N Quotes

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

If you were half as funny as you think you are, you'd be twice as funny as you really are.
H.N. Turteltaub (The Sacred Land (Hellenic Traders, #3))
Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.
José N. Harris (MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love)
Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.
Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things.
N. Scott Momaday (The Way to Rainy Mountain)
The tattoo is just setting below his hp bone. H e l l i s e m p t y a n d a l l t h e d e v i l s a r e h e r e I kiss my way across the words. Kissing away the devils. Kissing away the pain.
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas." ("The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.")
Charles Baudelaire (Paris Spleen)
So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take can sometimes be the most painful...
José N. Harris (MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love)
As far as I am concerned, poetry is a statement concerning the human condition, composed in verse.
N. Scott Momaday
In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.
N.K. Jemisin (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1))
misgivings, n. Last night, I got up the courage to ask you if you regretted us. "There are things I miss," you said. "But if I didn't have you, I'd miss more.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.
John Milton (Paradise Lost)
I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.
Robert Munsch (Love You Forever)
That's the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as a lifetime. You get a lot done
Banana Yoshimoto (N.P)
I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Timequake)
abyss, n. There are times when I doubt everything. When I regret everything you've taken from me, everything I've given you, and the waste of all the time I've spent on us.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
When you think of me, I hope it ruins rock 'n' roll
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones & The Six)
Sweater, n. Garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter.
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
Look at me, with my pretty bracelet and tiara... I'm a f****n' princess!
Gerard Way
Hate hurts the hater more'n the hated.
Madeleine L'Engle
For all those that have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question.
N.K. Jemisin (The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1))
Je suis comme ça. Ou j'oublie tout de suite ou je n'oublie jamais." Samuel BECKETT, En attendant Godot I'm like that. Either I forget right away or I never forget.
Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
Some guy said to me: Don't you think you're too old to sing rock n' roll? I said: You'd better check with Mick Jagger.
Cher
Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
prom·ise (ˈpräməs) n. pl. - es. 1. The lie you want to keep. [2015, Whittier]
Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything)
There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don't teach anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one's character, one's mind, one's heart or one's soul.
José N. Harris
We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.
N.K. Jemisin (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1))
I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that After-life to spell: And by and by my Soul return'd to me, And answer'd: 'I Myself am Heav'n and Hell
Omar Khayyám
love, n. I'm not even going to try.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
Never apologize for showing your feelings. When you do, you are apologizing for the truth.
José N. Harris (MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love)
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. (Il n'y a qu'un bonheur dans la vie, c'est d'aimer et d'être aimé.)
George Sand
Little Alice fell d o w n the hOle, bumped her head and bruised her soul
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
William Shakespeare (Richard III)
Il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action. (There is no reality except in action.)
Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialism is a Humanism)
Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
If you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - Carpe - hear it? – Carpe, Carpe Diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.
N.K. Jemisin (The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1))
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.
N.K. Jemisin (The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3))
abstraction, n. Love is one kind of abstraction. And then there are those nights when I sleep alone, when I curl into a pillow that isn't you, when I hear the tiptoe sounds that aren't yours. It's not as if I can conjure you up completely. I must embrace the idea of you instead.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
What's the n-never-fail universal apology?" "'I was badly misinformed, I deeply regret the error, go fuck yourself with this bag of money.
Scott Lynch (The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3))
Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
John Milton (Paradise Lost)
Ocean, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man — who has no gills.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are not as they ought to be.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.
N.T. Wright (Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church)
Dw i'n dy garu di am byth," he said. "I love you. Always.
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
Ar fi înspăimântător să crezi că din tot acest cosmos atât de armonios, desăvârşit şi egal cu sine, numai viaţa omului se petrece la întâmplare, numai destinul lui n-are nici un sens.
Mircea Eliade (Nuntă în cer)
But poetry, romance, love, beauty? These are what we stay alive for!
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Scriptures, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)
Blaise Pascal (Pascal's Pensees)
Rock 'n' roll is not red carpets and MySpace friends, rock'n'roll is dangerous and should piss people off
Gerard Way
flux, n. The natural state. Our moods change. Our lives change. Our feelings for each other change. Our bearings change. The song changes. The air changes. The temperature of the shower changes. Accept this. We must accept this.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.” “It must come sometimes to ‘jam to-day,’” Alice objected. “No, it ca’n’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know
Lewis Carroll (Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2))
Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself.
N.D. Wilson (Dandelion Fire (100 Cupboards, #2))
yearning, n. and adj. At the core of this desire is the belief that everything can be perfect.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
Even so, there were times I saw freshness and beauty. I could smell the air, and I really loved rock 'n' roll. Tears were warm, and girls were beautiful, like dreams. I liked movie theaters, the darkness and intimacy, and I liked the deep, sad summer nights.
Haruki Murakami (Dance Dance Dance)
Nakalimutan na ng tao ang kabanalan n'ya, na mas marami pa s'yang alam kesa sa nakasulat sa Transcript of Records n'ya, mas marami pa s'yang kayang gawin kesa sa nakalista sa resume n'ya, at mas mataas ang halaga n'ya kesa sa presyong nakasulat sa payslip n'ya tuwing sweldo.
Bob Ong (ABNKKBSNPLAKo?! (Mga Kwentong Chalk ni Bob Ong))
But for a society buit on exploitation, there is no greater threat than having no one left to oppress.
N.K. Jemisin (The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3))
We don't read and write poetry because its cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is full of passion.
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary)
It is clearly absurd to limit the term 'education' to a person's formal schooling.
Murray N. Rothbard (Education: Free & Compulsory)
Halt you villains! Unhand that science!
N.D. Stevenson
- If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means "first Attempt In Learning" - End is not the end, if fact E.N.D. means "Effort Never Dies" - If you get No as an answer, remember N.O. means "Next Opportunity". So Let's be positive. "Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam of feel LIFE
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
Murray N. Rothbard
Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.
William Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
Carpe Diem,” Keating whispered loudly. “Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.
N.H. Kleinbaum (Dead Poets Society)
Being useful to others is not the same thing as being equal.
N.K. Jemisin (The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2))
Heav'n hath no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
William Congreve
i’m pretty sure you have s t a r d u s t running through those v e i n s.   - women are some kind of magic.
Amanda Lovelace (The Princess Saves Herself in this One)
Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
Heathen, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something he can see and feel.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
On Undecided Voter​s: "To put them in perspective, I think​ of being​ on an airplane.​ The flight attendant comes​ down the aisle​ with her food cart and, eventually,​ parks​ it beside my seat.​ “Can I inter​est you in the chick​en?​” she asks.​ “Or would​ you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broke​n glass​ in it?” To be undecided in this elect​ion is to pause​ for a moment and then ask how the chick​en is cooked.
David Sedaris
Ballycumber (ba-li-KUM-ber) n. One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed.
Douglas Adams (The Deeper Meaning of Liff: A Dictionary of Things There Aren't Any Words for Yet--But There Ought to Be)
We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own. The Igbo, always practical, put it concretely in their proverb Onye ji onye n'ani ji onwe ya: "He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.
Chinua Achebe (The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays)
I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a shingle falling off a house. I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp and as a blimp operator loves to chase after it. I will love you as a dagger loves a certain person’s back, and as a certain person loves to wear dagger proof tunics, and as a dagger proof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair of binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home. I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled. I will love you until every fire is extinguised and until every home is rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a nest, although honestly I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try. I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where we once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from slim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog. I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you don’t see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and now matter how I am discovered after what happens to me as I am discovering this.
Lemony Snicket
You want this?" His voice was hoarse. "Yes," she said. "Do you?" His finger traced the outline of her mouth. "For this I would have been damned forever. For this I would have given up everything." She felt the burn behind her eyes, the pressure of tears, and blinked wet eyelashes. "Will ..." "Dw i'n dy garu di am byth," he said. "I love you. Always." And he moved to cover her body with his own.
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3))
And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women - except, of course —those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape ‘kit ‘n’ stuff, But for everybody else, it’s a win-win. Unless you’re a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know - actually, I take it back. The whole thing’s a disaster.
Tina Fey
Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there's a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won't let the pain blot out the humor no more'n he'll let the humor blot out the pain.
Ken Kesey
Aunt Mercy put down her tiles, one at a time. I-T-C-H-I-N. Aunt Grace leaned closer to the board, squinting. "Mercy Lynne, you're cheatin' again! What kinda word is that? Use it in a sentence." "I'm itchin' ta have some a that white cake." "That's not how you spell it." At least one of them could spell. Aunt Grace pulled one of the tiles off the board. "There's no T in itchin'." Or not.
Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1))
Redemption, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religions, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it.
Ambrose Bierce (The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary)
But there are none so frightened, or so strange in their fear, as conquerors. They conjure phantoms endlessly, terrified that their victims will someday do back what was done to them—even if, in truth, their victims couldn’t care less about such pettiness and have moved on. Conquerors live in dread of the day when they are shown to be, not superior, but simply lucky.
N.K. Jemisin (The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3))
lover, n. Oh, how I hated this word. So pretentious, like it was always being translated from the French. The tint and taint of illicit, illegitimate affections. Dictionary meaning: a person having a love affair. Impermanent. Unfamilial. Inextricably linked to sex. I have never wanted a lover. In order to have a lover, I must go back to the root of the word. For I have never wanted a lover, but I have always wanted lover, and to be loved. There is no word for the recipient of the love. There is only a word for the giver. There is the assumption that lovers come in pairs. When I say, Be my lover, I don't mean, Let's have an affair. I don't mean Sleep with me. I don't mean, Be my secret. I want us to go back to that root. I want you to be the one who loves me. I want to be the one who loves you.
David Levithan (The Lover's Dictionary)
Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Tell them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at those contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they'll break themselves trying for what they'll never achieve
N.K. Jemisin (The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1))
The ugly parts of love can’t lift you up. They bring you D O W N. They hold you under. Drown you. You look up and think, I wish I was up there. But you’re not. Ugly love becomes you. Consumes you. Makes you hate it all. Makes you realize that all the beautiful parts aren’t even worth it. Without the beautiful, you’ll never risk feeling this. You’ll never risk feeling the ugly. So you give it up. You give it all up. You never want love again, no matter what kind it is, because no type of love will ever be worth living through the ugly love again. I’ll never let myself love anyone again, Rachel. Ever.
Colleen Hoover (Ugly Love)
First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches. May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty. When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer. Guide her, protect her When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age. Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels. What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit. May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers. Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait. O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed. And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it. And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.
Tina Fey (Bossypants)
There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who do not. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.
José N. Harris
Hindi ako naniniwalang kailangan ng tao mangarap dahil gusto n’ya ng pera, o gusto n’yang sumikat, o gusto n’ya ng impluwensya. Side effects na lang ang mga ‘to, sa tingin ko. Nangangarap ang tao dahil binigyan s’ya ng Diyos ng kakayanang mangarap at tumupad nito. Tungkulin n’yang pagbutihin ang pagkatao n’ya at mag-ambag ng tulong sa mundo. At wala na s’yang iba pang magagawang mas malaking kasalanan sa sarili bukod sa talikuran ang tungkuling yon…
Bob Ong (Stainless Longganisa)
As I focus on diligent joy, I also keep remembering a simple idea my friend Darcey told me once -- that all the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people. Not only in the big global Hitler-'n'-Stalin picture, but also on the smallest personal level. Even in my own life, I can see exactly where my episodes of unhappiness have brought suffering or distress or (at the very least) inconvenience to those around me. The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
I used to love the ocean. Everything about her. Her coral reefs, her white caps, her roaring waves, the rocks they lap, her pirate legends and mermaid tails, Treasures lost and treasures held... And ALL Of her fish In the sea. Yes, I used to love the ocean, Everything about her. The way she would sing me to sleep as I lay in my bed then wake me with a force That I soon came to dread. Her fables, her lies, her misleading eyes, I'd drain her dry If I cared enough to. I used to love the ocean, Everything about her. Her coral reefs, her white caps, her roaring waves, the rocks they lap, her pirate legends and mermaid tails, treasures lost and treasures held. And ALL Of her fish In the sea. Well, if you've ever tried navigating your sailboat through her stormy seas, you would realize that her white caps are your enemies. If you've ever tried swimming ashore when your leg gets a cramp and you just had a huge meal of In-n-Out burgers that's weighing you down, and her roaring waves are knocking the wind out of you, filling your lungs with water as you flail your arms, trying to get someone's attention, but your friends just wave back at you? And if you've ever grown up with dreams in your head about life, and how one of these days you would pirate your own ship and have your own crew and that all of the mermaids would love only you? Well, you would realize... Like I eventually realized... That all the good things about her? All the beautiful? It's not real. It's fake. So you keep your ocean, I'll take the Lake.
Colleen Hoover
Don't forget the real business of war is buying and selling. The murdering and violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimolous to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets.
Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow)
A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears. C is for Clara who wasted away. D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh. E is for Ernest who choked on a peach. F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech. G is for George smothered under a rug. H is for Hector done in by a thug. I is for Ida who drowned in a lake. J is for James who took lye by mistake. K is for Kate who was struck with an axe. L is for Leo who choked on some tacks. M is for Maud who was swept out to sea. N is for Neville who died of ennui. O is for Olive run through with an awl. P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl. Q is for Quentin who sank on a mire. R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire. S is for Susan who perished of fits. T is for Titus who flew into bits. U is for Una who slipped down a drain. V is for Victor squashed under a train. W is for Winnie embedded in ice. X is for Xerxes devoured by mice. Y is for Yorick whose head was bashed in. Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.
Edward Gorey
When people dis fantasy—mainstream readers and SF readers alike—they are almost always talking about one sub-genre of fantastic literature. They are talking about Tolkien, and Tolkien's innumerable heirs. Call it 'epic', or 'high', or 'genre' fantasy, this is what fantasy has come to mean. Which is misleading as well as unfortunate. Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature. His oeuvre is massive and contagious—you can't ignore it, so don't even try. The best you can do is consciously try to lance the boil. And there's a lot to dislike—his cod-Wagnerian pomposity, his boys-own-adventure glorying in war, his small-minded and reactionary love for hierarchical status-quos, his belief in absolute morality that blurs moral and political complexity. Tolkien's clichés—elves 'n' dwarfs 'n' magic rings—have spread like viruses. He wrote that the function of fantasy was 'consolation', thereby making it an article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader. That is a revolting idea, and one, thankfully, that plenty of fantasists have ignored. From the Surrealists through the pulps—via Mervyn Peake and Mikhael Bulgakov and Stefan Grabiński and Bruno Schulz and Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison and I could go on—the best writers have used the fantastic aesthetic precisely to challenge, to alienate, to subvert and undermine expectations. Of course I'm not saying that any fan of Tolkien is no friend of mine—that would cut my social circle considerably. Nor would I claim that it's impossible to write a good fantasy book with elves and dwarfs in it—Michael Swanwick's superb Iron Dragon's Daughter gives the lie to that. But given that the pleasure of fantasy is supposed to be in its limitless creativity, why not try to come up with some different themes, as well as unconventional monsters? Why not use fantasy to challenge social and aesthetic lies? Thankfully, the alternative tradition of fantasy has never died. And it's getting stronger. Chris Wooding, Michael Swanwick, Mary Gentle, Paul di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, and many others, are all producing works based on fantasy's radicalism. Where traditional fantasy has been rural and bucolic, this is often urban, and frequently brutal. Characters are more than cardboard cutouts, and they're not defined by race or sex. Things are gritty and tricky, just as in real life. This is fantasy not as comfort-food, but as challenge. The critic Gabe Chouinard has said that we're entering a new period, a renaissance in the creative radicalism of fantasy that hasn't been seen since the New Wave of the sixties and seventies, and in echo of which he has christened the Next Wave. I don't know if he's right, but I'm excited. This is a radical literature. It's the literature we most deserve.
China Miéville