β
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The day my internet was hooked up was better than having a hot guy check out my butt and ask for my phone number.
β
β
Jennifer L. Armentrout (Obsidian (Lux, #1))
β
Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out.
β
β
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikerβs Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1))
β
There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite.
β
β
Carlos Ruiz ZafΓ³n (The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1))
β
Thatβs the worst way to miss somebody. When theyβre right beside you and you miss them anyway.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
It's the little mistakes that lead to big mistakes.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
β
I delete the picture of him from my phone; I delete his number. I think that if I just delete him enough, it will be like none of it ever happened and my heart won't hurt so badly
β
β
Jenny Han (To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #1))
β
The best way to measure how much you've grown isn't by inches or the number of laps you can now run around the track, or even your grade point average-- though those things are important, to be sure. It's what you've done with your time, how you've chosen to spend your days, and whom you've touched this year. That, to me, is the greatest measure of success.
β
β
R.J. Palacio (Wonder (Wonder, #1))
β
Killing time isn't as difficult as it sounds.
I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1))
β
In the beginning we were a group of nine.
Three are gone, dead.
There are six of us left.
They are hunting us, and they won't stop until they've killed us all.
I am Number Four.
I know that I am next.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The price of a memory, is the memory of the sorrow it brings.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
We don't have to be defined by the things we did or didn't do in our past. Some people allow themselves to be controlled by regret. Maybe it's a regret, maybe it's not. It's merely something that happened. Get over it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis. She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
If we're mad, we're mad in large numbers, at least larger than yours.
β
β
Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern, #1))
β
And even if we were hunting vampires, what the hell is the Silly Putty for?
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
How did you get my number?" I blurted, before I could stop myself.
"It's called research." I could hear him smirking over the phone.
"Or stalking."
Noah chuckled. "You're adorable when you're bitchy."
"You're not," I said, but smiled despite myself.
β
β
Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1))
β
Aglionby Academy was the number one reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away from boys because they were trouble. And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1))
β
You get use to someoneβstart to like them, evenβand they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.
β
β
Rachel Ward (Numbers (Numbers, #1))
β
Those things that are the most obvious are the very things we've most likely to overlook.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
At some point, Roth had gotten hold of my cell and replaced Zayne's name with Stony and listed his own number under Sexy Beast. What a tool
β
β
Jennifer L. Armentrout (White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements, #1))
β
No. Don't give up hope just yet. It's the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great sat-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because-like all real love stories-it will die with us, as it should. I'd hoped that he'd be eulogizing me, because there's no one I'd rather have..." I started crying. "Okay, how not to cry. How am I-okay. Okay."
I took a few deep breaths and went back to the page. "I can't talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a Bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
You know the saying: he who doesn't understand history is doomed to repeat it. And when it's repeated, the stakes are doubled.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I quickly tried to do the math but my brain was a jumbled mess and I couldnβt remember what number comes after potato!
β
β
Tara Sivec (Seduction and Snacks (Chocolate Lovers, #1))
β
Arthur: If I asked you where the hell we were, would I regret it?
Ford: We're safe.
Arthur: Oh good.
Ford: We're in a small galley cabin in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet.
Arthur: Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.
β
β
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikerβs Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1))
β
This is a work of fiction. Still, given an infinite number of possible worlds, it must be true on one of them. And if a story set in an infinite number of possible worlds is true in one of them, then it must be true in all of them. So maybe, it's not as fictional as we think.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (InterWorld (InterWorld, #1))
β
A place is only as good as the people in it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I've never created a riot before. I did cause a brawl at the last formal. A large number of young women there actually arrived with the expectation of seducing me into matrimony, and a couple of their mothers came to blows. It was hilariβI mean, dreadful. Simply dreadful.
β
β
Ilona Andrews (On the Edge (The Edge, #1))
β
We really are little book whores,aren't we?Not just in the number of books that we read,but the number of guys we are in love with.
β
β
Erin Noelle (Metamorphosis (Book Boyfriend, #1))
β
Best way to deal with fear is to confront it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
If it had a social security number, Ronan had fought with it.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1))
β
Rule number one of anime," Simon said. He sat propped up against a pile of pillows at the foot of his bed, a bag of potato chips in one hand and the TV remote in the other. He was wearing a black T-shirt that said I BLOGGED YOUR MOM and a pair of jeans that were ripped in one knee. "Never screw with a blind monk.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
I am an alien, I have extraordinary powers, with more to come, and I can do things that no human would dream of, but I still look like a fool.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
One of the gifts our planet gave us is to love completely. Without jealousy or insecurity or fear. Without pettiness. Without anger.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
He kept his head down in what seemed to be a prayer. βHe counts. Youβve smiled at him four hundred and forty-six times as of a few minutes ago. He announces the number every time I see him.
β
β
Debra Anastasia (Poughkeepsie (Poughkeepsie Brotherhood, #1))
β
I'll come back to you," I say. "I promise you, if it's the last thing I do, I'll come back to you."
Her face is buried in my neck. She nods.
"I'll count the minutes until you do." she says.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
Oh, do you have A Tale of Two Cities?"
"That silly thing? Men going around getting their heads chopped off for love? Ridiculus." Will unpeeled himself from the door and made his way toward Tessa where she stood by the bookshelves. He gestured expansively at the vast number of volumes all around him. "No, here you'll find all sorts of advice about how to chop off someone else's head if you need to; much more useful.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1))
β
How'd you get this number?"
"Well, you see, there's this book. It has white pages. And it has all these phone numbers listed inside it. It's also online.
β
β
Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1))
β
Your number was up the first time I met you.
β
β
Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
β
Numbers do not feel. Do not bleed or weep or hope. They do not know bravery or sacrifice. Love and allegiance. At the very apex of callousness, you will find only ones and zeros.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
I thought research would be more glamorous, somehow. I'd give the librarian a secret code word and he'd give me the one book I needed and whisper the necessary page numbers. Like a speakeasy. With books.
β
β
Libba Bray (The Diviners (The Diviners, #1))
β
I'll come back to you," I say, "If it's the last thing I do, I'll come back to you.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The fact was, by the time she got to high school, being weird and proud of it was an asset. Suddenly cool, Blue could've happily had any number of friends. And she had tried. But the problem with being weird was that everyone else was 'normal'".
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1))
β
What do you like?"
"Music. Numbers. Equations. They're not like words. They ... they don't get mixed up."
"If only you could talk to girls in equations."
There was a long silence, and then, eyes trained on the notch they'd created in the link, Wylan said, "Just girls?"
Jesper restrained a grin. "No. Not just girls."
It really was a shame they were all probably going to die tonight.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
β
It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going round to atheists' houses and smashing their windows.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1))
β
All I can think about is what she must be doing, and how I wish she were still here.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
β
Ok. don't panic. Don't panic. It's only a VISA bill. It's a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be?
β
β
Sophie Kinsella (Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic, #1))
β
It is better to be loved by one person who knows your soul than millions who don't even know your phone number.
β
β
Richard Paul Evans (The Walk (The Walk, #1))
β
I am your instructor", he says."My name is Four".
Christina asks, "Four? Like the number?"
"Yes", Four says. "Is there a problem?"
"No."
"Good. We're about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It-"
Christina snickers. "The Pit? Clever name."
Four walks up to Christina and leans his face close to hers. His eyes narrow, and for a second he just stares at her.
"What's your name?" he asks quietly.
"Christina", she squeaks.
"Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction", he hisses.
"The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut.Got that?
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.
β
β
Frank Herbert (Dune (Dune, #1))
β
You sit at a desk twelve hours a day and you have nothing to show for it except some numbers that won't exist or be remembered in a week. You're leaving no evidence you lived. There's no proof.
β
β
Dave Eggers (The Circle (The Circle, #1))
β
One of the Georges - I forget which - once said that a certain number of hours' sleep each night - I cannot recall at the moment how many - made a man something which for the time being has slipped my memory.
β
β
P.G. Wodehouse (Mike and Psmith (Psmith, #1))
β
Four.
Thatβs the number of people who saw me hiding around the corner from my own apartment in just a skirt and a bra. Eleven.
Thatβs the number of ant bites I got on my shoeless feet.
Twenty-seven.
Thatβs the number of times I was tempted to do myself physical harm because I am an IDIOT.
One.
Thatβs the number of times I tried not to cry, but failed.
β
β
Cora Carmack (Losing It (Losing It, #1))
β
Kisses should not leave you satisfied. They should leave you wanting.
β
β
Sarah MacLean (Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love By Numbers, #1))
β
There are three kinds of males in this world: boys, guys, and men. Boys β like Billy β never grow up, never get serious. They only care about themselves, their music, their cars. Guys β like you β are all about numbers and variety. Like an assembly line, itβs just one one-night stand after another. Then there are men β like Matthew. Theyβre not perfect, but they appreciate women for more than their flexibility and mouth suction.
β
β
Emma Chase (Tangled (Tangled, #1))
β
One thousand brilliant stars punched holes in my consciousness, pricking me with longing. I could stare at the stars for hours, their infinite number and depth pulling me into a part of myself that I ignored during the day.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1))
β
He who doesn't understand history is doomed to repeat it.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
But think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it.
β
β
Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1))
β
Danny, give me the phone." Isobel thrust her hand out for the receiver. "And you can forget the five bucks."
"I was gonna charge you three-fifty anyway," he said, holding the phone just out of reach. "He knew he hadn't dialed the wrong number, so I had to tell him you were on the crapper.
β
β
Kelly Creagh (Nevermore (Nevermore, #1))
β
My heart is breaking," she says. "I want to be strong for you right now but the thought of you leaving is killing me inside.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I never thought it would get this bad. I never thought the Reestablishment would take things so far. They're incinerating culture, the beauty of diversity. The new citizens of our world will be reduced to nothing but numbers, easily interchangeable, easily removable, easily destroyed for disobedience.
We have lost our humanity.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1))
β
We were masters of nature, masters of the world. We had forgotten everything--death, fatigue, our natural needs. Stronger than cold or hunger, stronger than the shots and the desire to die, condemned and wandering, mere numbers, we were the only men on earth.
β
β
Elie Wiesel (Night)
β
It wasn't long before I had the urge to glance inside. I then had a slight moment of panic. Number one, Big John was walking out the door with a meat cleaver gleaming in his hand. Yes, a meat cleaver.
Number two, he was glaring at Caleb like he was the devil himself.
β
β
Shelly Crane (Significance (Significance, #1))
β
The first pair Opal and Amber are,
Agate sings in B flat, the wolf avatar,
A duet-solutio! - with Aquamarine.
Mighty Emerald next, with the lovely Citrine.
Number Eight is digestio, her stand is Jade fine.
E major's the key of the Black Tourmaline,
Sapphire sings in F major, and bright is her sheen.
Then almost at once comes Diamond alone,
Whose sign of the lion as Leo is known.
Projectio! Time flows on, both present and past.
Ruby red is the first and is also the last.
β
β
Kerstin Gier (Ruby Red (Precious Stone Trilogy, #1))
β
You mean they killed her?" asked David.
They ate her," said Brother Number One. "With porridge. That's what 'ran away and was never seen again' means in these parts. It means 'eaten.'"
Um and what about 'happily ever after'?" asked David, a little uncertainly. "What does that mean?"
Eaten quickly," said Brother Number One.
β
β
John Connolly (The Book of Lost Things (The Book of Lost Things, #1))
β
There were hugs. There were words said by each of them. I don't remember what they were. Nothing haunts me more.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
The problem, of course, was that turning into a monster was the brighter of my two choices. Choice Number 1: I turn into a vampyre, which equals a monster in just about any humanβs mind. Choice Number 2: My body rejects the Change and I die. Forever.
So the good news is that I wouldnβt have to take the geometry test tomorrow.
β
β
Kristin Cast (Marked (House of Night, #1))
β
Myron reached for the phone and dialed Win's number. After the eighth ring he began to hang up when a weak, distant voice coughed. "Hello?"
Win?"
Yeah."
You okay?"
Hello?"
Win?"
Yeah."
What took you so long to answer the phone?"
Hello?"
Win?"
Who is this?"
Myron."
Myron Bolitar?"
How many other Myrons do you know?"
Myron Bolitar?"
No, Myron Rockefeller."
Something's wrong," Win said.
What?"
Terribly wrong."
What are you talking about?"
Some asshole is calling me at seven in the morning pretending to be my best friend."
Sorry, I forgot the time.
β
β
Harlan Coben (Deal Breaker (Myron Bolitar, #1))
β
What do you like?'
'Music. Numbers. Equations. They're not like words. They...they don't get mixed up.'
'If only you could talk to girls in equations.'
There was a long silence, and then, eyes trained on the notch they'd created in the link, Wylan said, 'Just girls?'
Jesper restrained a grin. 'No, not just girls.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
β
Archer?β I asked, raising my eyebrows. Hey, you might be able to take away my magical powers, but the power of sarcasm was still at my disposal. βIs your last name Newport or Vanderbilt? Maybe followed by some numbers? Ooh!β I said, widening my eyes, βor maybe even Esquire!β
Iβd hoped to hurt his feelings or, at the very least, make him angry, but he just kept smiling at me. βActually, itβs Archer Cross, and Iβm the first one. Now what about you?β He squinted. βLetβs see . . . brown hair, freckles, whole girl-next-door vibe going on . . . Allie? Lacie? Definitely something cutesy ending in ie.β
You know those times when your mouth moves but no sound actually comes out? Yeah, thatβs pretty much what happened. And then, of course, my mom took that opportunity to end her conversation with Justinβs parents and call out, βSophie! Wait up.β
βI knew it.β Archer laughed. βSee you, Sophie,β he called over his shoulder as he disappeared into the house.
β
β
Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall (Hex Hall, #1))
β
I smile at her. "You're an angel."
"Nah," she says.
"I'm just a girl crazy in love.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
I don't know where you have to go or what you have to do, but I'll wait for you, John. Every bit of my heart belongs to you, whether you ask for it or not.
β
β
Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
β
There was a girl, and her uncle sold her. Put like that it seems so simple.
No man, proclaimed Donne, is an island, and he was wrong. If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each other's tragedies. We are insulated (a word that means, literally, remember, made into an island) from the tragedy of others, by our island nature and by the repetitive shape and form of the stories. The shape does not change: there was a human being who was born, lived and then by some means or other, died. There. You may fill in the details from your own experience. As unoriginal as any other tale, as unique as any other life. Lives are snowflakes- forming patterns we have seen before, as like one another as peas in a pod (and have you ever looked at peas in a pod? I mean, really looked at them? There's not a chance you'll mistake one for another, after a minute's close inspection) but still unique.
Without individuals we see only numbers, a thousand dead, a hundred thousand dead, "casualties may rise to a million." With individual stories, the statistics become people- but even that is a lie, for the people continue to suffer in numbers that themselves are numbing and meaningless. Look, see the child's swollen, swollen belly and the flies that crawl at the corners of his eyes, this skeletal limbs: will it make it easier for you to know his name, his age, his dreams, his fears? To see him from the inside? And if it does, are we not doing a disservice to his sister, who lies in the searing dust beside him, a distorted distended caricature of a human child? And there, if we feel for them, are they now more important to us than a thousand other children touched by the same famine, a thousand other young lives who will soon be food for the flies' own myriad squirming children?
We draw our lines around these moments of pain, remain upon our islands, and they cannot hurt us. They are covered with a smooth, safe, nacreous layer to let them slip, pearllike, from our souls without real pain.
Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.
A life that is, like any other, unlike any other.
And the simple truth is this: There was a girl, and her uncle sold her.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (American Gods (American Gods, #1))
β
After World War Two, the Australian army had been re-organised into its peace-time army status. The army was primarily three battalions which together with supporting units, formed a regiment and the battalions making up the regiment were identified by both their number and the title of the regiment. This meant that the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment was identified by the initials of 1RAR. The two other battalions were identified as 2RAR or 3RAR. At the height of Australiaβs commitment to the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War) Australia had a total of nine battalions which were later called the First Division.
β
β
Michael G. Kramer (A Gracious Enemy)
β
In every important way we are such secrets from one another, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, intraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us.
β
β
Marilynne Robinson (Gilead (Gilead, #1))
β
I've spent twenty-eight years doing what everyone around me expected me to do...being what everyone around me has expected me to be. And it's horrid to be someone else's vision of yourself.
β
β
Sarah MacLean (Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love By Numbers, #1))
β
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities... I cannot tell you how grateful I am for our little infinity. You gave me forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
My name isn't Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it's forbidden. I tell myself it doesn't matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I'll come back to dig up, one day. I think of this name as buried. This name has an aura around it, like an amulet, some charm that's survived from an unimaginably distant past. I lie in my single bed at night, with my eyes closed, and the name floats there behind my eyes, not quite within reach, shining in the dark.
β
β
Margaret Atwood (The Handmaidβs Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1))
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Since every country stands in numerous and various relations with the other countries of the world, and many, our own among the number, exercise actual authority over some of these, a knowledge of the established rules of international morality is essential to the duty of every nation, and therefore of every person in it who helps to make up the nation, and whose voice and feeling form a part of what is called public opinion. Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject. It depends on the habit of attending to and looking into public transactions, and on the degree of information and solid judgment respecting them that exists in the community, whether the conduct of the nation as a nation, both within itself and towards others, shall be selfish, corrupt, and tyrannical, or rational and enlightened, just and noble.
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John Stuart Mill (Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867 (Collected Works))
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I've got a few ideas," (Amy) admitted. "But I don't know where we're going in the long term. I mean - have you ever thought about what this ultimate treasure could be?"
"Something cool." (Dan)
"Oh, that's real helpful. I mean, what could make somebody the most powerful Cahill in history? And why thirty-nine clues?"
Dan shrugged. "Thirty-nine is a sweet number. It's thirteen times three. It's also the sum of five prime numbers in a row - 3,5,7,11,13. And if you add the first three powers of three, 3 to the first, 3 to the second, and s to the third, you get thirty-nine."
Amy stared at him. "How did you know that?"
"What do you mean? It's obvious.
β
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Rick Riordan (The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues, #1))
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I didn't feel like reading that night, so I went downstairs and watched a half-hour long commercial that advertised an exercise machine. They kept flashing a 1-800 number, so I called it. The woman who picked up the other end of the phone was named Michelle. And I told Michelle that I was a kid and did not need an exercise machine, but I hoped she was having a good night.
That's when Michelle hung up on me. And I didn't mind a bit.
β
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Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
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Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many--perhaps most--of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven--or hell.
How many of those potential heavens and hells are now inhabited, and by what manner of creatures, we have no way of guessing; the very nearest is a million times farther away than Mars or Venus, those still remote goals of the next generation. But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars.
Men have been slow to face this prospect; some still hope that it may never become reality. Increasing numbers, however are asking; 'Why have such meetings not occurred already, since we ourselves are about to venture into space?'
Why not, indeed? Here is one possible answer to that very reasonable question. But please remember: this is only a work of fiction.
The truth, as always, will be far stranger.
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Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1))
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The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million who live with HIV add up to 164.8 million needy children. And though at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left.
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Katie Davis (Kisses from Katie)
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The next minute or so was spent howling on the ceiling . Imp No.1 joined in, but he wasn't really feeling it. It shouldn't be "Who do we hate?", he thought, it really should be "whom", but this probably wasn't a good time to bring that up.
β
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Eoin Colfer
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At last he stopped, and she stared down at the printed column of words, unable to comprehend a single one. His hand, warm and steady, wound its way around hers, wrapping it like a spider would its prey. She surrendered it to him, unable to watch even as his thumb traced the place, just above her knuckles, where he had once written his number in deep violet. Isobel ceased to breathe. Her heart pounded in her chest, her thoughts shattering into senseless fragments. All the while, her eyes remained trained and unblinking on the open page. Lines without meaning stared up at her, little more than black sticks in an otherwise white world.
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Kelly Creagh (Nevermore (Nevermore, #1))
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The law of gravity and gravity itself did not exist before Isaac Newton." ...and what that means is that that law of gravity exists nowhere except in people's heads! It 's a ghost!"
Mind has no matter or energy but they can't escape its predominance over everything they do. Logic exists in the mind. numbers exist only in the mind. I don't get upset when scientists say that ghosts exist in the mind. it's that only that gets me. science is only in your mind too, it's just that that doesn't make it bad. or ghosts either."
Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts. Law of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts."
...we see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and Jefferson and Lincoln, on and on and on. Isaac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best. Your common sense is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past.
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Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1))
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Let me guess," said Clary. "On the inside it's an abandoned police station; from the outside, mundanes only see a condemned apartment building, or a vacant lot, orβ¦"
"Actually it looks like a Chinese restaurant from the outside," Luke said. "Takeout only, no table service."
"A Chinese restaurant?" Clary echoed in disbelief.
He shrugged. "Well, we are in Chinatown. This was the Second Precinct building once."
"People must think it's weird that there's no phone number to call for orders."
Luke grinned. "There is. We just don't answer it much. Sometimes, if they're bored, some of the cubs will deliver someone some mu shu pork."
"You're kidding."
"Not at all. The tips come in handy.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
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I can't take not knowing what the next day will bring- the uncertainty is sawing me in two. The room is dark. A flickering candle burns on the window ledge a few feet away. I take a deep breath, which is to say, as deep a breath as I can take.
"Are you okay?" Sarah asks.
I wrap my arms around her. "I miss you," I say.
"You miss me? But I'm right here."
"That's the worst way to miss somebody. When they' re right beside you and you miss them anyway.
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Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
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There is a crucifix, a few cloves of garlic, a wooden stake, a hammer, a blob of Silly Putty, and a pocketknife. βYou do realize these people arenβt vampires, right?β I say when Sam walks back in. βYeah, but you never know. Theyβre probably crazy, like you said.β βAnd even if we were hunting vampires, what the hell is the Silly Putty for?β He shrugs. βJust want to be prepared.
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Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
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I reached out blindly, clasped a warm hand, faded from life and into peace.
Well, that was what was supposed to happen.... Except an annoying, distracting tug kept pulling and yanking....
When I woke, I thought I had overcome the pull and stayed in the afterlife. Whiteness billowed over me in soft waves. My body was cushioned and cocooned in warmth. I stretched my legs and then tried to raise my arms, but my left arm wouldn't budge. Rolling over, I encountered a number of very unpleasant realities.
I was alive. I was in a room. I was naked except for a blood-stained bandage wrapped tight around my stomach. Kerrick lay beside me. And his hand trapped mine.
Kill. Me. Now.
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Maria V. Snyder (Touch of Power (Healer, #1))
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I'm so sorry, Henri," I whisper in his ear. I close my eyes. "I love you. I wouldn't have missed a second of it, either. Not for anything," I whisper. "I'm going to take you back yet. Somehow I am going to get you back to Lorien. We always joked about it but you were my father, the best father I could have ever asked for. I'll never forget you, not for a minute for as long as I live. I love you, Henri. I always did.
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Pittacus Lore (I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1))
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At lunch I turned my phone on to check my messages. Georgia always sent me a few inane texts during the day, and sure enough there were two messages from her: one complaining about her physics teacher and a second, also obviously sent from her phone: I love you, baby. V.
I wrote her back: I thought I told you to buzz off last night, you creep-o French stalker guy.
Her response came back immediately: As if! Your beet-red cheeks this morning suggest otherwise ... liar! You're so into him.
I groaned and was about to turn my phone off when I saw that there was a third text from UNKNOWN. Clicking on it, I read: Can I pick you up from school? Same place, same time?
I texted back: How'd you get my number?
Called myself from your phone while you were in the restaurant's bathroom last night. Warned you we were stalkers!
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Amy Plum (Die for Me (Revenants, #1))
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How to Leave the Planet
1. Phone NASA. Their phone number is (713) 483-3111. Explain that itβs very important that you get away as soon as possible.
2. If they do not cooperate, phone any friend you may have in the White Houseβ(202) 456-1414βto have a word on your behalf with the guys at NASA.
3. If you donβt have any friends in the White House, phone the Kremlin (ask the overseas operator for 0107-095-295-9051). They donβt have any friends there either (at least, none to speak of), but they do seem to have a little influence, so you may as well try.
4. If that also fails, phone the Pope for guidance. His telephone number is 011-39-6-6982, and I gather his switchboard is infallible.
5. If all these attempts fail, flag down a passing flying saucer and explain that itβs vitally important that you get away before your phone bill arrives.
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Douglas Adams
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Liam cleared his throat again and turned to fully face me. βSo, itβs the summer and youβre in Salem, suffering through another boring, hot July, and working part-time at an ice cream parlor. Naturally, youβre completely oblivious to the fact that all of the boys from your high school who visit daily are more interested in you than the thirty-one flavors. Youβre focused on school and all your dozens of clubs, because you want to go to a good college and save the world. And just when you think youβre going to die if you have to take another practice SAT, your dad asks if you want to go visit your grandmother in Virginia Beach.β
βYeah?β I leaned my forehead against his chest. βWhat about you?β
βMe?β Liam said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. βIβm in Wilmington, suffering through another boring, hot summer, working one last time in Harryβs repair shop before going off to some fancy universityβwhere, I might add, my roommate will be a stuck-up-know-it-all-with-a-heart-of-gold named Charles Carrington Meriwether IVβbut heβs not part of this story, not yet.β His fingers curled around my hip, and I could feel him trembling, even as his voice was steady. βTo celebrate, Mom decides to take us up to Virginia Beach for a week. Weβre only there for a day when I start catching glimpses of this girl with dark hair walking around town, her nose stuck in a book, earbuds in and blasting music. But no matter how hard I try, I never get to talk to her.
βThen, as our friend Fate would have it, on our very last day at the beach I spot her. You. Iβm in the middle of playing a volleyball game with Harry, but it feels like everyone else disappears. Youβre walking toward me, big sunglasses on, wearing this light green dress, and I somehow know that it matches your eyes. And then, because, letβs face it, Iβm basically an Olympic god when it comes to sports, I manage to volley the ball right into your face.β
βOuch,β I said with a light laugh. βSounds painful.β
βWell, you can probably guess how Iβd react to that situation. I offer to carry you to the lifeguard station, but you look like you want to murder me at just the suggestion. Eventually, thanks to my sparkling charm and witβand because Iβm so pathetic you take pity on meβyou let me buy you ice cream. And then you start telling me how you work in an ice cream shop in Salem, and how frustrated you feel that you still have two years before college. And somehow, somehow, I get your e-mail or screen name or maybe, if Iβm really lucky, your phone number. Then we talk. I go to college and you go back to Salem, but we talk all the time, about everything, and sometimes we do that stupid thing where we run out of things to say and just stop talking and listen to one another breathing until one of us falls asleepββ
ββand Chubs makes fun of you for it,β I added.
βOh, ruthlessly,β he agreed. βAnd your dad hates me because he thinks Iβm corrupting his beautiful, sweet daughter, but still lets me visit from time to time. Thatβs when you tell me about tutoring a girl named Suzume, who lives a few cities awayββ
ββbut whoβs the coolest little girl on the planet,β I manage to squeeze out.
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Alexandra Bracken (The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1))
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My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because-like all real love stories-it will die with us, as it should. I'd hoped that he'd be eulogizing me, because there's no one I'd rather have..." I started crying. "Okay, how not to cry. How am I-okay. Okay."
I took a few deep breaths and went back to the page. "I can't talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a Bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
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John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
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My, my," he said, looking the note over. "If only students would write this much in their essays. One of you has considerably worse writing than the other, so forgive me if I get anything wrong here." He cleared his throat."'So, I saw J last night,' begins the person with bad handwriting, to which the response is,'What happened,' followed by no fewer than five question marks. Understandable, since sometimes oneβlet alone fourβjust won't get the point across, eh?" The class laughed, and I noticed Mia throwing me a particularly mean smile. "The first speaker responds:'What do you think happened? We hooked up in one of the empty lounges.'β
Mr. Nagy glanced up after hearing some more giggles in the room. His British accent only added to the hilarity.
"May I assume by this reaction that the use of 'hook up' pertains to the more recent, shall we say,carnal application of the term than the tamer one I grew up with?β
More snickers ensued. Straightening up, I said boldly, "Yes, sir, Mr. Nagy. That would be correct, sir."
A number of people in the class laughed outright.
"Thank you for that confirmation, Miss Hathaway. Now, where was I? Ah yes, the other speaker then asks,'How was it?' The response is,'Good,' punctuated with a smiley face to confirm said adjective. Well. I suppose kudos are in order for the mysterious J, hmmm?'So, like, how far did you guys go?' Uh, ladies," said Mr. Nagy, "I do hope this doesn't surpass a PG rating.'Not very.We got caught.'And again, we are shown the severity of the situation, this time through the use of a not-smiling face.'What happened?' 'Dimitri showed up. He threw Jesse out and then bitched me out.'β
The class lost it, both from hearing Mr. Nagy say "bitched" and from finally getting some participants named.
"Why, Mr.Zeklos, are you the aforementioned J? The one who earned a smiley face from the sloppy writer?
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Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1))
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What other agents then are there, which, at the same time that they are under the influence of man's direction, are susceptible of happiness? They are of two sorts: (1) Other human beings who are styled persons. (2) Other animals, which, on account of their interests having been neglected by the insensibility of the ancient jurists, stand degraded into the class of things... But is there any reason why we should be suffered to torment them? Not any that I can see. Are there any why we should not be suffered to torment them? Yes, several. The day has been, I grieve to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated by the law exactly upon the same footing as, in England for example, the inferior races of animals are still. The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes.
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Jeremy Bentham (The Principles of Morals and Legislation)