Lamb Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Lamb. Here they are! All 100 of them:

And so the lion fell in love with the lamb…" he murmured. I looked away, hiding my eyes as I thrilled to the word. "What a stupid lamb," I sighed. "What a sick, masochistic lion.
Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.
Charles Lamb (The life, letters and writings of Charles Lamb Volume 3)
I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.
Charles Lamb
Children see magic because they look for it.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
A pair of werewolves occupied another booth. They were eating raw shanks of lamb and arguing about who would win in a fight: Dumbledore from Harry Potter books or Magnus Bane. "Dumbledore would totally win," said the first one. "He has the badass Killing Curse." The second lycanthrope made a trenchant point. "But Dumbledore isn't real." "I don't think Magnus Bane is real either," scoffed the first. "Have you ever met him?" "This is so weird," said Clary, slinking down in her seat. "Are you listening to them?" "No. It's rude to eavesdrop," said Jace.
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
Of all sound of all bells... most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.
Charles Lamb
Nobody's perfect. Well, there was this one guy, but we killed him....
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being.
Mahatma Gandhi
When the lambs is lost in the mountain, he said. They is cry. Sometime come the mother. Sometime the wolf.
Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West)
Mary had a little lamb Its fleece was white as snow...
Sarah Josepha Hale
She looks like a sweet little lamb from afar, but when you get close, you find out she skinned and ate the damn thing just to use it as a coat. She’s a beast. ~Liam C.
J.J. McAvoy (Ruthless People (Ruthless People, #1))
Rise and rise again until lambs become lions
John Mathew Gutch
And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.
Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin', but not to help.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs)
A year from now you may wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb
It's wildly irritating to have invented something as revolutionary as sarcasm, only to have it abused by amateurs.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, A damned saint, an honourable villain! O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell; When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh? Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace!
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
Love is like breathing. You take it in and let it out.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
Which is worse? the wolf who cries before eating the lamb or the wolf who does not.
Leo Tolstoy
Blessed are the dumbfucks.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
E.L. Doctorow (Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews, 2nd Series)
One of the lambs fixed its attention on Jared. “Baa,” it flirted. “Boo,” said Jared. “Oh my God, Jared. Don’t tough-talk the lambs.” "It was giving me a funny look.
Sarah Rees Brennan (Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy, #1))
Nothing made me happen. I happened.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece electrostatic / And everywhere Mary went, the lights became erratic.
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)
I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
Democracy is not freedom. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.
Marvin Simkin
Achilles glared at him and answered, "Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out an through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall
Homer (The Iliad)
That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
And like lambs to a slaughter we shall follow...
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn't it?
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.
Angela Carter
Friendship gives us the strength to turn from lambs into lions.
Stephen Richards
I think... the secret is to just settle for the shape of your life takes...Instead of you know, always waiting and wishing for what might make you happy.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
It’s sarcasm, Josh.” “Sarcasm?” “It’s from the Greek, sarkasmos. To bite the lips. It means that you aren’t really saying what you mean, but people will get your point. I invented it, Bartholomew named it.” “Well, if the village idiot named it, I’m sure it’s a good thing.” “There you go, you got it.” “Got what?” “Sarcasm.” “No, I meant it.” “Sure you did.” “Is that sarcasm?” “Irony, I think.” “What’s the difference?” “I haven’t the slightest idea.” “So you’re being ironic now, right?” “No, I really don’t know.” “Maybe you should ask the idiot.” “Now you’ve got it.” “What?” “Sarcasm.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of all the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
George Seferis
The wolf does not pity the lamb. The storm begs no forgiveness of the drowned.
Jay Kristoff (Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, #1))
Reluctantly, I pulled out my necklace and showed it to them. Samuel frowned. The little figure was stylized; I suppose he couldn't tell what it was at first. "A dog?" asked Zee, staring at my necklace. "A lamb," I said defensively, tucking it safely back under my shirt. "Because one of Christ's names is 'The Lamb of God.'" Samuel's shoulders shook slightly. "I can see it now, Mercy holding a roomful of vampire at bay with her glowing sheep." I gave his shoulder a hard push, aware of the heat climbing to my cheeks, but it didn't help. He sang in a soft taunting voice, "Mercy had a little lamb...
Patricia Briggs (Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1))
Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.
Martin Amis
Edward: So the lion fell in love with the lamb. Bella: What a stupid lamb. Edward:What a sick masochistic lion.
Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga Collection (Twilight, #1-4))
On my fifth trip to France I limited myself to the words and phrases that people actually use. From the dog owners I learned "Lie down," "Shut up," and "Who shit on this carpet?" The couple across the road taught me to ask questions correctly, and the grocer taught me to count. Things began to come together, and I went from speaking like an evil baby to speaking like a hillbilly. "Is thems the thoughts of cows?" I'd ask the butcher, pointing to the calves' brains displayed in the front window. "I want me some lamb chop with handles on 'em.
David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day)
March came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs, bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling, each followed by a frosty pink twilight which gradually lost itself in an elfland of moonshine.
L.M. Montgomery
There is no greater love than the love the wolf feels for the lamb-it-doesn’t-eat.
Hélène Cixous (Stigmata: Escaping Texts)
You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
She didn't give a damn about some of them, but she had grown to learn that inattention can be a stratagem to avoid pain, and that it is often misread as shallowness and indifference.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
Go to sleep, baby, Mama will sing. Of blue butterflies, and dragonfly wings. Moonlight and sunbeams, raiment so fine. Silver and gold, for baby of mine. Go to sleep, baby. Sister will tell, of wolves and of lambs, and demons who fell.
Kim Harrison (Black Magic Sanction (The Hollows, #8))
Josh: "What is this thing?" Gasper: "It's a Yeti. An abominable snowman." Biff: "This is what happens when you fuck a sheep?" Josh: "Not an abomination, abominable.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless. Christmas dinner's dark and blue. When you stop and try to see it From the turkey's point of view. Sunday dinner isn't sunny. Easter feasts are just bad luck. When you see it from the viewpoint of a chicken or a duck. Oh how I once loved tuna salad Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too Till I stopped and looked at dinner From the dinner's point of view.
Shel Silverstein
But what are our stories if not the mirrors we hold up to our fears?
Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True)
I'll be busy for the next eight weeks, so let's set this for November 15th. MENU I want lamb or venison steak. Baked potatoes with honey butter. Corn on the cob. Rolls. And apple pie, like the one you made before. I really liked it. I want it with ice cream. You owe me one naked dinner, but I'm not a complete beast, so you can wear a bra and panties if you so wish. The blue ones with the bow will do. Curran, Beast Lord of Atlanta
Ilona Andrews (Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, #3))
There’s a certain high you get from fooling the world into thinking you’re the lamb instead of the rabid wolf.
S.T. Abby (Sidetracked (Mindf*ck, #2))
Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
We approach the house and I wave at Jimmy. "And if he thinks he's eating with us, he's got another thing coming," my dad says. Jimmy approaches us and takes the shopping bags from me, looking inside them. "Lamb roast. Am I invited?
Melina Marchetta (Saving Francesca)
I am not a smart man, particularly, but one day, at long last, I stumbled from the dark woods of my own, and my family's, and my country's past, holding in my hands these truths: that love grows from the rich loam of forgiveness; that mongrels make good dogs; that the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things. This much, at least, I've figured out. I know this much is true.
Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True)
It's very difficult to stay angry when a room full of bald guys in orange robes start giggling. Buddhism.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Silence can mock.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
I know it's a crock of shit. I ain't offering you happily-ever-after. I'm offering you... happily-maybe-sometimes-ever-after. Sort of. You know, with warts and shit." -Thayer
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
Both liberty and equality are among the primary goals pursued by human beings throughout many centuries; but total liberty for wolves is death to the lambs, total liberty of the powerful, the gifted, is not compatible with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and the less gifted.
Isaiah Berlin (The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas)
It's hard for me, a Jew, to stay in the moment. Without the past, where is the guilt? And without the future, where is the dread? And without guilt and dread, who am I?
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
I'm not sure you get wiser as you get older, Starling, but you do learn to dodge a certain amount of hell.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
With destruction comes renovation.
Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True)
He lives down in a ribcage in the dry leaves of a heart.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
This story is not and never was meant to challenge anyone's faith; however, if one's faith can be shaken by stories in a humorous novel, one may have a bit more praying to do.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
God's creatures who cried themselves to sleep stirred to cry again.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.
Wally Lamb
He invented Kung Fu when translated to English means method by which short, bald guys can kick the bejeezus out of you.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Routine feeds the illusion of safety...
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed.
Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True)
If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
If you have come to these pages for laughter, may you find it. If you are here to be offended, may your ire rise and your blood boil. If you seek an adventure, may this song sing you away to blissful escape. If you need to test or confirm your beliefs, may you reach comfortable conclusions. All books reveal perfection, by what they are or what they are not. May you find that which you seek, in these pages or outside them. May you find perfection, and know it by name.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened. You can't reduce me to a set of influences.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
I collect church collapses, recreationally. Did you see the recent one in Sicily? Marvelous! The facade fell on sixty-five grandmothers at a special mass. Was that evil? If so, who did it? If he's up there, he just loves it, Officer Starling. Typhoid and swans - it all comes from the same place.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
Look, don't just stare at the pages," I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book.
Wally Lamb (The Hour I First Believed)
The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.
Wally Lamb (The Hour I First Believed)
Over this odd world, this half the world that's dark now, I have to hunt a thing that lives on tears.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
It was a matter of perspective, I began to see. The whole world was crazy; I'd flattered myself by assuming I was a semifinalist." -- Dolores Price
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
Problem-solving is hunting; it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
Life seemed nearest to acceptable at four A.M.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
We Lannisters do have a certain pride," said Tyrion Lannister. “Pride?” Catelyn snapped. His mocking tone and easy manner made her angry. “Arrogance, some might call it. Arrogance and avarice and lust for power.” “My brother is undoubtedly arrogant,” Tyrion Lannister replied. “My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you?” He grinned.
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
Oh, I get it," I said. "It's a parable. Cute. Let's go eat.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.
Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2))
They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say “Agnes” and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
This was what could happen to you: you could end up this far from where you thought you were going.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
Amanda Lamb (Love Lies: A True Story of Marriage and Murder in the Suburbs)
Faith isn't an act of intelligence, it's an act of imagination.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
I usually learn more from the situations I hate than the ones I love.
Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone)
He loved constantly, instantly, spontaneously, without thought or words. That's what he taught me. Love is not something you think about, it is a state in which you dwell. That was his gift.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Now I want to live like everybody else. I want to have a wife like everybody else and to take her out on Sundays. I have invented a mask that makes me look like anybody. People will not even turn round in the streets. You will be the happiest of women. And we will sing, all by ourselves, till we swoon away with delight. You are crying! You are afraid of me! And yet I am not really wicked. Love me and you shall see! All I wanted was to be loved for myself. If you loved me I should be as gentle as a lamb; and you could do anything with me that you pleased.
Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera)
The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole! We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.
Arthur Schopenhauer (On the Suffering of the World)
Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last 'trick', whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school. 'But how?' we ask. Then the voice says, 'They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' There they are. There *we* are - the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it all clung to faith. My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.
Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel)
Supposing I know of a flower that is absolutely unique, that is nowhere to be found except on my planet, and any minute that flower could accidentally be eaten up by a little lamb, isn't that important? If a person loves a flower that is the only one of its kind on all the millions and millions of stars, then gazing at the night sky is enough to make him happy. He says to himself "My flower is out there somewhere." But if the lamb eats the flower, then suddenly it's as if all the stars had stopped shining. Isn't that important?
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)
Satan, on the contrary, is thin, ascetic and a fanatical devotee of logic. He reads Machiavelli, Ignatius of Loyola, Marx and Hegel; he is cold and unmerciful to mankind, out of a kind of mathematical mercifulness. He is damned always to do that which is most repugnant to him: to become a slaughterer, in order to abolish slaughtering, to sacrifice lambs so that no more lambs may be slaughtered, to whip people with knouts so that they may learn not to let themselves be whipped, to strip himself of every scruple in the name of a higher scrupulousness, and to challenge the hatred of mankind because of his love for it--an abstract and geometric love.
Arthur Koestler (Darkness at Noon)
A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk’s bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare. But if you will contend that you were born to an inclination to such food as you have now a mind to eat, do you then yourself kill what you would eat. But do it yourself, without the help of a chopping-knife, mallet or axe, as wolves, bears, and lions do, who kill and eat at once. Rend an ox with thy teeth, worry a hog with thy mouth, tear a lamb or a hare in pieces, and fall on and eat it alive as they do. But if thou had rather stay until what thou eat is to become dead, and if thou art loath to force a soul out of its body, why then dost thou against nature eat an animate thing? There is nobody that is willing to eat even a lifeless and a dead thing even as it is; so they boil it, and roast it, and alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare.
Plutarch
I wanted adventures. I wanted to go up the Nung river to the heart of darkness in Cambodia. I wanted to ride out into a desert on camelback, sand and dunes in every direction, eat whole roasted lamb with my fingers. I wanted to kick snow off my boots in a Mafiya nightclub in Russia. I wanted to play with automatic weapons in Phnom Penh, recapture the past in a small oyster village in France, step into a seedy neon-lit pulqueria in rural Mexico. I wanted to run roadblocks in the middle of the night, blowing past angry militia with a handful of hurled Marlboro packs, experience fear, excitement, wonder. I wanted kicks – the kind of melodramatic thrills and chills I’d yearned for since childhood, the kind of adventure I’d found as a little boy in the pages of my Tintin comic books. I wanted to see the world – and I wanted the world to be just like the movies
Anthony Bourdain (A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines)
Joshua's ministry was three years of preaching, sometimes three times a day, and although there were some high and low points, I could never remember the sermons word for word, but here's the gist of almost every sermon I ever heard Joshua give. You should be nice to people, even creeps. And if you: a) believed that Joshua was the Son of God (and) b) he had come to save you from sin (and) c) acknowledged the Holy Spirit within you (became as a little child, he would say) (and) d) didn't blaspheme the Holy Ghost (see c) then you would: e) live forever f) someplace nice g) probably heavan However, if you: h) sinned (and/or) i) were a hypocrite (and/or) j) valued things over people (and) k) didn't do a, b, c, and d, then you were: l) fucked
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
I've tried to get the angel to watch MTV so I can learn the vocabulary of your music, but even with the gift of tongues, I'm having trouble learning to speak hip-hop. Why is it that one can busta rhyme or busta move anywhere but you must busta cap in someone's ass? Is "ho" always feminine, and "muthafucka" always masculine, while "bitch" can be either? How many peeps in a posse, how much booty before baby got back, do you have to be all that to get all up in that, and do I need to be dope and phat to be da bomb or can I just be "stupid"? I'll not be singing over any dead mothers until I understand.
Christopher Moore (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal)
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel! The bum's as holy as the seraphim! the madman is holy as you my soul are holy! The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are holy the ecstasy is holy! Holy Peter holy Allen holy Solomon holy Lucien holy Kerouac holy Huncke holy Burroughs holy Cas- sady holy the unknown buggered and suffering beggars holy the hideous human angels! Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks of the grandfathers of Kansas! Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop apocalypse! Holy the jazzbands marijuana hipsters peace & junk & drums! Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the mysterious rivers of tears under the streets! Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebell- ion! Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles! Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria & Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow Holy Istanbul! Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space holy the fourth dimension holy the fifth International holy the Angel in Moloch! Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad holy the locomotive holy the visions holy the hallucina- tions holy the miracles holy the eyeball holy the abyss! Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours! bodies! suffering! magnanimity! Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!
Allen Ginsberg (Howl and Other Poems)
Night, forever. But within it, a city, shadowy and only real in certain ways. The entity cowered in its alley, where the mist was rising. This could not have happened! Yet it had. The streets had filled with… things. Animals! Birds! Changing shape! Screaming and yelling! And, above it all, higher than the rooftops, a lamb rocking back and forth in great slow motions, thundering over the cobbles… And then bars had come down, slamming down, and the entity had been thrown back. But it had been so close! It had saved the creature, it was getting through, it was beginning to have control… and now this… In the darkness of the inner city, above the rustle of the never-ending rain, it heard the sound of boots approaching. A shape appeared in the mist. It drew nearer. Water cascaded off a metal helmet and an oiled leather cloak as the figure stopped and, entirely unconcerned, cupped its had in front of its face and lit a cigar. Then the match was dropped on the cobbles, where it hissed out, and the figure said: “What are you?” The entity stirred, like an old fish in a deep pool. It was too tired to flee. “I am the Summoning Dark.” It was not, in fact, a sound, but had it been, it would have been a hiss. “Who are you?” “I am the Watchman.” “They would have killed his family!” The darkness lunged, and met resistance. “Think of the deaths they have caused! Who are you to stop me?” “He created me. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchmen? Me. I watch him. Always. You will not force him to murder for you.” “What kind of human creates his own policeman?” “One who fears the dark.” “And so he should,” said the entity, with satisfaction. “Indeed. But I think you misunderstand. I am not here to keep the darkness out. I am here to keep it in.” There was a clink of metal as the shadowy watchman lifted a dark lantern and opened its little door. Orange light cut through the blackness. “Call me… the Guarding Dark. Imagine how strong I must be.” The Summoning Dark backed desperately into the alley, but the light followed it, burning it. “And now,” said the watchman, “get out of town.
Terry Pratchett (Thud! (Discworld, #34; City Watch, #7))
I think one of the sweetest lessons taught by the Prophet, and yet one of the saddest, occurred close to the time of his death. He was required to leave his plan and vision of the Rocky Mountains and give himself up to face a court of supposed justice. These are his words: 'I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men' (D&C 135:4). That statement of the Prophet teaches us obedience to law and the importance of having a clear conscience toward God and toward our fellowmen. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught these principles--by example. There was to be one great final lesson before his mortal life ended. He was incarcerated in Carthage Jail with his brother Hyrum, with John Taylor, and with Willard Richards. The angry mob stormed the jail; they came up the stairway, blasphemous in their cursing, heavily armed, and began to fire at will. Hyrum was hit and died. John Taylor took several balls of fire within his bosom. The Prophet Joseph, with his pistol in hand, was attempting to defend his life and that of his brethren, and yet he could tell from the pounding on the door that this mob would storm that door and would kill John Taylor and Willard Richards in an attempt to kill him. And so his last great act here upon the earth was to leave the door and lead Willard Richards to safety, throw the gun on the floor, and go to the window, that they might see him, that the attention of this ruthless mob might be focused upon him rather than the others. Joseph Smith gave his life. Willard Richards was spared, and John Taylor recovered from his wounds. 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends' (John 15:13). The Prophet Joseph Smith taught us love--by example.
Thomas S. Monson
I sought a soul that might resemble mine, and I could not find it. I scanned all the crannies of the earth: my perseverance was useless. Yet I could not remain alone. There had to be someone who would approve of my character; there had to be someone with the same ideas as myself. It was morning. The sun in all his magnificence rose on the horizon, and behold, there also appeared before my eyes a young man whose presence made flowers grow as he passed. He approached me and held out his hand: “I have come to you, you who seek me. Let us give thanks for this happy day.” But I replied: “Go! I did not summon you. I do not need your friendship… .” It was evening. Night was beginning to spread the blackness of her veil over nature. A beautiful woman whom I could scarcely discern also exerted her bewitching sway upon me and looked at me with compassion. She did not, however, dare speak to me. I said: “Come closer that I may discern your features clearly, for at this distance the starlight is not strong enough to illumine them.” Then, with modest demeanour, eyes lowered, she crossed the greensward and reached my side. I said as soon as I saw her: “I perceive that goodness and justice have dwelt in your heart: we could not live together. Now you are admiring my good looks which have bowled over more than one woman. But sooner or later you would regret having consecrated your love to me, for you do not know my soul. Not that I shall be unfaithful to you: she who devotes herself to me with so much abandon and trust — with the same trust and abandon do I devote myself to her. But get this into your head and never forget it: wolves and lambs look not on one another with gentle eyes.” What then did I need, I who rejected with disgust what was most beautiful in humanity!
Comte de Lautréamont (Maldoror and the Complete Works)