“
If you're texting Magnus to say 'I think u r kewl,' I'm going to kill you."
"Who's Magnus?" Max inquired.
"He's a warlock," said Alec.
"A sexy, sexy warlock," Isabelle told Max, ignoring Alec's look of total fury.
"But warlocks are bad," protested Max, looking baffled.
"Exactly," said Isabelle.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
“
It's Simon. He's missing."
"Ah," said Magnus, delicately, "missing what, exactly?"
"Missing," Jace repeated, "as in gone, absent, notable for his lack of presence, disappeared."
"Maybe he's gone and hidden under something," Magnus suggested. "It can't be easy getting used to being a rat, especially for someone so dim-witted in the first place."
"Simon's not dim-witted," Clary protested angrily.
"It's true," Jace agreed. "He just looks dim-witted. Really his intelligence is quite average.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
“
I shook my head in wonder. "How does he do it?"
"Want to know my secret?" Nikolai asked from behind us. We both jumped. He leaned in, looked from left to right, and whispered loudly. "I have a lot of money."
I rolled my eyes.
"No, really," he protested. "A lot of money.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Ruin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #3))
“
There is always a choice."
"You mean I could choose certain death?"
"A choice nevertheless, or perhaps an alternative. You see I believe in freedom. Not many people do, although they will of course protest otherwise. And no practical definition of freedom would be complete without the freedom to take the consequences. Indeed, it is the freedom upon which all the others are based.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Moist von Lipwig, #1))
“
He made her miserable!" Benedict protested. "As her brothers, it's our duty to--"
"Respect her intelligence enough to let her solve her own problems," Violet snapped.
”
”
Julia Quinn (The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1))
“
Who's Magnus?" Max inquired
"He's a warlock," said Alec
"A sexy, sexy warlock," Isabelle told Max.
"But warlocks are bad," protested Max
"Exactly".
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
“
I got body snatched by an alien." McClane grumbled a protest. "A sentient alien armor and weapons system," Riley clarified. "Very sophisticated. Very unique. Very much a smartass. His name's McClane
”
”
J. Fally (Bone Rider)
“
As a member of the Protestant British squirearchy ruling Ireland, he was touchy about his Irish origins. When in later life an enthusiastic Gael commended him as a famous Irishman, he replied "A man can be born in a stable, and yet not be an animal.
”
”
Arthur Wellesley
“
What's the problem Earthman?" said Zaphod, now transferring his attention to the animal's enormous rump.
"I just don't want to eat an animal that's standing here inviting me to," said Arthur, "it's heartless."
"Better than eating an animal that doesn't want to be eaten," said Zaphod.
"That's not the point," Arthur protested. Then he thought about it for a moment. "Alright," he said, "maybe it is the point. I don't care, I'm not going to think about it now. I'll just ... er ..."
The Universe raged about him in its death throes.
"I think I'll just have a green salad," he muttered.
"May I urge you to consider my liver?" asked the animal, "it must be very rich and tender by now, I've been force-feeding myself for months."
"A green salad," said Arthur emphatically.
"A green salad?" said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur.
"Are you going to tell me," said Arthur, "that I shouldn't have green salad?"
"Well," said the animal, "I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am."
It managed a very slight bow.
"Glass of water please," said Arthur.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2))
“
I'm afraid it's not nonsense," Genghis said, shaking his turbaned head and continuing his story. "As I was saying before the little girl interrupted me, the baby didn't dash off with the other orphans. She just sat there like a sack of flour. So I walked over to her and gave her a kick to get her moving."
"Excellent idea!" Nero said. "What a wonderful story this is! And then what happened?"
"Well, at first it seemed like I'd kicked a big hole in the baby," Genghis said, his eyes shining, "which seemed lucky, because Sunny was a terrible athlete and it would have been a blessing to put her out of her misery."
Nero clapped his hands. "I know just what you mean, Genghis," he said. "She's a terrible secretary as well."
"But she did all that stapling," Mr. Remora protested.
"Shut up and let the coach finish his story," Nero said.
"But when I looked down," Genghis continued, "I saw that I hadn't kicked a hole in a baby. I'd kicked a hole in a bag of flour! I'd been tricked!"
"That's terrible!" Nero cried.
”
”
Lemony Snicket (The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #5))
“
He held out the written pass. "This is what they want us to be," he said. "They want us to be nothing but a bill of sale and a letter explaining where we is and instructions for where we go and what we do. They want us empty. They want us flat as paper. They want to be able to carry our souls in their hands, and read them out loud in court. All the time, they're on the exploration of themselves, going on the inner journey into their own breast. But us, they want there to be nothing inside of. They want us to be writ on. They want us to be a surface. Look at me, I'm mahogany."
I protested, "A man is known by his deeds."
"Oh, that's sure," said Bono. "Just like a house is known by its deeds. The deeds say who owns it, who sold it, and who'll be buying a new one when it gets knocked down.
”
”
M.T. Anderson (The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1))
“
But you have told me," Elizabeth protested, "time and again, that the hallmark of civilization is routine."
Lady D shrugged and made a fussy little chirping sound. "A lady cannot take it upon herself to occasionally change her routine? All routines need periodic readjustment.
”
”
Julia Quinn (How to Marry a Marquis (Agents of the Crown, #2))
“
Alexander Hamilton Junior High School
-- SEMESTER REPORT --
STUDENT: Joseph Margolis
TEACHER: Janet Hicks
ENGLISH: A, ARITHMETIC: A, SOCIAL STUDIES: A, SCIENCE: A, NEATNESS: A, PUNCTUALITY: A, PARTICIPATION: A, OBEDIENCE: D
Teacher's Comments:
Joseph remains a challenging student. While I appreciate his creativity, I am sure you will agree that a classroom is an inappropriate forum for a reckless imagination. There is not a shred of evidence to support his claim that Dolley Madison was a Lesbian, and even fewer grounds to explain why he even knows what the word means. Similarly, an analysis of the Constitutional Convention does not generate sufficient cause to initiate a two-hour classroom debate on what types of automobiles the Founding Fathers would have driven were they alive today. When asked on a subsequent examination, "What did Benjamin Franklin use to discover electricity?" eleven children responded "A Packard convertible". I trust you see my problem.
[...]
Janet Hicks
Parent's Comments:
As usual I am very proud of Joey's grades. I too was unaware that Dolley Madison was a Lesbian. I assumed they were all Protestants.
Thank you for writing.
Ida Margolis
”
”
Steve Kluger (Last Days of Summer)
“
Good evening," it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, "I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in parts of my body? It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters into a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them.
Its gaze was met by looks of startled bewilderment from Arthur and Trillian, a resigned shrug from Ford Prefect and naked hunger from Zaphod Beeblebrox.
"Something off the shoulder perhaps?" suggested the animal. "Braised in a white wine sauce?"
"Er, your shoulder?" said Arthur in a horrified whisper.
"But naturally my shoulder, sir," mooed the animal contentedly, "nobody else's is mine to offer."
Zaphod leapt to his feet and started prodding and feeling the animal's shoulder appreciatively.
"Or the rump is very good," murmured the animal. "I've been exercising it and eating plenty of grain, so there's a lot of good meat there." It gave a mellow grunt, gurgled again and started to chew the cud. It swallowed the cud again.
"Or a casserole of me perhaps?" it added.
"You mean this animal actually wants us to eat it?" whispered Trillian to Ford.
"Me?" said Ford, with a glazed look in his eyes. "I don't mean anything."
"That's absolutely horrible," exclaimed Arthur, "the most revolting thing I've ever heard."
"What's the problem, Earthman?" said Zaphod, now transferring his attention to the animal's enormous rump.
"I just don't want to eat an animal that's standing there inviting me to," said Arthur. "It's heartless."
"Better than eating an animal that doesn't want to be eaten," said Zaphod.
"That's not the point," Arthur protested. Then he thought about it for a moment. "All right," he said, "maybe it is the point. I don't care, I'm not going to think about it now. I'll just ... er ..."
The Universe raged about him in its death throes.
"I think I'll just have a green salad," he muttered.
"May I urge you to consider my liver?" asked the animal, "it must be very rich and tender by now, I've been force-feeding myself for months."
"A green salad," said Arthur emphatically.
"A green salad?" said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur.
"Are you going to tell me," said Arthur, "that I shouldn't have green salad?"
"Well," said the animal, "I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am."
It managed a very slight bow.
"Glass of water please," said Arthur.
"Look," said Zaphod, "we want to eat, we don't want to make a meal of the issues. Four rare steaks please, and hurry. We haven't eaten in five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years."
The animal staggered to its feet. It gave a mellow gurgle.
"A very wise choice, sir, if I may say so. Very good," it said. "I'll just nip off and shoot myself."
He turned and gave a friendly wink to Arthur.
"Don't worry, sir," he said, "I'll be very humane."
It waddled unhurriedly off to the kitchen.
A matter of minutes later the waiter arrived with four huge steaming steaks.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2))
“
May I offer some refreshment?" Miss Pink asked, mincingly. "A cup of tea?"
Lady Lydiard shook her head.
"A glass of water?"
Lady Lydiard declined the last hospitable proposal with an exclamation of disgust. "Have you got any beer?" she inquired.
"I beg your Ladyship's pardon," said Miss Pink, doubting the evidence of her own ears. "Did you say - beer?"
Lady Lydiard gesticulated vehemently with her fan. "Yes, to be sure! Beer! beer!"
Miss Pink rose, with a countenance expressive of genteel disgust, and rang the bell. "I think you have beer downstairs, Susan?" she said, when the maid appeared at the door.
"Yes, Miss."
"A glass of beer for Lady Lydiard," said Miss Pink, under protest.
"Bring it in a jug," shouted her Ladyship, as the maid left the room.
”
”
Wilkie Collins (My Lady's Money)
“
The tyranny of this dictatorship isn't primarily the fault of Big Business, nor of the demagogues who do their dirty work. It's the fault of Doremus Jessup! Of all the conscientious, respectable, lazy-minded Doremus Jessups who have let the demagogues wriggle in, without fierce enough protest.
"A few months ago I thought the slaughter of the Civil War, and the agitation of the violent Abolitionists who helped bring it on, were evil. But possibly they had to be violent, because easy-going citizens like me couldn't be stirred up otherwise. If our grandfathers had had the alertness and courage to see the evils of slavery and of a government conducted by gentlemen for gentlemen only, there wouldn't have been any need of agitators and war and blood.
"It's my sort, the Responsible Citizens who've felt ourselves superior because we've been well-to-do and what we thought was 'educated,' who brought on the Civil War, the French Revolution, and now the Fascist Dictatorship. It's I who murdered Rabbi de Verez. It's I who persecuted the Jews and the Negroes. I can blame no Aras Dilley, no Shad Ledue, no Buzz Windrip, but only my own timid soul and drowsy mind. Forgive, O Lord!
"Is it too late?
”
”
Sinclair Lewis (It Can't Happen Here)
“
There was something about the shopping mall/raw fish combo that just seemed wrong.
"Sadie," I began, but didn't have the heart.
Frankie did. "A hoagie it is." When she protested, he gave her the reptile eye. "Ever hear of salmonella? ANd I don't mean the dish Ella's uncle named in her honor."
We think that might have been what killed Ricky's Top Chef chances last year. Too bad. Disastrous name aside, it had actually been pretty good.
Frankie bought us an extra order of french fries.
”
”
Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of Truth or Dare)
“
You play with great skill," he said.
"Thank you."
"Is that your favorite piece?"
"It's my most difficult," Helen said, "but not my favorite."
"What do you play when there's no one to hear?"
The gentle question, spoken in that accent with vowels as broad as his shoulders, caused Helen's stomach to tighten pleasurably. Perturbed by the sensation, she was slow to reply. "I don't remember the name of it. A piano tutor taught it to me long ago. For years I've tried to find out what it is, but no one has ever recognized the melody."
"Play it for me."
Calling it up from memory, she played the sweetly haunting chords, her hands gentle on the keys. The mournful chords never failed to stir her, making her heart ache for things she couldn't name. At the conclusion, Helen looked up from the keys and found Winterborne staring at her as if transfixed. He masked his expression, but not before she saw a mixture of puzzlement, fascination, and a hint of something hot and unsettling.
"It's Welsh," he said.
Helen shook her head with a laugh of wondering disbelief. "You know it?"
"'A Ei Di'r Deryn Do.' Every Welshman is born knowing it."
"What is it about?"
"A lover who asks a blackbird to carry a message to his sweetheart."
"Why can't he go to her himself?" Helen realized they were both speaking in hushed tones, as if they were exchanging secrets.
"He can't find her. He's too deep in love- it keeps him from seeing clearly."
"Does the blackbird find her?"
"The song doesn't say," he said with a shrug.
"But I must know the ending to the story," Helen protested.
Winterborne laughed. It was an irresistible sound, rough-soft and sly. When he replied, his accent had thickened. "That's what comes o' reading novels, it is. The story needs no ending. That's not what matters."
"What matters, then?" she dared to ask.
His dark gaze held hers. "That he loves. That he's searching. Like the rest of us poor devils, he has no way of knowing if he'll ever have his heart's desire.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Cold-Hearted Rake (The Ravenels, #1))
“
PERCY JACKSON!" Poseidon announced. My name echoed around the chamber.
All talking died down. The room was silent except for the crackle of the hearth fire. Everyone's eyes
were on me—all the gods, the demigods, the Cyclopes, the spirits. I walked into the middle of the throne
room. Hestia smiled at me reassuringly. She was in the form of a girl now, and she seemed happy and
content to be sitting by her fire again. Her smile gave me courage to keep walking.
First I bowed to Zeus. Then I knelt at my father's feet.
"Rise, my son," Poseidon said.
I stood uneasily.
"A great hero must be rewarded," Poseidon said. "Is there anyone here who would deny that my son
is deserving?"
I waited for someone to pipe up. The gods never agreed on anything, and many of them still didn't
like me, but not a single one protested.
"The Council agrees," Zeus said. "Percy Jackson, you will have one gift from the gods."
I hesitated. "Any gift?"
Zeus nodded grimly. "I know what you will ask. The greatest gift of all. Yes, if you want it, it shall be
yours. The gods have not bestowed this gift on a mortal hero in many centuries, but, Perseus Jackson—if
you wish it—you shall be made a god. Immortal. Undying. You shall serve as your father's lieutenant for
all time."
I stared at him, stunned. "Um . . . a god?"
Zeus rolled his eyes. "A dimwitted god, apparently. But yes. With the consensus of the entire
Council, I can make you immortal. Then I will have to put up with you forever."
"Hmm," Ares mused. "That means I can smash him to a pulp as often as I want, and he'll just keep
coming back for more. I like this idea."
"I approve as well," Athena said, though she was looking at Annabeth.
I glanced back. Annabeth was trying not to meet my eyes. Her face was pale. I flashed back to two
years ago, when I'd thought she was going to take the pledge to Artemis and become a Hunter. I'd been on
the edge of a panic attack, thinking that I'd lose her. Now, she looked pretty much the same way.
I thought about the Three Fates, and the way I'd seen my life flash by. I could avoid all that. No
aging, no death, no body in the grave. I could be a teenager forever, in top condition, powerful, and
immortal, serving my father. I could have power and eternal life.
Who could refuse that?
Then I looked at Annabeth again. I thought about my friends from camp: Charles Beckendorf,
Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard, so many others who were now dead. I thought about Ethan Nakamura
and Luke.
And I knew what to do.
"No," I said.
The Council was silent. The gods frowned at each other like they must have misheard.
"No?" Zeus said. "You are . . . turning down our generous gift?"
There was a dangerous edge to his voice, like a thunderstorm about to erupt.
"I'm honored and everything," I said. "Don't get me wrong. It's just . . . I've got a lot of life left to live.
I'd hate to peak in my sophomore year."
The gods were glaring at me, but Annabeth had her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were shining.
And that kind of made up for it.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4))
“
He leaned down and kissed me, warm and soft. "I do have a trick to get you to relax though."
And I knew exactly what his idea of "relaxing" was. "We're at work!"
"We're alone at work," he teased, lifting me off my feet and walking away with me in his arms.
"You're insatiable!" I laughed as he bound up the stairs.
"Only when it comes to you, love."
In his office, he kicked the door shut behind him before setting me on the small couch by the bookshelves. He caged me in his arms and leaned down to kiss my neck.
"What do you think you're doing?" My lips protested, but my head moved to the side, giving him more room to kiss me.
"Are we still trying for a faeling?" he asked. "These things can take quite a bit of time, you know."
"It could take decades!"
"A sacrifice I'm willing to make," he teased.
Wrapping my fingers around his tie, I gently tugged his face down to mine so I could kiss him, reminiscent of our first kiss that had cemented the bond between us half a year ago.
"Whatever happens, happens. I'm not as impatient as you, Lord of Winter."
"Only for you," Devin answered. "Only ever for you, love."
He kissed me again, deeper and hungrier than before, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and melted into him.
”
”
Sabrina Blackburry (Dirty Lying Faeries (The Enchanted Fates, #1))
“
Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding, and other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich men and poor… together. Here are Protestants, Catholics and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed. Among these men, there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy…. Whosoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or who thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and the bloody sacrifice it commemorates, an empty, hollow mockery. To this, then, as our solemn duty, sacred duty do we the living now dedicate ourselves: to the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of white men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the democracy for which all of them have here paid the price. We here solemnly swear that this shall not be in vain. Out of this and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this will come, we promise, the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere.
”
”
Robert Coram (Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine)
“
Poppy," she murmured, "no matter how Miss Marks tries to civilize me- and I do try to listen to her- I still have my own way of looking at the world. To me, people are scarcely different from animals. We're all God's creatures, aren't we? When I meet someone, I know immediately what animal they would be. When we first met Cam, for example, I knew he was a fox."
"I suppose Cam is somewhat fox-like," Poppy said, amused. "What is Merripen? A bear?"
"No, unquestionably a horse. And Amelia is a hen."
"I would say an owl."
"Yes, but don't you remember when one of our hens in Hampshire chased after a cow that had strayed too close to the nest? That's Amelia."
Poppy grinned. "You're right."
"And Win is a swan."
"Am I also a bird? A lark? A robin?"
"No, you're a rabbit."
"A rabbit?" Poppy made a face. "I don't like that. Why am I a rabbit?"
"Oh, rabbits are beautiful soft animals who love to be cuddled. They're very sociable, but they're happiest in pairs."
"But their timid," Poppy protested.
"Not always. They're brave enough to be companions to many other creatures. Even cats and dogs."
"Well," Poppy said in resignation, "it's better than being a hedgehog, I suppose."
"Miss Marks is a hedgehog," Beatrix said in a matter-of-fact tone that made Poppy grin.
"And you're a ferret, aren't you, Bea?"
"Yes. But I was leading to a point."
"Sorry, go on."
"I was going to say that Mr. Rutledge is a cat. A solitary hunter. With an apparent taste for rabbit.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Tempt Me at Twilight (The Hathaways, #3))
“
There is absolutely nothing wrong with me."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. For a second, he looked exactly like Daniel: cynical, bored, and liable to bite. "Well,that's funny," he drawled. "I think you're lying through your teeth."
My stomach clenched. "Why?"
"Because," he said calmly, "in all the time I've known you,you have never once said those words."
"What words?"
"'There is nothing wrong with me.'"
"Oh,don't-"
"Never. You are a walking litany of imaginary flaws.So." Frankie unfolded himself and rested his elbows on the table. It wobbled. He didn't. He studied me over his tented fingers. "Truth or Dare?"
"It's Sadie's turn to ask."
"She passed," he snapped.
"Hey," I protested.
"Hey." Sadie actually waved a hand between us. "Maybe we can talk about this tomorrow."
"We could," Frankie replied with suspicious agreeability. "Except I want to do it now. So,here's the question, Marino. What-"
"Dare."
"Sorry?" he said.
"Dare. I'll take a dare/"
"Really?" he demanded.
"As long as it takes ten minutes or less. I have to go." All I wanted, really, was to leave.
Frankie didn't say anything-or move-for the longest time. He just stared at me. Then, finally, he blinked, lowered his hands, and shrugged. "Sing."
"Oh,come on-"
"Sing," he repeated. "You know how. Or concede."
That, I thought, would be so easy. It would also break something precious. In all out time together, none of us had ever conceded a dare. "Sadie. Sing with me?"
She nodded,but Frankie shook a finger at her. "You will not. Marino, you're on your own here."
I pretty much stomped way may to the stage. Stavros's son Nic was manning the karaoke machine. His brows shot up when he saw me. "A first.
”
”
Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of Truth or Dare)
“
If the claims of the papacy cannot be proven from what we know of the historical Peter, there are, on the other hand, several undoubted facts in the real history of Peter which bear heavily upon those claims, namely: 1. That Peter was married, Matt. 8:14, took his wife with him on his missionary tours, 1 Cor. 9:5, and, according to a possible interpretation of the "coëlect" (sister), mentions her in 1 Pet. 5:13. Patristic tradition ascribes to him children, or at least a daughter (Petronilla). His wife is said to have suffered martyrdom in Rome before him. What right have the popes, in view of this example, to forbid clerical marriage? We pass by the equally striking contrast between the poverty of Peter, who had no silver nor gold (Acts 3:6) and the gorgeous display of the triple-crowned papacy in the middle ages and down to the recent collapse of the temporal power. 2. That in the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:1–11), Peter appears simply as the first speaker and debater, not as president and judge (James presided), and assumes no special prerogative, least of all an infallibility of judgment. According to the Vatican theory the whole question of circumcision ought to have been submitted to Peter rather than to a Council, and the decision ought to have gone out from him rather than from "the apostles and elders, brethren" (or "the elder brethren," 15:23). 3. That Peter was openly rebuked for inconsistency by a younger apostle at Antioch (Gal. 2:11–14). Peter’s conduct on that occasion is irreconcilable with his infallibility as to discipline; Paul’s conduct is irreconcilable with Peter’s alleged supremacy; and the whole scene, though perfectly plain, is so inconvenient to Roman and Romanizing views, that it has been variously distorted by patristic and Jesuit commentators, even into a theatrical farce gotten up by the apostles for the more effectual refutation of the Judaizers! 4. That, while the greatest of popes, from Leo I. down to Leo XIII. never cease to speak of their authority over all the bishops and all the churches, Peter, in his speeches in the Acts, never does so. And his Epistles, far from assuming any superiority over his "fellow-elders" and over "the clergy" (by which he means the Christian people), breathe the spirit of the sincerest humility and contain a prophetic warning against the besetting sins of the papacy, filthy avarice and lordly ambition (1 Pet. 5:1–3). Love of money and love of power are twin-sisters, and either of them is "a root of all evil." It is certainly very significant that the weaknesses even more than the virtues of the natural Peter—his boldness and presumption, his dread of the cross, his love for secular glory, his carnal zeal, his use of the sword, his sleepiness in Gethsemane—are faithfully reproduced in the history of the papacy; while the addresses and epistles of the converted and inspired Peter contain the most emphatic protest against the hierarchical pretensions and worldly vices of the papacy, and enjoin truly evangelical principles—the general priesthood and royalty of believers, apostolic poverty before the rich temple, obedience to God rather than man, yet with proper regard for the civil authorities, honorable marriage, condemnation of mental reservation in Ananias and Sapphira, and of simony in Simon Magus, liberal appreciation of heathen piety in Cornelius, opposition to the yoke of legal bondage, salvation in no other name but that of Jesus Christ.
”
”
Philip Schaff (History Of The Christian Church (The Complete Eight Volumes In One))
“
You are my friend, Prairie Flower. If I tell you what is in my heart, will you promise never to tell?"
Prairie Flower laid a hand on Jesse's shoulder, pulling it away quickly when her friend flinched in pain. "I will not betray my friend."
Taking a deep breath, Jesse lifted her head. "When Rides the Wing comes near to me, my heart sings.But I do not believe that he cares for me.I am clumsy in all of the things a Lakota woman must know.I cannot speak his language without many childish mistakes. And..." Jesse reached up to lay her hand on her short hair, "I am nothing to look at.I am not..."
Prairie Flower grew angry. "I have told you he cares for you.Can you not see it?"
Jesse shook her head.
Prairie Flower spoke the unspeakable. "Then,if you cannot see that he cares for you in what he does,you must see it in what he has not done. You have been in his tepee. Dancing Waters has been gone many moons."
"Stop!" Jesse demanded. "Stop it! I..just don't say any more!" She leaped up and ran out of the tepee-and into Rides the Wind, who was returning from the river where he had gone to draw water.
Jesse knocked the water skins from both of his hands. Water spilled out and she fumbled an apology then bent stiffly to pick up the skins, wincing with the effort.
"I will do it, Walks the Fire." His voice was tender as he bent and took the skins from her.
Jesse protested, "It is the wife's job." She blushed, realizing that she had used a wrong word-the word for wife, instead of the word for woman.
Rides the Wind interrupted before she could correct herself. "Walks the Fire is not the wife of Rides the Wind."
Jesse blushed and remained quiet. A hand reached for hers and Rides the Wind said, "Come, sit." He helped her sit down just outside the door of the tepee. The village women took note as he went inside and brought out a buffalo robe. Sitting by Jesse,he placed the robe on the ground and began to talk.
"I will tell you how it is with the Lakota. When a man wishes to take a wife..." he described Lakota courtship. As he talked, Jesse realiced that all that Prairie Flower had said seemed to be true.He had,indeed, done nearly everything involved in the courtship ritual.
Still, she told herself, there is a perfectly good explanation for everything he has done.
Rides the Wind continued describing the wedding feast. Jesse continued to reason with herself as he spoke. Then she realized the voice had stopped and he had repeated a question.
"How is it among the whites?How does a man gain a wife?"
Embarrassed,Jesse described the sparsest of courtships, the simplest wedding.Rides the Wind listened attentively. When she had finished, he said, "There is one thing the Lakota brave who wishes a wife does that I have not described." Pulling Jesse to her feet, he continued, "One evening, as he walks with his woman..." He reached out to pick up the buffalo robe.He was aware that the village women were watching carefully.
"He spreads out his arms..." Rides the Wind spread his arms,opening the buffalo robe to its full length, "and wraps it about his woman," Rides the Wind turned toward Jesse and reached around her, "so that they are both inside the buffalo robe." He looked down at Jesse, trying to read her expression.When he saw nothing in the gray eyes, he abruptly dropped his arms.
"But it is hot today and your wounds have not healed.I have said enough.You see how it is with the Lakota."
When Jesse still said nothing, he continued, "You spoke of a celebration with a min-is-ter.It is a word I do not know.What is this min-is-ter?"
"A man who belives in the Bible and teaches his people about God from the Bible."
"What if there is no minister and a man and a woman wish to be married?"
Jesse grew more uncomfortable. "I suppose they would wait until a minister came.
”
”
Stephanie Grace Whitson (Walks The Fire (Prairie Winds, #1))
“
How was your trip?" Zeph asked. "Did they teach you how to hunt? You're growing up so fast."
"I'm older than you," Xavi protested. "And I know how to hunt. This wasn't for beginners. I killed a snake!"
Zeph stepped back and put on his surprised face for Xavi to see. "A real snake, not just a vine? Well, I guess you have your adult feathers now. What did you fall in? You're sticky."
“It was a big snake. Like, bigger than three gryphons.” Xavi looked around for a gryphon to illustrate his point.
Hatzel had glided down and was giving them a strange look. A tiny gryphlet bounded up to chirp at Hatzel and see if she wanted to play. While Xavi was trying to point at Hatzel, Zeph sat back on his haunches and measured out the size of the gryphlet from shoulder to shoulder, and expanded it by three.
Xavi sighed. “No, like three Hatzels.”
“Now you’re just telling tales,” Zeph protested. “Nothing as big as three Hatzels.”
“This is why I throw rocks at you,” Hatzel said as she took the gryphlet back to the nests.
”
”
K. Vale Nagle (Eyrie (Gryphon Insurrection #1))
“
The actual antecedents of contemporary populist politicians like Trump are to be found not in interwar Central European totalitarian states but in state and local politics, particularly urban politics. In Europe, pro-Brexit Boris Johnson was the mayor of London before becoming prime minister, and Italy’s Matteo Salvini was on the city council of Milan from 1993 to 2012.
In the United States, the shift from post-1945 democratic pluralism to technocratic neoliberalism was fostered from the 1960s onward by an alliance of the white overclass with African Americans and other racial minority groups. The result was a backlash by white working-class voters, not only against nonwhites who were seen as competitors for jobs and housing, but also against the alien cultural liberalism of white “gentry liberals.” The backlash in the North was particularly intense among “white ethnics”—first-, second-, and third-generation white immigrants like Irish, German, Italian, and Polish Americans, many of them Catholic. The disproportionately working-class white ethnics now found themselves defined as bigots by the same white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) elites who until recently had imposed quotas on Jews and Catholics in their Ivy League universities, but who were now posing as the virtuous, enlightened champions of civil rights.
This toxic mix of black aspiration, white ethnic backlash, and WASP condescension provided a ripe habitat for demagogues, many of them old-school Democrats like Frank Rizzo, mayor of Philadelphia, Sam Yorty, mayor of Los Angeles, and Mario Angelo Procaccino, failed mayoral candidate in New York. These populist big-city mayors or candidates in the second half of the twentieth century combined appeals to working-class grievances and resentments with folksy language and feuds with the metropolitan press, a pattern practiced, in different ways, by later New York City mayors Ed Koch, a Democrat, and Rudy Giuliani, a Republican.
In its “Against Trump” issue of January 22, 2016, the editors of National Review mocked the “funky outer-borough accents” shared by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Indeed, Trump, a “white ethnic” from Queens with German and Scots ancestors, with his support in the US industrial states where working-class non-British European-Americans are concentrated, is ethnically different from most of his predecessors in the White House, whose ancestors were proportionately far more British American. Traits which seem outlandish in a US president would not have seemed so if Trump had been elected mayor of New York. Donald Trump was not Der Führer. He was Da Mayor of America.
”
”
Michael Lind (The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite)
“
The hypodermic syringe has been in use for more than twenty years," Dr. Gibson protested. "It's safe and highly effective. It was invented by a brilliant physician who used the sting of a bee as his model." Trying to think of some way to convince him, she added, "A Scottish physician."
That caught Keir's attention. "His name?"
"Dr. Alexander Wood."
"From what part of Scotland?" Keir asked suspiciously.
"Edinburgh."
After cursing quietly beneath his breath, he let out a long sigh and said gruffly, "Go on, then."
Merritt bit back a grin, knowing exactly what Keir was thinking: He couldn't refuse the hypodermic injection if it had been invented by a fellow countryman- it would reflect badly on the honor of Scotland.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Devil in Disguise (The Ravenels, #7))
“
Maynard, what have you been doing with yourself?" Odegar Taumber asked as the slow moving librarian shuffled from the stairwell to the main floor. Casselle caught sight of Temos and Raabel and motioned for Jaksen to deposit the books on a nearby and conveniently clean table. He did so and the squadmates reunited, just out of earshot of the Captain.
"I see you two found him," Raabel said. "We've been back for some time. I guess he's as slow as he looks?"
"Casselle found him," Jaksen replied. "And he's both slow and rude. I'm sure he's important enough, but seems like he was in no real danger to begin with."
"I took a look out of the windows while we were searching for him," Temos said. "It doesn't look like it's calmed down much out there. I'd hate to think of trying to move him through an angry crowd. He doesn't look nimble enough to sneak by, either."
"If we weren't in this damned armor, I'd just carry him," Raabel said. Coming from someone else, it might have been considered a boast, but Raabel usually didn't say things he wasn't sure he was capable of doing. Casselle pictured the old man wailing in protest, thrown over Raabel's shoulder and being forced to bounce along like a sack of potatoes. Raabel was right about the armor, though: it was clumsy and ill-fitting. It was obvious that it had not been altered for them, and none more obvious than on Casselle. Her broad shoulders were a boon, but even bound, her breasts had proved problematic to find a properly sized chestplate from a stockpile that had been made exclusively for men. They had settled on a piece that was just slightly too large, having previously been worn by a heavyset Templar from a time before.
In thinking of it, she pondered Maynard's earlier words.
"He called me a boy," she said. "A fat young boy."
Her squadmates took a step back, shocked.
"And you did not correct him?" Raabel asked.
"Or worse?" Jaksen asked.
"To be fair," Temos said after a moment, "he is very old. It is entirely possible he has lost his will to live.
”
”
R. Wade Hodges (Beyond the Burning Sea (Fate's Crucible, #1))
“
Now the tires screeched in protest as Bruce hit another sharp turn.
"I heard that," said Alfred Pennyworth from the car's live video touch screen. He gave Bruce a withering look. "A bit slower on the turns, Master Wayne."
"Aston Martins weren't made for slow turns, Alfred."
"They weren't made to be wrecked, either."
Bruce smiled sidelong at his guardian. The setting sun glinted off his aviator glasses as he turned the car back in the direction of Gotham City's skyscrapers. "No faith in me at all, Alfred," he said lightly. "You're the one who taught me how to drive in the first place."
"And did I teach you to drive like a demon possessed?"
"A demon possessed with skills, Bruce clarified. He spun the steering wheel in a smooth motion.
”
”
Marie Lu (Batman: Nightwalker)
“
I could not understand why these romancers never took the trouble to find out a few elementary facts about the thing they denounced. The facts might easily have helped the denunciation, where the fictions discredited it. There were any number of real Catholic doctrines I should then have thought disgraceful to the Church. There are any number which I can still easily imagine being made to look disgraceful to the Church. But the enemies of the Church never found these real rocks of offence. They never looked for them. They never looked for anything. They seemed to have simply made up out of their own heads a number of phrases, such as a Scarlet Woman of deficient intellect might be supposed to launch on the world; and left it at that.
Boundless freedom reigned; it was not treated as if it were a question of fact at all. A priest might say anything about the Faith; because a Protestant might say anything about the priest.
These novels were padded with pronouncements like this one, for instance, which I happen to remember: "Disobeying a priest is the one sin for which there is no absolution. We term it a reserved case." Now obviously a man writing like that is simply imagining
what might exist; it has never occurred to him to go and ask if it does exist. He has heard the phrase "a reserved case" and considers, in a poetic reverie, what he shall make it mean. He does not go and ask the nearest priest what it does mean. He does not look it up in an encyclopedia or any ordinary work of reference. There is no doubt about the fact that it simply means a case reserved for ecclesiastical superiors and not to be settled finally by the priest. That may be a fact to be denounced; but anyhow it is a fact. But the man much prefers to denounce his own fancy. Any manual would tell him that there is no sin "for which there is no absolution"; not disobeying the priest; not assassinating the Pope. It would be easy to find out these facts and quite easy to base a Protestant invective upon them. It puzzled me very much, even at that early stage, to imagine why people bringing controversial charges against a powerful and prominent institution should thus neglect to test their own case, and should draw in this random way on their own imagination. It did not make me any more inclined to be a Catholic; in those days the very idea of such a thing would have seemed crazy. But it did save me from swallowing all the solid and solemn assertion about what Jesuits said and did. I did not accept quite so completely as others the well-ascertained and widely accepted fact that "Roman Catholics may do anything for the good of the Church"; because I had already learned to smile at equally accepted truths like "Disobeying a priest is the one sin for which there is no absolution." I never dreamed that the Roman religion was true; but I knew that its accusers, for some reason or other,
were curiously inaccurate.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton (The Catholic Church and Conversion)
“
Logically, when Maestro Gott some years ago, after an especially cruel critic had compared him to "a zombie who causes acute depression to innocent radio listeners", decided to stop performing in protest, the situation was considered so grave that the Minister of Culture himself went to console the deeply insulted star.
”
”
Terje B. Englund (The Czechs in a Nutshell)
“
All about Yoga Beauty Health.Yoga is a gathering of physical, mental, and otherworldly practices or teaches which started in antiquated India. There is a wide assortment of Yoga schools, practices, and objectives in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Among the most surely understood sorts of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga. The birthplaces of yoga have been theorized to go back to pre-Vedic Indian conventions; it is said in the Rigveda however in all probability created around the 6th and fifth hundreds of years BCE,in antiquated India's parsimonious and śramaṇa developments. The order of most punctual writings depicting yoga-practices is indistinct, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the main portion of the first thousand years CE, however just picked up noticeable quality in the West in the twentieth century. Hatha yoga writings risen around the eleventh century with sources in tantra
Yoga masters from India later acquainted yoga with the west after the accomplishment of Swami Vivekananda in the late nineteenth and mid twentieth century. In the 1980s, yoga wound up noticeably well known as an arrangement of physical exercise over the Western world.Yoga in Indian conventions, be that as it may, is more than physical exercise; it has a reflective and otherworldly center. One of the six noteworthy standard schools of Hinduism is likewise called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and transcendentalism, and is firmly identified with Hindu Samkhya reasoning.
Beauty is a normal for a creature, thought, protest, individual or place that gives a perceptual ordeal of delight or fulfillment. Magnificence is examined as a major aspect of style, culture, social brain research, theory and human science. A "perfect delight" is an element which is respected, or has includes broadly ascribed to excellence in a specific culture, for flawlessness. Grotesqueness is thought to be the inverse of excellence. The experience of "magnificence" regularly includes a translation of some substance as being in adjust and amicability with nature, which may prompt sentiments of fascination and passionate prosperity. Since this can be a subjective ordeal, it is frequently said that "excellence is entirely subjective.
Health is the level of practical and metabolic proficiency of a living being. In people it is the capacity of people or groups to adjust and self-oversee when confronting physical, mental, mental and social changes with condition. The World Health Organization (WHO) characterized wellbeing in its more extensive sense in its 1948 constitution as "a condition of finish physical, mental, and social prosperity and not simply the nonappearance of sickness or ailment. This definition has been liable to contention, specifically as lacking operational esteem, the uncertainty in creating durable wellbeing procedures, and on account of the issue made by utilization of "finish". Different definitions have been proposed, among which a current definition that associates wellbeing and individual fulfillment. Order frameworks, for example, the WHO Family of International Classifications, including the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), are usually used to characterize and measure the parts of wellbeing.
yogabeautyhealth.com
”
”
Ikram
“
He dared to reach out, finally took the prize he'd been longing to claim. He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek, then cupped her chin to tilt her face up. For a moment, she let him hold her so close that her hot breath brushed his face, then with a start she stumbled away.
"N-no. You shouldn't do that. I'm engaged to your brother."
Her lips formed the words of protest, but her eyes told a different story. She liked his touch, liked his closeness. Deep inside, in places she'd been taught to ignore, she wanted him. A surge of triumph and rekindled desire caught Dominic off guard.
He smiled as he edged closer again, thoroughly enjoying the hunt in a way he hadn't for a long time.
"A married man can't be engaged, Kat."
That made her turn and she steadied herself on the terrace wall when she realized how close he was. But she didn't step away.
"You shouldn't call me that." Her voice trembled like her hands.
"Why? I like it. It fits you." He edged even closer and touched her face a second time. This time she leaned into his palm with a small, almost imperceptible whimper. "But I promise I'll only call you Kat when we're alone. When we're in bed."
Her lips parted with surprise. "We won't ever share a bed," she murmured, but the protest was weak, indeed.
"No?" he whispered.
With a slow dip of his head, Dominic captured her lips. Though she didn't pull back, she seemed frozen with shock and didn't respond immediately either. But that was just part of the challenge. Gently, Dominic nibbled her lower lip, tasting the sweet honey of her skin until she opened her mouth to him with a gasp. He took the access she granted and tasted her. He continued to be gentle, exploring rather than plundering. There would be time to ravage and pillage later.
Finally, with a moan that came from deep within her, Katherine slid her hands up to clutch his arms and tentatively returned his kiss. The reaction sent a rush of longing through him that it nearly unmanned him. The control he'd been so carefully practicing suddenly fled.
”
”
Jenna Petersen (Scandalous)
“
The reformer," Douglass explained in 1883, had "a difficult and disagreeable task before him. He has to part with old friends; break away from the beaten paths of society, and advance against the vehement protests of the most sacred sentiments of the human heart.
”
”
James Oakes (The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics)
“
Now that the sit-in organizers had "the ball rolling," they had another trick up their sleeves. "As you know, black people like to dress," Richard Hall said. "So at Easter everybody would go out and buy an outfit generally, if they could afford it." In fact, according to Dr. Hereford, the Easter clothing splurge was the largest purchase most black Huntsvillians made all year (the second largest being for Christmas toys). On a visit to Nashville in the middle of the Huntsville protests, Hereford learned about a protest called "Blue Jean Easter" where African Americans, "instead of buying $100 suits and $100 dresses, they decided to spend five dollars on a pair of blue jeans for Easter, and I brought the idea back to Huntsville...The economic toll downtown was enormous. "There were twenty thousand black people in Madison County," Hereford said, "and ten thousand in the city, and if there are even ten thousand black people failing to buy $90 or $100 Easter outfits, that's a lot of money and losses for the merchants downtown. It could cost them a million dollars or more." As an extra, aded dig at the storeowners, Hereford said, people did not even buy their blue jeans in Huntsville...
”
”
Richard Paul (We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program)
“
Speaking of those children...." He tried to turn his head within the curve of Juliet's arm so that he could look at Charlotte. "It appears that one of them ... is yours." "Yes, my daughter. She's just over six months." "Will you lift her up so I may see her? I adore children." Juliet hesitated, thinking that sleeping babes were best left alone. But it was not in her to deny the wishes of a man who might very well be dying. Carefully, she picked up the infant and held her so that Gareth could see her. Charlotte whimpered and opened her eyes. Immediately, the lines of pain about Gareth's mouth relaxed. Smiling weakly, he reached up and ran his fingers over one of the tiny fists, unaware that he was touching his own niece. A lump rose in Juliet's throat. It was not hard at all to imagine that he was Charles, reaching up to touch his daughter. Not hard at all. "You're just ... as pretty as your mama," he murmured. "A few more years ... and all the young bucks shall be after you ... like hounds to the fox." To Juliet he said, "What is her name?" "Charlotte." The baby was wide awake now and tugging at the lace of his sleeve. "Charlotte. Such a pretty name ... and where is your papa, little Charlie-girl? Should he ... not be here to ... protect you and your mama?" Juliet stiffened. His innocent words had slammed a fresh bolt of pain through her. Tight-lipped, she pried the lace from Charlotte's fist and cradled her close. Deprived of her amusement, the baby screwed up her face and began to wail at the top of her lungs while Juliet stared out the window, her mouth set and her hand clenched in a desperate bid to control her emotions. Gareth managed to make himself heard over Charlotte's angry screams. "I am sorry. I think I have offended you, somehow...." "No." "Then what is it?" "Her papa's dead." "Oh. I, ah ... I see." He looked distressed, and remorse stole the brightness that Charlotte had brought to his eyes. "I am sorry, madam. I am forever saying the wrong thing, I fear." Charlotte was now crying harder, beating her fists and kicking her feet in protest. The blanket fell away. Juliet attempted to put it back. Charlotte screamed louder, her angry squalls filling the coach until Juliet felt like crying herself. She made a noise of helpless despair. "Here ... set her on your lap, beside my head," Lord Gareth said at last. "She can play with my cravat." "No, you're hurt." He smiled. "And your daughter is crying. Oblige me, and she will stop." He stretched a hand toward the baby, offering his fingers, but she batted him away and continued to wail. "I'm told I have a way ... with children." With a sigh, Juliet did as he asked. Immediately, Charlotte quieted and fell to playing with his cravat.
”
”
Danelle Harmon (The Wild One (The de Montforte Brothers, #1))
“
Charles? What is wrong?" That rueful little smile still in place, he bent his head, looking down as though he could see the beautiful animal whose broad forehead was pressed to his chest, and whose ears were only a few inches from his nose. "I cannot ride him," he said softly, with one of his long, slow, blinks that lent him an air of studied sadness. "As much as he means to me, as much as I've missed him, he is nothing more to me than a pet, now —" He never finished the sentence. As though he'd taken violent offense at his master's words, the stallion flung up his head, the blow catching Charles squarely beneath the jaw, snapping his head back and sending him reeling backwards into Amy's arms. She staggered under his weight. "Will, help me!" Her brother rushed forward, and together they eased the captain down onto his back in the straw. He lay unmoving, his lashes still against his cheeks. Blood gushed from his nose. "Charles!" Amy slid a hand beneath his nape and lifted his head just as his eyes fluttered open. "Oh-h-h-h," he moaned, covering his nose with one hand and trying to stop the bleeding. "Damn." "Will, get some cold water, quick!" Amy urged. As her brother ran out of the barn toward the well, Amy helped Charles to sit up. Cradling him against her body and tipping his head back over her arm, she tore off her neckerchief and pressed it to his nose. "You silly man," she said, in gentle admonishment. "I would've thought you knew your horse well enough to realize he doesn't take kindly to insults, either to himself or to his master." "I didn't insult him. " His voice sounded nasally and thick. "You insulted yourself." "I did not." "You did. You said you couldn't ride him." "I damn well can't." "You damn well will. My brother didn't go to all the trouble of bringing him back just so you could do nothing more than groom and feed him." "My dear Amy, please be realistic. I cannot ride him." "Why not?" "Because I can't see." "So you can't. But there's nothing wrong with your legs —" she blushed hotly, remembering the feel of them hard and strong against her own — "or your balance, or anything else about you. You simply can't see where you're going. But Contender can." "I shall not be able to guide him where I wish to go, pull him up when he needs pulling up, anticipate possible dangers to both himself and I." "Then you can go out riding with Mira and me, and we'll anticipate those things for you." "But I shall look the fool, up there on his back." "You shall look splendid." "Amy," he said in a patient, controlled voice, "you do not understand. If something cannot be done the proper way, it should not be done at all. Since I cannot ride him the proper way, I should not —" "No, Charles, you don't understand. Sometimes there is no right way to do something, but a whole parcel of varying ways. So you can't ride him the way you used to. You find a different way." "But —" "You're doing it again," she scolded. "Doing what?" "Trying to be perfect. And taking yourself far too seriously. Stop it." He began to protest, then grinned and gave her a half-hearted salute. "Yes, ma'm." At
”
”
Danelle Harmon (The Beloved One (The De Montforte Brothers, #2))
“
Very well, then. We'll take it." "Now, wait just one moment," Gareth protested, growing angry. "I will not have my wife and daughter spending the night in a bawdy house!" Juliet took him aside, leaning close to him and tilting her face up to whisper in his ear: "Gareth, I don't like this any more than you do, but it's only for one night, and it will save us some money." "We have plenty of money, we don't need to be frugal!" "That is the most absurd statement I've yet to hear you utter." He set his jaw. She continued, "You gave most of your money to the vicar, and what Perry and the duke gave us, though substantial, won't last forever. We cannot afford to be choosy, Gareth. Now, please — put aside your pride for a moment and be practical, would you?" "It has nothing to do with pride. I want to bring you to a hotel," he said sullenly. "A nice hotel. It's our wedding night, Juliet; you deserve no less." "A wedding night is a night just like any other," she said pragmatically, her unthinking words inadvertently cutting him to the bone. She saw the sudden hurt in his eyes and laid her hand on his wrist. "We don't have money to waste, Gareth." He stared at her, crushed by how lightly she seemed to regard the symbolic parts of marriage that he considered special — that she, had she loved him, would consider special, too. Was that how she rated their marriage, as well? Dispensable? Not worth some extra effort? He wondered, rather bitterly, if her marriage to Charles would have meant so little that she would have dishonored it by spending their wedding night in a brothel, as she was happy to do with theirs. Somehow he doubted it. "Very well, madam," he said, retreating into formal aloofness to disguise his hurt. "Have it your way, then." ~~~~
”
”
Danelle Harmon (The Wild One (The de Montforte Brothers, #1))
“
I'm not a scared kitten," Cleo protested, though she wasn't so sure she believed it.
"No?" Deacon tilted his head to study her. A bunny then?"
"I'm not a rabbit."
"Fish?"
"I don't swim."
"Ah!" He snapped his fingers. "You're a leopard gecko!"
"A what?" Cleo frowned. She'd not expected that at all.
"You know, one of those lizards people have as pets. They prefer to stay hidden but can be very loyal and friendly companions once you earn their trust.
”
”
Jaime Jo Wright (The Vanishing at Castle Moreau)
“
PARTY CRIES" IN IRELAND Belfast is a peculiarly religious community. This may be said of the whole of the North of Ireland. About one-half of the people are Protestants and the other half Catholics. Each party does all it can to make its own doctrines popular and draw the affections of the irreligious toward them. One hears constantly of the most touching instances of this zeal. A week ago a vast concourse of Catholics assembled at Armagh to dedicate a new Cathedral; and when they started home again the roadways were lined with groups of meek and lowly Protestants who stoned them till all the region round about was marked with blood. I thought that only Catholics argued in that way, but it seems to be a mistake. Every man in the community is a missionary and carries a brick to admonish the erring with. The law has tried to break this up, but not with perfect success. It has decreed that irritating "party cries" shall not be indulged in, and that persons uttering them shall be fined forty shillings and costs. And so, in the police court reports every day, one sees these fines recorded. Last week a girl of twelve years old was fined the usual forty shillings and costs for proclaiming in the public streets that she was "a Protestant." The usual cry is, "To hell with the Pope!" or "To hell with the Protestants!" according to the utterer's system of salvation. One of Belfast's local jokes was very good. It referred to the uniform and inevitable fine of forty shillings and costs for uttering a party cry--and it is no economical fine for a poor man, either, by the way.They say that a policeman found a drunken man lying on the ground, up a dark alley, entertaining himself with shouting, "To hell with!" "To hell with!" The officer smelt a fine--informers get half. "What's that you say?" "To hell with!" "To hell with who? To hell with what?" "Ah, bedad, ye can finish it yourself--it's too expansive for me!" I think the seditious disposition, restrained by the economical instinct, is finely put in that.
”
”
Various (World's Greatest Short Stories (Deluxe Hardbound Edition))
“
You know I'll never marry," he said.
Marks's voice came from the corner. She was perched on a small chair, a sunbeam glancing off her fair hair and causing dust motes to glitter around her. "Just as well, since no rational woman would have you."
Leo took up the challenge without hesitation. "A rational woman..." he mused aloud. "I don't believe I've ever met one of those."
"How would you know if you did?" she asked. "You wouldn't be interested in her character. You would be far too busy examining her... her..."
"Her what?" he prompted.
"Her dress measurements," she finally said, and he laughed at her prudishness.
"Is it really so impossible for you to name ordinary body parts, Marks? Breasts, hips, legs- why is it indecent to talk about the human anatomy in a straightforward manner?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Because it leads to improper thoughts."
Leo smirked at her. "Mine already are."
"Well, mine aren't," she said. "And I would prefer them to remain that way."
His brows lifted. "You don't have improper thoughts?"
"Hardly ever."
"But when you do, what are they?"
She gave him an indignant glance.
"Have I ever been involved in your improper thoughts?" Leo persisted, causing her face to flame.
"I told you I didn't have any," she protested.
"No, you said 'hardly ever.' Which means one or two are rattling around in there."
Amelia broke in. "Leo, stop tormenting her."
Leo barely heard her, his attention fixed on Catherine. "I wouldn't think badly of you at all if you did," he said. "In fact, I'd like you much better for it."
"No doubt you would," Catherine shot back. "You probably prefer women with no virtues at all."
"Virtue in a woman is like pepper in the soup. A little makes for a nice seasoning. But overdo it, and no one wants very much of you.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Married by Morning (The Hathaways, #4))
“
I wish our lives were quieter, no doubt. But for the rest of it...I love you because of who you are."
"Flaws and all?"
"You have flaws?" I asked in mock surprise.
He snorted and butted his shoulder against mine. "Devil."
"I'm an angel," I protested.
"A fallen one." But it drew a grin from him.
”
”
Jordan L. Hawk
“
Forgive us, Captain Phelan," Amelia murmured. "I can see that my sister startled you. Really, we've tried to learn better manners, but we're Philistines, all of us. And while Beatrix is out of hearing, I would like to assure you that she doesn't usually dress so outlandishly. However, every now and then she goes on an undertaking that makes long skirts inadvisable. Replacing a bird in a nest, for example, or training a horse, and so forth."
"A more conventional solution," Christopher said carefully, "would be to forbid the activity that necessitated the wearing of men's garments."
Rohan grinned. "One of my private rules for dealing with Hathaways," he said, "is never to forbid them anything. Because that guarantees they'll keep doing it."
"Heavens, we're not as bad as all that," Amelia protested.
Rohan gave his wife a speaking glance, his smile lingering. "Hathaways require freedom," he told Christopher, "Beatrix in particular. An ordinary life- being contained in parlors and drawing rooms- would be a prison for her. She relates to the world in a far more vital and natural way than any gadji I've ever known.
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Lisa Kleypas (Love in the Afternoon (The Hathaways, #5))
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I met Mr. Persimmons in the village to-day," Mr. Batesby said to the Archdeacon. "He asked after you very pleasantly, although he's sent every day to inquire. It was he that saw you lying in the road, you know, and brought you here in his car. It must be a great thing for you to have a sympathetic neighbour at the big house; there's so often friction in these small parishes."
"Yes," the Archdeacon said.
"We had quite a long chat," the other went on. "He isn't exactly a Christian, unfortunately, but he has a great admiration for the Church. He thinks it's doing a wonderful work—especially in education. He takes a great interest in education; he calls it the star of the future. He thinks morals are more important than dogma, and of course I agree with him."
"Did you say 'of course I agree' or 'of course I agreed'?" the Archdeacon asked. "Or both?"
"I mean I thought the same thing," Mr. Batesby explained. He had noticed a certain denseness in the Archdeacon on other occasions. "Conduct is much the biggest thing in life, I feel. 'He can't be wrong whose life is for the best; we needs must love the higher when we see Him.' And he gave me five pounds towards the Sunday School Fund."
"There isn't," the Archdeacon said, slightly roused, "a Sunday School Fund at Fardles."
"Oh, well!" Mr. Batesby considered. "I daresay he'd be willing for it to go to almost anything active. He was very keen, and I agree—thought just the same, on getting things done. He thinks that the Church ought to be a means of progress. He quoted something about not going to sleep till we found a pleasant Jerusalem in the green land of England. I was greatly struck. An idealist, that's what I should call him. England needs idealists to-day."
"I think we had better return the money," the Archdeacon said, "If he isn't a Christian—"
"Oh, but he is," Mr. Batesby protested. "In effect, that is. He thinks Christ was the second greatest man the earth has produced."
"Who was the first?" the Archdeacon asked.
Mr. Batesby paused again for a moment. "Do you know, I forgot to ask?" he said. "But it shows a sympathetic spirit, doesn't it? After all, the second greatest! That goes a long way. Little children, love one another—if five pounds helps us to teach them that in the schools. I'm sure mine want a complete new set of Bible pictures."
-Chap. VI The Sabbath
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Charles Williams