie." Untangling his long frame, Trent pressed away from the window. "I find you a puzzle. Unfortunately, I never did enjoy puzzles much as a child. There was always the mess of missing pieces and the temptation to force parts where they did not fit. I much prefer the whole picture, unclouded and unveiled.
”
”
Leigh LaValle (The Runaway Countess (Nottinghamshire, #1))
“
But she was wrong; it was what gave her away; she had not taken into account that this fragmentary detail of the truth had sharp edges which could not be made to fit in, except to those contiguous fragments of the truth from which she had arbitrarily detached it, edges which, whatever the fictitious details in which she might embed it, would continue to shew, by their overlapping angles and by the gaps which she had forgotten to fill, that its proper place was elsewhere.
”
”
Marcel Proust (Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1))
“
Musique, nourriture et femmes. Tels sont les grands plaisirs de la vie. Les plaisirs durables. Vous apprendrez cela, jeune moine.
- J'ajouterais les livres, fit Claude, quelque peu embarassé. Vous savez, de bons livres.
- Bien entendu! Vous êtes un amateur de livres! C'est parfait.
- Ils ne vous laissent pas tomber.
”
”
Frank Conroy (Body and Soul)
“
The Earth is a paradise, the only one we will ever know. We will realize it the moment we open our eyes. We don't have to make it a paradise - it is one. We have only to make ourselves fit to inhabit it. The man with the gun, the man with murder in his heart, cannot possibly recognize paradise even when he is shown it.
”
”
Henry Miller (The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (New Directions Paperbook))
“
- Ne t'en fais pas, je connais la vérité.
- La vérité sur quoi ?
Il recula d'un pas.
- Tu as envie de dire oui mais tu n'es pas encore prête.
J'en restai comme deux ronds de flan.
- Ce n'est rien. (Son sourire se fit provocateur.) Je suis peut-être difficile à manipuler mais je peux t'assurer que tu prendras beaucoup de plaisir à le faire.
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout (Wait for You (Wait for You, #1))
“
He saw her legs first. Ankle boots met her bare calves, and the tops of her knees were hidden under a maroon, long-sleeved body-con dress. His gaze momentarily flitted to her breasts, which were pushed up and toward him. He was only human, after all, and they were really amazing breasts. He was used to seeing her in conservative wardrobe choices for the show, or the casual-date look she'd had at the pumpkin patch and ice-cream shop. In this fitted, sleek dress that showed off every one of her curves, though, she looked...
”
”
Erin La Rosa (For Butter or Worse (The Hollywood Series #1))
“
Ce discours fit naître de nouvelles réflexions, et Martin surtout conclut que l'homme était né pour vivre dans les convulsions de l'inquiétude, ou dans la léthargie de l'ennui.
”
”
Voltaire (Candide)
“
Sa figure sévère et mécontente fit un étrange contraste avec la douce joie que sa présence chassait
”
”
Stendhal (The Red and the Black)
“
Il n'est point de serpent, ni de monstre odieux,
Qui, par l'art imité, ne puisse plaire aux yeux ;
D'un pinceau délicat l'artifice agréable
Du plus affreux objet fait un objet aimable.
Ainsi, pour nous charmer, la Tragédie en pleurs
D'Œdipe tout sanglant fit parler les douleurs,
D'Oreste parricide exprima les alarmes,
Et, pour nous divertir, nous arracha des larmes.
”
”
Nicolas Boileau
“
The city (regardless which one it is) does provide a certain degree of sophistication and intellectualism. It offers the challenge of professional matters. It throws new and interesting people in one’s path. There is a dynamic and an energy in cities which is diametric to the life-forces of the forest.
Still the cabin is the wellspring, the source, the hub of my existence. It gives me tranquility, a closeness of nature and wildlife, good health and fitness, a sense of security, the opportunity for resourcefulness, reflection and creative thinking…..
”
”
Anne LaBastille
“
When a puppy reaches maturity is becomes a dog; when ice melts it is called water; when twelve months have been used up, we get a new calendar with the proper chronological name; when "magic" becomes scientific fact we refer to it as medicine, astronomy, etc. When one name is no longer appropriate for a given thing it is only logical to change it to a new on which better fits the subject. Why, then, do we not follow suit in the area of religion? Why continue to call a religion the same name when the tenets of that religions no longer fit the original one? Or, if the religion does preach the same things that it always has, but its followers practice nearly none of its teachings, why do they continue to call themselves by the name given to followers of that religion?
”
”
Anton Szandor LaVey (The Satanic Bible)
“
This is a real letter. I hope you get this far but i won’t be mad if you don’t want to read any of it. this is what i want so don’t be sad. you might be looking for reasons. the sun stopped shining for me is all. the whole story is: i am sad. i am sad all the time and the sadness is so heavy that i can’t get away from it. not ever. there used to be days that i thought i was okay, or at least that i was going to be. we’d be hanging out somewhere and everything would just fit right and i would think ‘it will be okay if it can just be like this forever’ but of course nothing can stay just how it is forever.
i don’t want to hurt you or anybody so just please forget about me. just try. find yourself a better friend. i never laughed as hard as i laughed with you but now not even the laughing feels good.
”
”
Nina LaCour (Hold Still)
“
She is at odds with everything, she does not fit, an insult to her sex, a stubborn child in a woman’s form, her head bowed and arms wrapped tight around her drawing pad as if it were a door. And when she does look up, her gaze always goes to the edge of town. “A dreamer,” scorns her mother. “A dreamer,” mourns her father. “A dreamer,” warns Estele. Still, it does not seem such a bad word. Until Adeline wakes up.
”
”
Victoria E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
Une goutte de pluie tomba dans la mer, et fut tout interdite. "Ô mer, s'écria-t-elle, je suis si peu de chose dans ton immensité!"
Pour la récompense de son humilité, Dieu ordonna à un coquillage de l'abriter et de la nourrir. Elle se transforma en une perle splendide, que l'on incrusta dans la couronne d'un roi.
Dieu lui fit cet honneur, parce qu'elle avait été humble. Elle vécut, parce qu'elle s'était comparée au néant.
”
”
Saadi (بوستان سعدی)
“
Elle me lança le gant au visage. "Gibier de potence !" dit elle. "Petit malfrat !"
Elle fit demi-tour et m'abandonna à mon sort. Je me séchai, enfilai un caleçon et entrai dans la cuisine. Elle était devant la cuisinière, le dos tourné, en train de préparer mon petit-déjeuner. L'expert des appendices charnus que je suis détecta aussitôt la contraction de ses fessiers - signe indubitable de fureur chez une femme. L'expérience m'a appris à me montrer extrêmement prudent en présence d'une métamorphose aussi spectaculaire des fessiers féminins, si bien que je m'assis sans moufter. J'avais l'impression d'affronter un serpent lové sur lui-même.
”
”
John Fante (Dreams from Bunker Hill (The Saga of Arturo Bandini, #4))
“
Les enfants seuls savent ce qu’ils cherchent, fit le petit prince. Ils perdent du temps pour une poupée de chiffons, et elle devient très importante, et si on la leur enlève, ils pleurent… – Ils ont de la chance, dit l’aiguilleur.
”
”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Le Petit Prince: ( Illustrated, Index interactif ) (French Edition))
“
But she was wrong; it was what gave her away; she had not taken into account that this fragmentary detail of the truth had sharp edges which could not be made to fit in, except to those contiguous fragments of the truth from which she had arbitrarily detached it, edges which, whatever the fictitious details in which she might embed it, would continue to shew, by their overlapping angles and by the gaps which she had forgotten to fill, that its proper place was elsewhere.
”
”
Marcel Proust (Swann’s Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1))
“
La voie de l'Arc et du Cheval enseignait aux guerriers de recueillir et d'élever les enfants de l'adversaire vaincu, mais il arrivait fréquemment qu'on les fit exécuter. Quant aux femmes qu'on était censé respecter, on les prenait de force.
”
”
De la guerre à la voie des arts
“
When I certify someone insane, I am not equivocating when I write that he is of unsound mind, may be dangerous to himself and others, and requires care and attention in a mental hospital. However, at the same time, I am also aware that, in my opinion, there are other people who are regarded as sane, whose minds are as radically unsound, who may be equally or more dangerous to themselves and others and whom society does not regard as psychotic and fit persons to be in a madhouse.
”
”
R.D. Laing (The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness)
“
Les amants, en effet, regrettent le bien qu’ils
ont fait, une fois que leur désir est éteint. Ceux qui n’ont pas d’amour, au contraire, n’ont
jamais occasion seyante au repentir, car ce n’est point par contrainte, mais librement, comme
s’ils s’occupaient excellemment des biens de leurs demeures, qu’ils font, dans la mesure de
leurs moyens, du bien à leurs amis. Les amants considèrent en outre, et les dommages que
leur amour fit à leurs intérêts et les largesses qu’ils ont dû consentir ; puis, en y ajoutant la
peine qu’ils ont eue, ils pensent depuis longtemps avoir déjà payé à leurs aimés le juste prix
des faveurs obtenues. Par contre, ceux qui ne sont pas épris ne peuvent, ni prétexter les
affaires négligées par amour, ni mettre en ligne de compte les souffrances passées, ni alléguer
les différends familiaux qu’ils ont eus. Exempts de tous ces maux, il ne leur reste plus qu’à
s’empresser de mettre en acte tout ce qu’ils croient devoir leur donner du plaisir.
”
”
Plato (Phaedrus (Hackett Classics))
“
- Eh bien, monsieur le naturaliste, demanda le Canadien d’un ton légèrement goguenard, et cette Méditerranée?
- Nous flottons à sa surface, ami Ned.
- Hein! Fit Conseil, cette nuit même?...
- Oui, cette nuit même, en quelques minutes, nous avons franchi cet isthme infranchissable.
- Je n’en crois rien, répondit le Canadien.
- Et vous avez tort, maître Land, repris-je. Cette côte basse qui s’arrondit vers le sud est la côte égyptienne.
- À d’autres, monsieur, répliqua l’entêté Canadien.
”
”
Jules Verne (VINGT MILLE LIEUES SOUS LES MERS (2))
“
Randolph Maddix, a schizophrenic who lived at a private home for the mentally ill in Brooklyn, was often left alone to suffer seizures, his body crumpling to the floor of his squalid room. The home, Seaport Manor, is responsible for 325 starkly ill people, yet many of its workers could barely qualify for fast-food jobs. So it was no surprise that Mr. Maddix, 51, was dead for more than 12 hours before an aide finally checked on him. His back, curled and stiff with rigor mortis, had to be broken to fit him into a body bag.” THE NEW YORK TIMES April 28, 2002
”
”
Victor LaValle (The Devil in Silver)
“
The fog turned a strange yellow, then orange, then black. The gilded winged statue Victory at Buckingham Palace retreated into mist. St. Paul's was a hazy outline, ghostlike in the gloom. La Traviata at the Sadler's Wells theatre was terminated midway because the audience could no longer see the singers on stage. Pedestrians noticed how everything below the waist disappeared. Knees, shoes, dogs became indistinguishable. The Great Smog was days and nights of people and things passing out of sight and existence. It seemed a fitting time for a mother to evaporate.
”
”
Kyo Maclear (Stray Love)
“
En pensée, Herman fit l'oraison funèbre de la souris qui avait partagé une partie de sa vie et qui, à cause de lui, avait quitté cette terre. "Tous ces érudits, tous ces philosophes, les dirigeants de la planète, que savent-ils de quelqu'un comme toi? Ils se sont persuadé que l'homme, espèce pécheresse entre toutes, domine la création. Toutes les autres créatures n'auraient été créées que pour lui procurer de la nourritures, des fourrures, pour être martyrisées, exterminées. Pour ces créatures, tous les humains sont nazis; pour les animaux, c'est un éternel Treblinka.
”
”
Isaac Bashevis Singer
“
Keela hung up before Alec could say another word.
“Five fuckin’ kids each.”
“That’s twenty Slater children if we all meet the quota,” Branna mused. “Twenty-five when Damien eventually settles down.”
I blew out a large breath. “Our poor fuckin’ fannies.”
We burst into a fit of laughter.
”
”
L.A. Casey (Aideen (Slater Brothers, #3.5))
“
Quand un bon vin meuble mon estomac Je suis plus savant que Balzac —Plus sage que Pibrac; Mon brass seul faisant l’attaque De la nation Coseaque, La mettroit au sac; De Charon je passerois le lac En dormant dans son bac, J’irois au fier Eac, Sans que mon coeur fit tic ni tac, Premmer du tabac. —French Vaudeville
”
”
Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Tales and Poems (The Classics Collection))
“
DA Datta: what have we given? My friend, blood shaking my heart The awful daring of a moment's surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract By this, and this only, we have existed Which is not to be found in our obituaries Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor In our empty rooms 410 DA Dayadhvam: I have heard the key Turn in the door once and turn once only We think of the key, each in his prison Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus DA Damyata: The boat responded Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar 420 The sea was calm, your heart would have responded Gaily, when invited, beating obedient To controlling hands I sat upon the shore Fishing, with the arid plain behind me Shall I at least set my lands in order? London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina Quando fiam ceu chelidon - O swallow swallow Le Prince d'Aquitaine a la tour abolie 430 These fragments I have shored against my ruins Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe. Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Shantih shantih shantih
”
”
T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land)
“
Je sentis que le seul homme avec qui je pouvais parler sur cet objet, sans me compromettre, était mon Contesseur. Aussitôt je pris mon parti; je surmontai ma petite honte; et me vantant d'une faute que je n'avais pas commise, je m'accusai d'avoir fait tout ce que font les femmes. Ce fut mon expression; mais en parlant ainsi je ne savais en vérité quelle idée j'exprimais. Mon espoir ne fut ni tout à fait trompé, ni entièrement rempli; la crainte de me trahir m'empêchait de m'éclairer : mais le bon Père me fit le mal si grand que j'en conclus que le plaisir devait être extrême; et au désir de le connaitre succéda celui de le goûter.
”
”
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (Les Liaisons dangereuses)
“
- Continuons donc notre excursion, repris-je, mais ayons l’œil aux aguets, quoique l’ile paraisse inhabitée, elle pourrait renfermer, cependant, quelques individus qui seraient moins difficiles que nous sur la nature du gibier!
- He! He! Fit Ned Land, avec un mouvement de mâchoire très significatif.
- Eh bien! Ned! S’écria Conseil.
- Ma foi, riposta le canadien, je commence à comprendre les charmes de l’anthropophagie!
- Ned! Ned! Que dites-vous la! Réplique Conseil. Vous, anthropophage! Mais je ne serai plus en sûreté près de vous, moi qui partage votre cabine! Devrai-je donc me réveiller un jour a demi dévoré?
- Ami Conseil, je vous aime beaucoup, mais pas assez pour vous manger sans nécessité.
”
”
Jules Verne (VINGT MILLE LIEUES SOUS LES MERS (2))
“
Ecco un altro aspetto dell’essere senza fissa dimora. Le persone davano costantemente per scontato che si drogasse. Non importava che i suoi occhi fossero bianchi e limpidi, né che indossasse magliette che mostravano una pelle senza buchi, l’equazione “senzatetto-uso di droga” coinvolgeva tutti. Ed era il motivo per cui malediceva i suoi “coinquilini” ogniqualvolta li vedeva fare uso di sostanze illegali in pubblico. Compromettevano le possibilità di tutti di fare qualche soldo. Certo, alcuni si drogavano oppure finivano per farsi, allo scopo di sopravvivere ai demoni mentali che si erano insinuati dentro di loro vivendo per strada, ma ce n’erano alcuni, come Pierce, che non assumevano droghe di alcun tipo. Prima che rimanesse a morire per strada, Pierce aveva studiato nutrizione e fitness. Si sarebbe suicidato sul serio prima di toccare quella orribile roba annebbia-mente.
”
”
Chris Ethan (Il ragazzo con la valigia (C'era una volta un ragazzo, #1))
“
Under Armour. "Ahora estamos en el punto donde está ocurriendo un cambio y los consumidores están demandando más de esta información. Esta asociación con IBM nos permitirá aportar valor al consumidor de manera inédita, ya que integramos la tecnología de aprendizaje de máquinas de IBM Watson con los robustos datos de la comunidad Connected Fitness de Under Armour, la comunidad digital más grande del mundo de más de 160 millones de miembros". [4]
”
”
Club-BPM España y Latinoamérica (El Libro del BPM y la Transformación Digital: Gestión, Automatización e Inteligencia de Procesos (BPM) (BPM - Business Process Management nº 1) (Spanish Edition))
“
As for the SCUM of the manifesto, Solanas’s definition describes just the sort of women Warhol liked, at least from the other side of a camera: ‘dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe, who have free-wheeled to the limits of this “society” and are ready to wheel on to something far beyond what it has to offer’.
”
”
Olivia Laing (The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone)
“
C'était un professeur magnifique et je n'ai jamais oublié la moue dédaigneuse de ses lèvres lorsqu'il récusait d'une seule phrase une de nos interprétations. Il me guérit à jamais du comparatisme le jour où, ayant à commenter à voix haute devant lui et mes condisciples un passage de Rabelais, j'évoquai stupidement Bergson, que j'avais à peine lu. Le dédain de sa célèbre moue se fit carrément dégoût: 'Mon petit, Rabelais ne connaissait pas Bergson.
”
”
Claude Lanzmann (Le lièvre de Patagonie)
“
Le pape exerce donc deux pouvoirs fort différents ; il peut faire, comme prêtre, le bonheur éternel de l’homme qu’il fait assommer comme roi. La peur que Luther fit aux papes du seizième siècle a été si forte, que si les états de l’Église formaient une île éloignée de tout continent, nous y verrions le peuple réduit à cet état de vasselage moral dont l’antique Égypte et l’Étrurie ont laissé le souvenir, et que de nos jours on peut observer en Autriche. Les guerres du dix-huitième siècle ont empêché l’abrutissement du paysan italien.
”
”
Stendhal (Voyages en Italie : édition intégrale, revue et corrigée d’après le manuscrit original de chez Delaunay paru en 1829 contenant « Promenades dans Rome » ... et Florence » (2 tomes). (French Edition))
“
- Maman, pourquoi les nuages vont dans un sens et nous dans l'autre ?
Isaya sourit, caressa la joue de sa fille du bout des doigts.
- Il y a deux réponses à ta question. Comme à toutes les questions, tu le sais bien. Laquelle veux-tu entendre ?
- Les deux.
-Laquelle en premier alors ?
La fillette plissa le nez.
- Celle du savant.
- Nous allons vers le nord parce que nous cherchons une terre où nous établir. Un endroit où construire une belle maison, élever des coureurs et cultiver des racines de niam. C'est notre rêve depuis des années et nous avons quitté Al-Far pour le vivre.
- Je n’aime pas les galettes de niam...
- Nous planterons aussi des fraises, promis. Les nuages, eux, n'ont pas le choix. Ils vont vers le sud parce que le vent les pousse et, comme ils sont très très légers, il sont incapables de lui résister.
- Et la réponse du poète ?
- Les hommes sont comme les nuages. Ils sont chassés en avant par un vent mystérieux et invisible face auquel ils sont impuissants. Ils croient maîtriser leur route et se moquent de la faiblesse des nuages, mais leur vent à eux est mille fois plus fort que celui qui souffle là-haut.
La fillette croisa les bras et parut se désintéresser de la conversation afin d'observer un vol de canards au plumage chatoyant qui se posaient sur la rivière proche. Indigo, émeraude ou vert pâle, ils se bousculaient dans une cacophonie qui la fit rire aux éclats.
Lorsque les chariots eurent dépassé les volatiles, elle se tourna vers sa mère.
- Cette fois, je préfère la réponse du savant.
-Pourquoi ? demande Isaya qui avait attendu sereinement la fin de ce qu'elle savait être une intense réflexion.
- J'aime pas qu'on me pousse en cachette.
”
”
Pierre Bottero (Ellana (Le Pacte des MarchOmbres, #1))
“
Ma langue maternelle fut une langue infirme. Ce patois judéo-arabe de Tunis, truffé de mots hébreux, italiens, français, mal compris des Musulmans, totalement ignoré des autres, m'abondonnais dès que je quittais les ruelles du ghetto. Au-delà des émotions simples, du boire et du manger, dans cet univers politique, technique et intellectuel que je rêvais de conquérir, il perdait tout efficacité. Par bonheur, l'école primaire me fit don du français. C'était un cadeau intimidant, exigeant et difficile à manier; c'était en outre la langue du Colonisateur. Mais précisément, ce superbe instrument, magnifiquement au point, exprimait tout et ouvrait toutes les portes. Le degré de culture, le prestige intellectuel, la réussite sociale se mesurait à l'assurance dans le maniement de la langue du vainqueur. J'acceptai joyeusement le pari et l'enjeu: avec ma mère, qui ne comprenait pas le français,je parlerais la langue de mon enfance; dans la rue, dans ma profession, je serais un Occidental. C'était affaire d'organisation intérieure. Après tout, je ne serais pas le seul homme sur terre à ne pas connaitre une parfaite unité.
”
”
Albert Memmi (La libération du Juif)
“
J’allais ouvrir la bouche et aborder cette fille , quand quelqu’un me toucha l’épaule. Je me retournai, surpris, et j’aperçus un homme d’aspect ordinaire, ni jeune ni vieux, qui me regardait d’un air triste.
— Je voudrais vous parler, dit-il.
Je fis une grimace qu’il vit sans doute, car il ajouta :
— « C’est important. »
Je me levai et le suivis à l’autre bout du bateau :
— « Monsieur, reprit-il, quand l’hiver approche avec les froids, la pluie et la neige, votre médecin vous dit chaque jour : « Tenez-vous les pieds bien chauds, gardez-vous des refroidissements, des rhumes, des bronchites, des pleurésies. » Alors vous prenez mille précautions, vous portez de la flanelle, des pardessus épais, des gros souliers, ce qui ne vous empêche pas toujours de passer deux mois au lit. Mais quand revient le printemps avec ses feuilles et ses fleurs, ses brises chaudes et amollissantes, ses exhalaisons des champs qui vous apportent des troubles vagues, des attendrissements sans cause, il n’est personne qui vienne vous dire : « Monsieur, prenez garde à l’amour ! Il est embusqué partout ; il vous guette à tous les coins ; toutes ses ruses sont tendues, toutes ses armes aiguisées, toutes ses perfidies préparées ! Prenez garde à l’amour !… Prenez garde à l’amour ! Il est plus dangereux que le rhume, la bronchite et la pleurésie ! Il ne pardonne pas, et fait commettre à tout le monde des bêtises irréparables. » Oui, monsieur, je dis que, chaque année, le gouvernement devrait faire mettre sur les murs de grandes affiches avec ces mots : « Retour du printemps. Citoyens français, prenez garde à l’amour ; » de même qu’on écrit sur la porte des maisons : « Prenez garde à la peinture ! » — Eh bien, puisque le gouvernement ne le fait pas, moi je le remplace, et je vous dis : « Prenez garde à l’amour ; il est en train de vous pincer, et j’ai le devoir de vous prévenir comme on prévient, en Russie, un passant dont le nez gèle. »
Je demeurai stupéfait devant cet étrange particulier, et, prenant un air digne :
— « Enfin, monsieur, vous me paraissez vous mêler de ce qui ne vous regarde guère. »
Il fit un mouvement brusque, et répondit :
— « Oh ! monsieur ! monsieur ! si je m’aperçois qu’un homme va se noyer dans un endroit dangereux, il faut donc le laisser périr ?
”
”
Guy de Maupassant
“
Sometimes, too, when their spiritual masters, such as confessors and superiors, do not approve of their spirit and behavior (for they are anxious that all they do shall be esteemed and praised), they consider that they do not understand them, or that, because they do not approve of this and comply with that, their confessors are themselves not spiritual. And so they immediately desire and contrive to find some one else who will fit in with their tastes; for as a rule they desire to speak of spiritual matters with those who they think will praise and esteem what they do, and they flee, as they would from death, from those who disabuse them in order to lead them into a safe road—sometimes they even harbour ill-will against them. Presuming thus, they are wont to resolve much and accomplish very little. Sometimes they are anxious that others shall realize how spiritual and devout they are, to which end they occasionally give outward evidence thereof in movements, sighs and other ceremonies; and at times they are apt to fall into certain ecstasies, in public rather than in secret, wherein the devil aids them, and they are pleased that this should be noticed, and are often eager that it should be noticed more.
”
”
Juan de la Cruz (Dark Night of the Soul)
“
Ce siècle avait deux ans ! Rome remplaçait Sparte,
Déjà Napoléon perçait sous Bonaparte,
Et du premier consul, déjà, par maint endroit,
Le front de l'empereur brisait le masque étroit.
Alors dans Besançon, vieille ville espagnole,
Jeté comme la graine au gré de l'air qui vole,
Naquit d'un sang breton et lorrain à la fois
Un enfant sans couleur, sans regard et sans voix ;
Si débile qu'il fut, ainsi qu'une chimère,
Abandonné de tous, excepté de sa mère,
Et que son cou ployé comme un frêle roseau
Fit faire en même temps sa bière et son berceau.
Cet enfant que la vie effaçait de son livre,
Et qui n'avait pas même un lendemain à vivre,
C'est moi. -
”
”
Victor Hugo (Les Orientales - Les Feuilles d'automne)
“
Why I Like Being Baldy
• Never have to pay for a haircut
• No need for styling
• The birds love it
• You can get together with a fellow baldy and pretend to be a pair of tits
• You can pretend to be Ming the Merciless, Emperor of the Galaxy, with more conviction than people with hair
• It makes you look hard
• Richard O’Brien
• You can draw a line down the middle of your head and pretend to be a cock
• A hat will always fit
• No dickies
• Save money on Shampoo
• Time saver should you wish to become ordained into an order of Buddhist monks
Why I Don’t Like Being Baldy
• Can never make a balloon static to entertain a child
• Might get mistaken for Ross Kemp
• Lack of hair
”
”
Steven LaVey (Shorts)
“
C’était une femme originale et solitaire. Elle entretenait un commerce étroit avec les esprits, épousait leurs querelles et refusait de voir certaines personnes de sa famille mal considérées dans le monde où elle se réfugiait.
Un petit héritage lui échut qui venait de sa soeur. Ces cinq mille francs, arrivés à la fin d’une vie, se révélèrent assez encombrants. Il fallait les placer. Si presque tous les hommes sont capables de se servir d’une grosse fortune, la difficulté commence quand la somme est petite.
Cette femme resta fidèle à elle-même. Près de la mort, elle voulut abriter ses vieux os. Une véritable occasion s’offrait à elle. Au cimetière de sa ville, une concession venait d’expirer et, sur ce terrain, les propriétaires avaient érigé un somptueux caveau, sobre de lignes, en marbre noir, un vrai trésor à tout dire, qu’on lui laissait pourla somme de quatre mille francs. Elle acheta ce caveau. C’était là une valeur sûre, à l’abri des fluctuations boursières et des événements politiques.
Elle fit aménager la fosse intérieure, la tint prête à recevoir son propre corps. Et, tout achevé, elle fit graver son nom en capitales d’or.
Cette affaire la contenta si profondément qu’elle fut prise d’un véritable amour pour son tombeau. Elle venait voir au début les progrès des travaux Elle finit par se rendre visite tous les dimanches après-midi. Ce fut son unique sortie et sa seule distraction.
Vers deux heures de l’après-midi, elle faisait le long trajet qui l’amenait aux portes de la ville où se trouvait le cimetière. Elle entrait dans le petit caveau, refermait soigneusement la porte, et s’agenouillait sur le prie-Dieu. C’est ainsi que, mise en présence d’elle-même, confrontant ce qu’elle était et ce qu’elle devait être, retrouvant l’anneau d’une chaîne toujours rompue, elle perça sans effort les desseins secrets de la Providence. Par un singulier symbole, elle comprit même un jour qu’elle était morte aux yeux du monde.
À la Toussaint, arrivée plus tard que d’habitude, elle trouva le pas de la porte pieusement jonché de violettes. Par une délicate attention, des inconnus compatissants devant cette tombe laissée sans fleurs, avaient partagé les leurs et honoré la mémoire de ce mort abandonné à lui-même.
”
”
Albert Camus (L'envers et l'endroit)
“
« À l’instant où je posai les yeux sur mon bureau, je compris que quelqu’un avait fouillé dans mes papiers. Les épreuves tenaient sur trois grands feuillets. Je les avais laissés tous ensemble. L’un d’entre eux était à présent sur le sol, l’autre sur la desserte près de la fenêtre et le troisième là où je l’avais laissé. Holmes réagit pour la première fois. – La première page sur le sol, la deuxième devant la fenêtre, la troisième où vous l’aviez laissée, fit-il. – Exactement, Mr Holmes. Vous me stupéfiez. Comment pouvez-vous le savoir ? – Je vous en prie, poursuivez votre passionnant récit. – J’ai pensé une seconde que Bannister avait pris l’impardonnable liberté de fouiller mes papiers. Mais il a nié avec la plus grande vigueur et je suis convaincu
”
”
Arthur Conan Doyle (Les Trois Étudiants (French Edition))
“
He turned then and dove on Kane who yelped, “I'm sick! You can't hit me.”
I cackled as I watched Alec bring Kane to the ground and pin him.
“You fat bastard!” Kane snapped. “Get off me!”
Alec slapped Kane's face and the look of shock on his face sent me into a fit of laughter.
“You... you slapped me,” Kane said.
He blinked at Alec in disbelief.
“You cock blocked me,” Alec replied. “Be happy it's nothing harder.”
Kane continued to blink, then a fleeting moment later his shock evaporated and rage twisted his handsome face. I felt my jaw drop open when Kane lifted his hands to Alec’s arms and flipped him off his body. Kane quickly rolled to the side and slammed Alec onto his back and got in his face.
“Hit me now,” he growled.
I was stunned to silence.
“How did you do that?” I asked Kane, but he was too busy to answer me.
Alec grunted in Kane's hold. “You motherfucker... sick my ass.
”
”
L.A. Casey (Keela (Slater Brothers, #2.5))
“
Our life together was filled with contrasts. One week we were croc hunting with Dateline in Cape York. Only a short time after that, Steve and I found ourselves out of our element entirely, at the CableACE Award banquet in Los Angeles.
Steve was up for an award as host of the documentary Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. He lost out to the legendary Walter Cronkite. Any time you lose to Walter Cronkite, you can’t complain too much. After the awards ceremony, we got roped into an after-party that was not our cup of tea.
Everyone wore tuxedos. Steve wore khaki. Everyone drank, smoked, and made small talk, none of which Steve did at all. We got separated, and I saw him across the room looking quite claustrophobic. I sidled over.
“Why don’t we just go back up to our room?” I whispered into his ear. This proved to be a terrific idea. It fit in nicely with our plans for starting a family, and it was quite possibly the best seven minutes of my life!
After our stay in Los Angeles, Steve flew directly back to the zoo, while I went home by way of one my favorite places in the world, Fiji. We were very interested in working there with crested iguanas, a species under threat. I did some filming for the local TV station and checked out a population of the brilliantly patterned lizards on the Fijian island of Yadua Taba.
When I got back to Queensland, I discovered that I was, in fact, expecting. Steve and I were over the moon. I couldn’t believe how thrilled he was. Then, mid-celebration, he suddenly pulled up short. He eyed me sideways.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “You were just in Fiji for two weeks.”
“Remember the CableACE Awards? Where you got bored in that room full of tuxedos?”
He gave me a sly grin. “Ah, yes,” he said, satisfied with his paternity (as if there was ever any doubt!). We had ourselves an L.A. baby.
”
”
Terri Irwin (Steve & Me)
“
Ce qui est tout à fait extraordinaire, c’est la rapidité avec laquelle la civilisation du Moyen-Âge tomba dans le plus complet oubli ; les hommes du XVIIe siècle n’en avaient plus la moindre notion, et les monuments qui en subsistaient ne représentaient plus rien à leurs yeux, ni dans l’ordre intellectuel, ni même dans l’ordre esthétique ; on peut juger par là combien la mentalité avait été changée dans l’intervalle. Nous n’entreprendrons pas de rechercher ici les facteurs, certainement fort complexes, qui concoururent à ce changement, si radical qu’il semble difficile d’admettre qu’il ait pu s’opérer spontanément et sans l’intervention d’une volonté directrice dont la nature exacte demeure forcément assez énigmatique ; il y a, à cet égard, des circonstances bien étranges, comme la vulgarisation, à un moment déterminé, et en les présentant comme des découvertes nouvelles, de choses qui étaient connues en réalité depuis fort longtemps, mais dont la connaissance, en raison de certains inconvénients qui risquaient d’en dépasser les avantages, n’avait pas été répandue jusque là dans le domaine public (1). Il est bien invraisemblable aussi que la légende qui fit du moyen âge une époque de « ténèbres », d’ignorance et de barbarie, ait pris naissance et se soit accréditée d’elle-même, et que la véritable falsification de l’histoire à laquelle les modernes se sont livrés ait été entreprise sans aucune idée préconçue ; mais nous n’irons pas plus avant dans l’examen de cette question, car, de quelque façon que ce travail se soit accompli, c’est, pour le moment, la constatation du résultat qui, en somme, nous importe le plus.
(1) Nous ne citerons que deux exemples, parmi les faits de ce genre qui devaient avoir les plus graves conséquences : la prétendue invention de l’imprimerie, que les Chinois connaissaient antérieurement à l’ère chrétienne et la découverte « officielle » de l’Amérique, avec laquelle des communications beaucoup plus suivies qu’on ne le pense avaient existé durant tout le moyen âge.
”
”
René Guénon (The Crisis of the Modern World)
“
We are all poor; but there is a difference between what Mrs. Spark intends by speaking of 'slender means', and what Stevens called our poverty or Sartre our need, besoin. The poet finds his brief, fortuitous concords, it is true: not merely 'what will suffice,' but 'the freshness of transformation,' the 'reality of decreation,' the 'gaiety of language.' The novelist accepts need, the difficulty of relating one's fictions to what one knows about the nature of reality, as his donnée.
It is because no one has said more about this situation, or given such an idea of its complexity, that I want to devote most of this talk to Sartre and the most relevant of his novels, La Nausée. As things go now it isn't of course very modern; Robbe-Grillet treats it with amused reverence as a valuable antique. But it will still serve for my purposes. This book is doubtless very well known to you; I can't undertake to tell you much about it, especially as it has often been regarded as standing in an unusually close relation to a body of philosophy which I am incompetent to expound. Perhaps you will be charitable if I explain that I shall be using it and other works of Sartre merely as examples. What I have to do is simply to show that La Nausée represents, in the work of one extremely important and representative figure, a kind of crisis in the relation between fiction and reality, the tension or dissonance between paradigmatic form and contingent reality. That the mood of Sartre has sometimes been appropriate to the modern demythologized apocalypse is something I shall take for granted; his is a philosophy of crisis, but his world has no beginning and no end. The absurd dishonesty of all prefabricated patterns is cardinal to his beliefs; to cover reality over with eidetic images--illusions persisting from past acts of perception, as some abnormal children 'see' the page or object that is no longer before them --to do this is to sink into mauvaise foi. This expression covers all comfortable denials of the undeniable--freedom --by myths of necessity, nature, or things as they are. Are all the paradigms of fiction eidetic? Is the unavoidable, insidious, comfortable enemy of all novelists mauvaise foi?
Sartre has recently, in his first instalment of autobiography, talked with extraordinary vivacity about the roleplaying of his youth, of the falsities imposed upon him by the fictive power of words. At the beginning of the Great War he began a novel about a French private who captured the Kaiser, defeated him in single combat, and so ended the war and recovered Alsace. But everything went wrong. The Kaiser, hissed by the poilus, no match for the superbly fit Private Perrin, spat upon and insulted, became 'somehow heroic.' Worse still, the peace, which should instantly have followed in the real world if this fiction had a genuine correspondence with reality, failed to occur. 'I very nearly renounced literature,' says Sartre. Roquentin, in a subtler but basically similar situation, has the same reaction. Later Sartre would find again that the hero, however assiduously you use the pitchfork, will recur, and that gaps, less gross perhaps, between fiction and reality will open in the most close-knit pattern of words. Again, the young Sartre would sometimes, when most identified with his friends at the lycée, feel himself to be 'freed at last from the sin of existing'--this is also an expression of Roquentin's, but Roquentin says it feels like being a character in a novel.
How can novels, by telling lies, convert existence into being? We see Roquentin waver between the horror of contingency and the fiction of aventures. In Les Mots Sartre very engagingly tells us that he was Roquentin, certainly, but that he was Sartre also, 'the elect, the chronicler of hells' to whom the whole novel of which he now speaks so derisively was a sort of aventure, though what was represented within it was 'the unjustified, brackish existence of my fellow-creatures.
”
”
Frank Kermode (The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction)
“
Mon père, André Pétrovitch Grineff, après avoir servi dans sa jeunesse sous le comte Munich, avait quitté l’état militaire en 17… avec le grade de premier major. Depuis ce temps, il avait constamment habité sa terre du gouvernement de Simbirsk, où il épousa Mlle Avdotia, 1ere fille d’un pauvre gentilhomme du voisinage. Des neuf enfants issus de cette union, je survécus seul ; tous mes frères et sœurs moururent en bas âge. J’avais été inscrit comme sergent dans le régiment Séménofski par la faveur du major de la garde, le prince B…, notre proche parent. Je fus censé être en congé jusqu’à la fin de mon éducation. Alors on nous élevait autrement qu’aujourd’hui. Dès l’âge de cinq ans je fus confié au piqueur Savéliitch, que sa sobriété avait rendu digne de devenir mon menin. Grâce à ses soins, vers l’âge de douze ans je savais lire et écrire, et pouvais apprécier avec certitude les qualités d’un lévrier de chasse. À cette époque, pour achever de m’instruire, mon père prit à gages un Français, M. Beaupré, qu’on fit venir de Moscou avec la provision annuelle de vin et d’huile de Provence. Son arrivée déplut fort à Savéliitch. « Il semble, grâce à Dieu, murmurait-il, que l’enfant était lavé, peigné et nourri. Où avait-on besoin de dépenser de l’argent et de louer un moussié, comme s’il n’y avait pas assez de domestiques dans la maison ? »
”
”
Alexander Pushkin (The Captain's Daughter)
“
Pauline Trio
One could sing October rain,
and one had a gift for plain
chant and prayer, a domain
unsettled by love or its
intimate other. What fits
with this theology no
one dares to say. These twins so
perfectly in tune must know
"the modesty of nature,"
the perfect art and texture
that sustains the other name.
Paris could not be the frame
for loyal Romans, their shame
worn upon their bodies light
as air, and nothing is quite
as endurable as death.
Those who have taken this path
move with an abiding breath.
Such a common dance this dense
intention of love's expense.
Keep this for that special hour
when the Roman drops his sour
gift for abandoned splendour;
et c'est la nuit, the footfall
that troubles that other Paul.
I have learned the felicity of fire,
how in its wake
something picks at buried seed.
Think this a most festive deed,
nature's mistake,
borrowed flare of a village dance, satire
of the sun's course, light you read
through waste, repair. Death had freed
that first opaque
habitation (what a widening gyre),
an aspen ache,
a lustrous scar that might lead
to a hidden grove, or breed
astonishment in its loss; all entire,
a shaping breath proposes its own pyre.
Solitude guides me
through this minor
occasion;
moon is my mentor,
one on a spree.
This notion,
night's philanthropy,
courts my favor.
Devotion,
love's predecessor,
sings its tidy
discretion.
Such gentility
reins all vigor,
all caution.
”
”
Jay Wright
“
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La Societe D'elite
“
Why are there no queens in the deck?” I asked rather suddenly. “It seems odd.” Suzanne Brantôme, on my left, and Mimi La Salle, on my right, smiled knowingly, and I felt foolish. But Marguerite did not smile. “You have by now read The Book of the City of Ladies, have you not, Anna?” “I have.” “Then you should tell us why the deck has no queens.” “Because…,” I began, but I hesitated, for my mind was racing far ahead of my voice. I wished so very much to please the duchess with my answer. “There has been so little recognition of the contributions of women in every walk of life?” I finally offered, with a woeful lack of confidence in my answer. But Marguerite bade me go on with a subtle nod. “Men have looked down upon our sex,” I said. “They have withheld education and caused us great suffering. They do not see women as fit rulers and…” I stopped and thought about my summary of Christine de Pizan’s work. When I began again, it was slowly, as if the words were falling together into an idea as they were spoken. “So why would men place queens in a deck of cards? It might signify their importance in the world.” Marguerite looked at me with affection and approval. “I have thought the same thoughts many times, as have my ladies at these tables. We all know very well there are no kingdoms without queens.” We sat silent for a moment as we pondered the wisdom of that idea. “Mayhap someday soon there will be queens in the playing cards,” I said hopefully. “If it is left to the men to decide, we shall first see the Second Coming of Christ!” Lady Brantôme declared. Everyone laughed at that. Mimi,
”
”
Robin Maxwell (Mademoiselle Boleyn)
“
Plus tard, un jeune professeur de philosophie, rompu à l'analyse logique, fit, sans le vouloir peut-être, la théorie de cette pratique politique (*). Il la dévoila avec la plus grande clarté, précisément parce que, étant un pur logicien et de bonne foi, il était aveugle aux leçons de l'histoire (2). Au lieu de mettre cette pratique au compte d'une époque, d'un pays, d'une structure social ou d'un homme, il la mit directement en relation avec les préceptes de la religion. Il alla jusqu'à faire l'apologie de la 'ubudiyya (servitude) islamique, opposé au concept de muwatana (citoyenneté) hellénique. Ce professeur ignorait sans doute que le procès de la modernité et de la démocratie était courant au 19e siècle, même en Angleterre, patrie du libéralisme politique. Il n'avait qu'à revenir à l'autobiographie du cardinal Newman, qui retrace les étapes de sa conversion au catholicisme romain, pour retrouver l'essentiel de son argumentation. Ce qu'on peut lui reprocher, c'est qu'il se souciait peu des mobiles de sa pensée ; il s'attribuait une logique qui était celle des faits, non celle des concepts qu'il s'acharnait à redéfinir ; il ne voyait pas qu'elle soutenait une politique éducative, poursuivie par différents moyens depuis plus d'une génération. Qu'un philosophe se décide, à une certaine étape de sa carrière, de s'affilier à l'un des ordres les plus fermés à l'influence du monde moderne, qu'il arrive par la seule force de ses déductions - c'est du moins ce que je présume, peut-être à tort - à justifier une totale démission de l'esprit, à refuser l'idée de citoyenneté, à accepter d'investir un homme, chef d'Etat ou dirigeant de confrérie, d'une pouvoir absolu, prouve à quel point cette politique avait réussi et combien l'individu est malléable.
(*)créer, ou de recréer un type d'homme qui fut spontanément en phase à la fois avec son environement moderne et son héritage politique et social."
(2) (Hawla Tajdid Taqyim A-turath)
chapitre XI, pp 133-134
”
”
عبد الله العروي (Le Maroc et Hassan II : Un témoignage)
“
They emerged from the tropical vegetation, greeted by a general cheer. Stephen advanced, carrying his hurly: he was feeling particularly well and fit; he had his land-legs again, and no longer stumped along, but walked with an elastic step. Jack came to meet him, and said in a low voice, 'Just keep your end up, Stephen, until your eye is in; and watch out for the Admiral's twisters,' and then as they neared the Admiral, 'Sir, allow me to name my particular friend Dr. Maturin, surgeon of the Leopard.
'How d'ye do, Doctor?' said the Admiral.
'I must beg your pardon, sir, for my late appearance: I was called away on -- '
'No ceremony, Doctor, I beg,' said the Admiral, smiling: the Leopard's hundred pounds were practically in his pocket, and this man of theirs did not look very dangerous. 'Shall we begin?'
'By all means,' said Stephen.
'You go down to the other end,' murmured Jack, a chill coming over him in spite of the torrid sun.
'Should you like to be given a middle, sir?' called the umpire, when Stephen had walked down the pitch.
'Thank you, sir,' said Stephen, hitching at his waistband and gazing round the field, 'I already have one.'
A rapacious grin ran round the Cumberlands: they moved much closer in, crouching, their huge crab-like hands spread wide. The Admiral held the ball to his nose for a long moment, fixing his adversary, and then delivered a lob that hummed as it flew. Stephen watched its course, danced out to take it as it touched the ground, checked its bounce, dribbled the ball towards the astonished cover-point and running still he scooped it into the hollow of his hurly, raced on with twinkling steps to mid-off, there checked his run amidst the stark silent amazement, flicked the ball into his hand, tossed it high, and with a screech drove it straight at Jack's wicket, shattering the near stump and sending its upper half in a long, graceful trajectory that reached the ground just as the first of La Fleche's guns, saluting the flag, echoed across the field.
”
”
Patrick O'Brian (The Fortune of War (Aubrey & Maturin, #6))
“
The other evening, in that cafe-cabaret in the Rue de la Fontaine, where I had run aground with Tramsel and Jocard, who had taken me there to see that supposedly-fashionable singer... how could they fail to see that she was nothing but a corpse?
Yes, beneath the sumptuous and heavy ballgown, which swaddled her and held her upright like a sentry-box of pink velvet trimmed and embroidered with gold - a coffin befitting the queen of Spain - there was a corpse! But the others, amused by her wan voice and her emaciated frame, found her quaint - more than that, quite 'droll'...
Droll! that drab, soft and inconsistent epithet that everyone uses nowadays! The woman had, to be sure, a tiny carven head, and a kind of macabre prettiness within the furry heap of her opera-cloak. They studied her minutely, interested by the romance of her story: a petite bourgeoise thrown into the high life following the fad which had caught her up - and neither of them, nor anyone else besides in the whole of that room, had perceived what was immediately evident to my eyes. Placed flat on the white satin of her dress, the two hands of that singer were the two hands of a skeleton: two sets of knuckle-bones gloved in white suede. They might have been drawn by Albrecht
Durer: the ten fingers of an evil dead woman, fitted at the ends of the two overlong and excessively thin arms of a mannequin...
And while that room convulsed with laughter and thrilled with pleasure, greeting her buffoonery and her animal cries with a dolorous ovation, I became convinced that her hands no more belonged to her body than her body, with its excessively high shoulders, belonged to her head...
The conviction filled me with such fear and sickness that I did not hear the singing of a living woman, but of some automaton pieced together from disparate odds and ends - or perhaps even worse, some dead woman hastily reconstructed from hospital remains: the macabre fantasy of some medical student, dreamed up on the benches of the lecture-hall... and that evening began, like some tale of Hoffmann, to turn into a vision of the lunatic asylum.
Oh, how that Olympia of the concert-hall has hastened the progress of my malady!
”
”
Jean Lorrain (Monsieur de Phocas)
“
À huit heures et demie du soir, deux tables étaient dressées. La jolie madame des Grassins avait réussi à mettre son fils à côté d’Eugénie. Les acteurs de cette scène pleine d’intérêt, quoique vulgaire en apparence, munis de cartons bariolés, chiffrés, et de jetons en verre bleu, semblaient écouter les plaisanteries du vieux notaire, qui ne tirait pas un numéro sans faire une remarque ; mais tous pensaient aux millions de monsieur Grandet. Le vieux tonnelier contemplait vaniteusement les plumes roses, la toilette fraîche de madame des Grassins, la tête martiale du banquier, celle d’Adolphe, le président, l’abbé, le notaire, et se disait intérieurement :
− Ils sont là pour mes écus. Ils viennent s’ennuyer ici pour ma fille. Hé ! ma fille ne sera ni pour les uns ni pour les autres, et tous ces gens-là me servent de harpons pour pêcher !
Cette gaieté de famille, dans ce vieux salon gris, mal éclairé par deux chandelles ; ces rires, accompagnés par le bruit du rouet de la grande Nanon, et qui n’étaient sincères que sur les lèvres d’Eugénie ou de sa mère ; cette petitesse jointe à de si grands intérêts ; cette jeune fille qui, semblable à ces oiseaux victimes du haut prix auquel on les met et qu’ils ignorent, se trouvait traquée, serrée par des preuves d’amitié dont elle était la dupe ; tout contribuait à rendre cette scène tristement comique. N’est-ce pas d’ailleurs une scène de tous les temps et de tous les lieux, mais ramenée à sa plus simple expression ? La figure de Grandet exploitant le faux attachement des deux familles, en tirant d’énormes profits, dominait ce drame et l’éclairait. N’était-ce pas le seul dieu moderne auquel on ait foi, l’Argent dans toute sa puissance, exprimé par une seule physionomie ? Les doux sentiments de la vie n’occupaient là qu’une place secondaire, ils animaient trois cœurs purs, ceux de Nanon, d’Eugénie et sa mère. Encore, combien d’ignorance dans leur naïveté ! Eugénie et sa mère ne savaient rien de la fortune de Grandet, elles n’estimaient les choses de la vie qu’à la lueur de leurs pâles idées, et ne prisaient ni ne méprisaient l’argent, accoutumées qu’elles étaient à s’en passer. Leurs sentiments, froissés à leur insu mais vivaces, le secret de leur existence, en faisaient des exceptions curieuses dans cette réunion de gens dont la vie était purement matérielle. Affreuse condition de l’homme ! il n’y a pas un de ses bonheurs qui ne vienne d’une ignorance quelconque. Au moment où madame Grandet gagnait un lot de seize sous, le plus considérable qui eût jamais été ponté dans cette salle, et que la grande Nanon riait d’aise en voyant madame empochant cette riche somme, un coup de marteau retentit à la porte de la maison, et y fit un si grand tapage que les femmes sautèrent sur leurs chaises.
”
”
Honoré de Balzac (Eugénie Grandet)