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I know the formulahe wants her she refuses him he charms her she holds her ground he does something dramatic like saves her from a fire or reinstates her family's lost fortune or dies she realizes she loved him all along wedding bells ring or pirate flags unfurl or she joins a convent happily ever afterbut I don't expect to live that way. I've learned that life is not like novels. Especially not like novels with rippling muscles on paperback covers.
After reading a couple hundred of those booksyou know hypothetically speakingyou start to see that there's not that much difference between a romance and an epic fantasy. You've got your quest sometimes it involves a ring and a hero who will stop at nothing to do what he has to. The difference is usually the girl. And I'm not that girl.
I'm not the girl who inspires men to commit acts of heroism. In real life those girls speak much more quietly and breathe a lot louder than I do. I'm not the girl who strikes men speechless with her beauty. Really really not. I don't even know how to flutter my eyelashes. But that's life. Not romance-novel life just real life.
”
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Becca Wilhite (My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions)
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Brimful of pardons come from Rome, all hot.
He had the same small voice a goat has got
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Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Popular Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer (24-Feb-2011) Paperback)
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In the Trinity, the Father is the manager. The Son is the lover of operations. Holy Spirit is worker. So it's the three-in-one getting things done. --- Joshiah's thoughts typed on his iPad
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Tahni Cullen (Josiah's Fire: Autism Stole His Words, God Gave Him a Voice (Paperback) – Inspirational Book on Overcoming Adversity Through God)
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Lord, are you trying to tell me something? Because if you are, I’m listening.
I'd been asking Him to sharpen my ears to his voice. It's one thing to hear the music, quite another to press in and distinguish the notes.
”
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Tahni Cullen (Josiah's Fire: Autism Stole His Words, God Gave Him a Voice (Paperback) – Inspirational Book on Overcoming Adversity Through God)
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As much as we all want Mateo and Rufus to live forever, granting them some easy way out would’ve been a major disservice to their journey—and being inspired by their journey to treat our own days like lifetimes is what I believe to be the point of the book. {From bonus essay in paperback release.}
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Adam Silvera (They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1))
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Life of a software engineer sucks big time during project release. Every single team member contribution is very important. At times, we have to skip breakfast, lunch and even dinner, just to make sure the given ‘TASK’ is completed. Worst thing, that’s the time we get to hear wonderful F* words. It can be on conference calls or on emails, still we have to focus and deliver the end product to a client, without any compromise on quality. Actually, every techie should be saluted. We are the reason for the evolution of Information Technology. We innovate. We love artificial intelligence. We create bots and much more. We take you closer to books. Touch and feel it without the need of carrying a paperback. We created eBook and eBook reader app: it’s basically a code of a software engineer that process the file, keeps up-to-date of your reading history, and gives you a smoother reading experience. We are amazing people. We are more than a saint of those days. Next time, when you meet a software engineer, thank him/her for whatever code he/she developed, tested, designed or whatever he/she did!
”
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Saravanakumar Murugan (Coffee Date)
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Page 25:
…Maimonides was also an anti-Black racist. Towards the end of the [Guide to the Perplexed], in a crucial chapter (book III, chapter 51) he discusses how various sections of humanity can attain the supreme religious value, the true worship of God. Among those who are incapable of even approaching this are:
"Some of the Turks [i.e., the Mongol race] and the nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads in the South, and those who resemble them in our climates. And their nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings, and their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey, because they have the image and the resemblance of a man more than a monkey does."
Now, what does one do with such a passage in a most important and necessary work of Judaism? Face the truth and its consequences? God forbid! Admit (as so many Christian scholars, for example, have done in similar circumstances) that a very important Jewish authority held also rabid anti-Black views, and by this admission make an attempt at self-education in real humanity? Perish the thought. I can almost imagine Jewish scholars in the USA consulting among themselves, ‘What is to be done?’ – for the book had to be translated, due to the decline in the knowledge of Hebrew among American Jews. Whether by consultation or by individual inspiration, a happy ‘solution’ was found: in the popular American translation of the Guide by one Friedlander, first published as far back as 1925 and since then reprinted in many editions, including several in paperback, the Hebrew word Kushim, which means Blacks, was simply transliterated and appears as ‘Kushites’, a word which means nothing to those who have no knowledge of Hebrew, or to whom an obliging rabbi will not give an oral explanation. During all these years, not a word has been said to point out the initial deception or the social facts underlying its continuation – and this throughout the excitement of Martin Luther King’s campaigns, which were supported by so many rabbis, not to mention other Jewish figures, some of whom must have been aware of the anti-Black racist attitude which forms part of their Jewish heritage.
Surely one is driven to the hypothesis that quite a few of Martin Luther King’s rabbinical supporters were either anti-Black racists who supported him for tactical reasons of ‘Jewish interest’ (wishing to win Black support for American Jewry and for Israel’s policies) or were accomplished hypocrites, to the point of schizophrenia, capable of passing very rapidly from a hidden enjoyment of rabid racism to a proclaimed attachment to an anti-racist struggle – and back – and back again.
”
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Israel Shahak (Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years)
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But a lot of Christians, especially American Christians, prefer instead, wild, futuristic stories about children vanishing out of their clothes, airplanes dropping from the sky, pestilence overtaking the earth, and a Democrat getting elected president—the stuff of paperbacks and Christian B movies. And I think that’s because Americans, particularly white Americans, have a hard time catching apocalyptic visions when they benefit too much from the status quo to want a peek behind the curtain.
”
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Rachel Held Evans (Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again (series_title))
“
Page 25:
…Maimonides was also an anti-Black racist. Towards the end of the [Guide to the Perplexed], in a crucial chapter (book III, chapter 51) he discusses how various sections of humanity can attain the supreme religious value, the true worship of God. Among those who are incapable of even approaching this are:
Some of the Turks [i.e., the Mongol race] and the nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads in the South, and those who resemble them in our climates. And their nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings, and their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey, because they have the image and the resemblance of a man more than a monkey does.
Now, what does one do with such a passage in a most important and necessary work of Judaism? Face the truth and its consequences? God forbid! Admit (as so many Christian scholars, for example, have done in similar circumstances) that a very important Jewish authority held also rabid anti-Black views, and by this admission make an attempt at self-education in real humanity? Perish the thought. I can almost imagine Jewish scholars in the USA consulting among themselves, ‘What is to be done?’ – for the book had to be translated, due to the decline in the knowledge of Hebrew among American Jews. Whether by consultation or by individual inspiration, a happy ‘solution’ was found: in the popular American translation of the Guide by one Friedlander, first published as far back as 1925 and since then reprinted in many editions, including several in paperback, the Hebrew word Kushim, which means Blacks, was simply transliterated and appears as ‘Kushites’, a word which means nothing to those who have no knowledge of Hebrew, or to whom an obliging rabbi will not give an oral explanation. During all these years, not a word has been said to point out the initial deception or the social facts underlying its continuation – and this throughout the excitement of Martin Luther King’s campaigns, which were supported by so many rabbis, not to mention other Jewish figures, some of whom must have been aware of the anti-Black racist attitude which forms part of their Jewish heritage.
Surely one is driven to the hypothesis that quite a few of Martin Luther King’s rabbinical supporters were either anti-Black racists who supported him for tactical reasons of ‘Jewish interest’ (wishing to win Black support for American Jewry and for Israel’s policies) or were accomplished hypocrites, to the point of schizophrenia, capable of passing very rapidly from a hidden enjoyment of rabid racism to a proclaimed attachment to an anti-racist struggle – and back – and back again.
”
”
Israel Shahak (Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years)
“
Pierre wakes up for good. As he's lying there yawning, he vaguely remembers a couple of false starts inspired by a ringing phone. He looks to his left. It's eleven. Next thing, he's stumbling down the hall toward his phone machine. 'Wait. Coffee,' he whispers in a shredded voice, veering back into the kitchen. He does what he has to, then plays back the messages, sips.
Beep. 'It's Paul at Man Age. Appointment, twelve-thirty P.M., hour, Gramercy Park Hotel, room three-forty-four, name Terrence. Later.' Beep. 'Paul again. Appointment, two P.M., Washington Annex Hotel, room six-twenty, a play-it-by-ear, name Dennis, I think the same Dennis from last night. Check with us mid-afternoon. You're a popular dude. Later.' Beep. 'P., it's Marv, you there? . . . No? . . . Call me at work. Love ya.'
On his way to the shower Pierre makes a stop at the stereo, plays side one of Here Comes the Warm Jets, an old Eno album. It's still on his turntable. It has this cool, deconstructive, self-conscious pop sound typical of the '70s Art Rock Pierre loves. He doesn't know why it's fantastic exactly. If he were articulate, and not just nosy, he'd write an essay about it.
Instead he stomps around in the shower yelling the twisted lyrics. ' "By this time / I'd got to looking for a kind of / substitute . . ." ' It's weird to get lost in something so calculatedly chaotic. It's retro, pre-punk, bourgeois, meaningless, etc. ' ". . . I can't tell you quite how / except that it rhymes with / dissolute." ' Pierre covers his ears, beams, snorts wildly.
Tying his sneakers, he flips the scuffed-up LP, plays his two favorite songs on the second side, which happen to sit third and fourth, and are aurally welded together by some distorted synthesizer-esque percussion, maybe ten, fifteen seconds in length. Pierre flops back in his chair, soaks the interlude up. It screeches, whines, bleeps like an orgasming robot.
”
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Dennis Cooper (By Dennis Cooper Frisk (First Edition, First Printing) [Paperback])
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The point of apocalyptic texts is not to predict the future,” explained biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine in The Meaning of the Bible; “it is to provide comfort in the present. The Bible is not a book of teasers in which God has buried secrets only to be revealed three millennia later.” Rather, she argued, apocalyptic texts “proclaim that a guiding hand controls history, and assure that justice will be done.”7 But a lot of Christians, especially American Christians, prefer instead, wild, futuristic stories about children vanishing out of their clothes, airplanes dropping from the sky, pestilence overtaking the earth, and a Democrat getting elected president—the stuff of paperbacks and Christian B movies. And I think that’s because Americans, particularly white Americans, have a hard time catching apocalyptic visions when they benefit too much from the status quo to want a peek behind the curtain.
”
”
Rachel Held Evans (Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again (series_title))
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Do self-enquiry, stop identifying with the body and try to be aware of the self, which is your real nature.
”
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Ramana Maharshi (Words of Grace - Who Am I?/Self-Enquiry/Spiritual Instruction by Sri Ramana Maharshi (5-Jul-1905) Paperback)
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Forgiveness is all I have to offer.
”
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Immaculée Ilibagiza (Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, Steve Erwin [Paperback])
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It’s a book! All books should be read, and you know, maybe this is the story I need to read today,” she’d point to her recently completed book. “That’s what books do; they offer us something we’re looking for.
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Tom Deady (The Rack: Stories Inspired By Vintage Horror Paperbacks)
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Submission to God is the only human and dignified way out of the unsolvable senseless of life, a way out without revolt, despair, nihilism, or suicide. It is a heroic feeling not of a hero, but of an ordinary man who has done his duty and accepted his destiny.
”
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Alija Izetbegović (Islam Between East and West (3rd Edition) (1905-06-30) [Paperback])
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Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further.
”
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Keith Haring ([ Keith Haring Journals (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions) By Haring, Keith ( Author ) Paperback 2010 ])
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I realized quickly, no matter how tightly I hugged my mother’s sweaters hanging in the coat closet in the hallway, breathing deep into the neck to catch her lavender scent, it
wasn’t enough. She was not here. Objects can never truly capture the whole essence of the person.
”
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Cynthia Pelayo (The Rack: Stories Inspired By Vintage Horror Paperbacks)
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His mother died when he was in junior high, a single car crash on her way home from work after a shortcut through the local pub. By the time the firetrucks arrived with the jaws of life, her pale blue Volkswagen Beetle had fervently fucked a large oak tree, the orgasm of twisted metal, blood, and Mom body parts shot in a load along the edge of the road and into the brush.
”
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Rebecca Rowland (The Rack: Stories Inspired By Vintage Horror Paperbacks)
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Öte yandan hiçbir şey yanlış değil. Ziyan edilmiş birşey yok. Herşey olması gerektiği gibi gelişiyor. Kendi açından, başına gelenlerin çok azının kaza olduğunu göreceksin. Herşey büyümen içindi. Ve hepsi iyiliğin içindi. (s.333)
”
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Robin Sharma (The 5AM Club By Robin Sharma [Paperback] 2018)
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Mr. Barnett was the first grown-up to use the word exciting to describe everything that had happened. Of course, all us kids thought it was exciting and cool, but the only words I’d heard other grownups use were horrible and terrifying and dreadful. But Mr. Barnett was like that. He wasn’t like the other adults I knew. He always drank too much at the neighborhood block parties and shot off too many fireworks on the Fourth of July
”
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Richard Chizmar (The Rack: Stories Inspired By Vintage Horror Paperbacks)
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War is too important to be left to the generals.
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Peter van Inwagen (God, Knowledge, and Mystery: Essays in Philosophical Theology (Cornell Studies in Political Economy (Paperback)))
“
Of all of my writings probably the article that created the biggest whoooraah turned out to be "The Woman of La Raza." This lost me friends and made me a target for the renowned "Malinche" label. But, like so many of my writings, the rewards were many and this article opened centuries-old flood gates that poured forth in women's words and thoughts. I knew "This is very important," and from this article came a whole women's history book, The Women of La Raza. This women's book begins to define the side of that mestizo face medallion we wore so proudly, La India.
The Chicana/o Movement is a vital chapter of Southwestern history, a history needed to inspire new dreamers as activists become the elder generation. As we recall this chapter in Chicano history, we reseed the harvest of the Civil Rights Movement and cultivate the harvest of "La Revolución Chicana" remembering that our ancestors planted the first resisting seeds of non-defeat. This Revolución is the foundation of today's evolving issues, the metamorphosis of activism that makes all movements more important than ever. It will take more than thirty years to change 500 years of colonial racist exploitative attitudes, changes which only you can make possible as we live the sun of justice, The Sixth Sun.
”
”
Enriqueta Vasquez (Enriqueta Vasquez and the Chicano Movement: Writings from El Grito del Norte (Hispanic Civil Rights (Paperback)) (Spanish Edition))
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Human nature is not evil. All pleasure is not wrong. All spontaneous desires are not selfish. The doctrine of original sin does not mean that human nature has been completely corrupted and that man’s freedom is always inclined to sin. Man is neither a devil nor an angel. He is not a pure spirit, but a being of flesh and spirit, subject to error and malice, but basically inclined to seek truth and goodness. He is, indeed, a sinner: but his heart responds to love and grace. It also responds to the goodness and to the need of his fellow man.
”
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Thomas Merton (Life and Holiness [Paperback] [1969] (Author) Thomas Merton)
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Everything old can be made new again...like democracy.
-Effie Trinket
”
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Suzanne Collins (By Suzzane Collins The Hunger Games - Boxt Set of 3 Titles [Paperback])
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A cowboy always carries biscuits and a canteen of coffee.
”
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Mary Pope Osborne (Ghost Town at Sundown[MTH #10 GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN][Paperback])
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A cowboy always carries biscuits and a canteen of coffee.
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Mary Pope Osborne (Author) Sal Murdocca (Illustrator) (Ghost Town at Sundown[MTH #10 GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN][Paperback])
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The truth can be painful, but it can also be liberating. It can set us free from the shadows of the past, and help us to move forward, with hope and with purpose. We must be willing to confront the truth, and to use it as a source of strength and inspiration in our lives. (Kneubuhl 78)
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Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (Murder Leaves Its Mark (Latitude 20 Books (Paperback)))
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Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
”
”
Helen Keller (Helen Keller::The Story of My Life[Paperback,2002])