β
The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."
"It was probably important to her.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2))
β
We're all just walking each other home.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
We're fascinated by the words--but where we meet is in the silence behind them.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The most exquisite paradox⦠as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Your problem is you are too busy holding on to your unworthiness.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
What a waste of trees ... that adoption author is definitely a tree killer. ... I wish trees would sprout legs and come barging through the front doors and seek revenge for their obliterated brethren by ramming themselves down his goddamn throat.
β
β
Jasun Ether (The Beasts of Success)
β
What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
All struggles are essentially power struggles. Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles, and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together.
β
β
Octavia E. Butler
β
Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
I bring you a message from a friend of ours," she said quietly. "He wanted you to know that he's not dead. He can't be killed."
"He is hope."
The she raised the spear and rammed it directly into the Lord Ruler's heart.
β
β
Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1))
β
Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Let's trade in all our judging for appreciating. Let's lay down our righteousness and just be together.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The next message you need is always right where you are.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
I can do nothing for you but work on myself...you can do nothing for me but work on yourself!
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
The game is not about becoming somebody, it's about becoming nobody.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
Every religion is the product of the conceptual mind attempting to describe the mystery.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
I'm not interested in being a "lover." I'm interested in only being love.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The most important aspect of love is not in giving or the receiving: it's in the being. When I need love from others, or need to give love to others, I'm caught in an unstable situation. Being in love, rather than giving or taking love, is the only thing that provides stability. Being in love means seeing the Beloved all around me.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
My dear,
Is it true that your mind is sometimes like a battering
Ram
Running all through the city,
Shouting so madly inside and out
About the ten thousand things
That do not matter?
β
β
The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz (Compass)
β
We're here to awaken from the illusion of separateness
β
β
Ram Dass (How Can I Help?: Stories and Reflections on Service)
β
If you think you are enlightened; go home for Thanksgiving.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Information is just bits of data. Knowledge is putting them together. Wisdom is transcending them.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
It's only when caterpillarness is done that one becomes a butterfly. That again is part of this paradox. You cannot rip away caterpillarness. The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process of which we have no control.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
Having the entire world's resources right at your computer yet not using them is like having a body without a brain.
β
β
Ram Ray
β
It's all real and it's all illusory:
that's Awareness!
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation.
Use it!
β
β
Ram Dass
β
When we see the Beloved in each person, it's like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
It's very different because the Indians live as if they are their souls and Americans live as if they are their egos.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Our interactions with one another reflect a dance between love and fear.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
In our relationships, how much can we allow them to become new, and how much do we cling to what they used to be yesterday?
β
β
Ram Dass
β
I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Halt regarded him. He loved Horace like a younger brother. Even like a second son, after Will. He admired his skill with a sword and his courage in battle. But sometimes, just sometimes, he felt an overwhelming desire to ram the young warrior's head against a convenient tree.
"You have no sense of drama or symbolism, do you?" he asked.
"Huh?" replied Horace, not quite understanding. Halt looked around for a convenient tree. Luckily for Horace, there were none in sight.
β
β
John Flanagan (Halt's Peril (Ranger's Apprentice, #9))
β
The Ego is an exquisite instrument. Enjoy it, use it--just don't get lost in it.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Suffering is the sandpaper of our incarnation. It does its work of shaping us.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Just because you are seeing divine light, experiencing waves of bliss, or conversing with Gods and Goddesses is no reason to not know your zip code.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
By acting compassionately, by helping to restore justice and to encourage peace, we are acknowledging that we are all part of one another.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
All spiritual practices are illusions created by illusionists to escape illusion.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Compassion refers to the arising in the heart of the desire to relieve the suffering of all beings.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Every time I remember that my mother is dead, it feels like Iβm colliding with a wall that wonβt give. Thereβs no escape, just a hard surface that I keep ramming into over and over, a reminder of the immutable reality that I will never see her again.
β
β
Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart)
β
There's much more in any given moment than we usually perceive, and that we ourselves are much more than we usually perceive. When you know that, part of you can stand outside the drama of your life.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Prolong not the past
Invite not the future
Do not alter your innate wakefulness
Fear not appearances
There in nothing more than this
β
β
Ram Dass
β
One last thing," he said. "Stop looking for me."
"I'm not looking for you." I scoffed.
He touched his index finger to my forehead, my skin absurdly warming under his touch. It didn't escape me that he couldn't seem to stop finding reasons to touch me. Nor did I miss that I didn't want him to stop. "Under all the layers, a part of you remembers. It's the part that came looking for me tonight. It's that part that's going to get you killed, if you're not careful."
We stood face-to-face, both of us breathing hard. The sirens were so close now.
"What am I supposed to tell the police?" I said.
"You're not going to talk to the police."
"Oh, really? Funny, because I plan on telling them exactly how you rammed that tire iron into Gabe's back. Unless you answer my questions."
He gave an ironic snort. "Blackmail? You've changed, Angel.
β
β
Becca Fitzpatrick (Silence (Hush, Hush, #3))
β
When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didnβt get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you donβt get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying βYou are too this, or Iβm too this.β That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Early in the journey you wonder how long the journey will take and whether you will make it in this lifetime. Later you will see that where you are going is HERE and you will arrive NOW...so you stop asking.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
Spiritual practices help us move from identifying with the ego to identifying with the soul. Old age does that for you too. It spiritualizes people naturally.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
The freer I get, the higher I go. The higher I go, the more I see. The more I see, the less I know. The less I know, the more Iβm free.
β
β
Ram Dass (Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita)
β
You and I are the force for transformation in the world. We are the consciousness that will define the nature of the reality we are moving into.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Khalil Gibran said that parents are like a bow, And children like arrows. The more the bow bends and stretches, the farther the arrow flies. I fly, not because I am special, but because they stretched for me.
β
β
Amish Tripathi (Scion of Ikshvaku (Ram Chandra, #1))
β
You didn't listen to me," Lan whispered. One last lesson. The hardest. Demandred struck, and Lan saw his opening. Lan lunged forward placing Demandred's sword point against his own side and ramming himself forward onto it.
"I did not come here to win," Lan whispered, smiling. "I came here to kill you. Death is lighter than a feather."
Demandred's eyes opened wide, and he tried to pull back. Too late. Lan's sword took him straight though the throat.
β
β
Robert Jordan (A Memory of Light (The Wheel of Time, #14))
β
The global Corona conflict has rammed people into trenches. Invisible, lethal, viral weapons have replaced visible whistling bullets and thunderous bombs. As we donβt know who is calling the shots, it is difficult to tell how we can call a truce with imperceptible enemies. (βWhat do they hide behind their dirty apronsβ)
β
β
Erik Pevernagie
β
In mystical traditions, it is one's own readiness that makes experiences exoteric or esoteric.
The secret isn't that you're not being told.
The secret is that you're not able to hear.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Our journey is about being more deeply involved in Life and yet less attached to it.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts.. if we can keep them open to God, will find their own intuitive way.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
As one individual changes, the system changes.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Cosmic humor, especially about your own predicament, is an important part of your journey.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that's happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Psychedelics helped me to escape.. albeit momentarily.. from the prison of my mind. It over-rode the habit patterns of thought and I was able to taste innocence again. Looking at sensations freshly without the conceptual overly was very profound.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Polly felt questing eyes boring into her. She was embarrassed, of course. But not for the obvious reason. It was for the other one, the little lesson that life sometimes rams home with a stick: you are not the only one watching the world. Other people are people; while you watch them they watch you, and they think about you while you think about them. The world isnβt just about you.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Monstrous Regiment (Discworld, #31; Industrial Revolution, #3))
β
Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Theophane gave birth to a magical ram named Krysomallos, who for some reason had wool made of gold. Eventually, Krysomallos would be skinned for his fleece, which became known as the Golden Fleece, which means I am related to a sheepskin rug.
β
β
Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Gods)
β
Mom, is the world coming to an end?" Jonny asked, picking up the plate of cookies and ramming one into his mouth.
"No, it isn'T," Mom said, folding her lawn chair and carrying it to the front of the house. "And yes, you do have to go to school tomorrow.
β
β
Susan Beth Pfeffer (Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors, #1))
β
For sure, they don't teach you this in history class, but in colonial times, the person who got left in the stocks overnight was nothing less than fair game for everybody to nail. Men or women, anybody bent over had no way of knowing who was doing the ram job, and this was the real reason you never wanted to end up here unless you had a family member or a friend who'd stand with you the whole time. To protect you. To watch your ass, for real.
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β
Chuck Palahniuk (Choke)
β
Amos stopped before the entrance, which was the size of a garage doorβa dark heavy square of timber with no visible handle or lock. βCarter after you.β
βUm, how do Iββ
βHow do you think?β
Great another mystery. I was about to suggest we ram Amosβs head against it and see if that worked.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, #1))
β
I can not give you the reference of Ram Chandar or Krishna, because they were not historical figures. I can not help it but to present to you the names of (Hazrat) Abu Bakar (RA) and (Hazrat) Umar Farooq (RA). They were leaders of a vast Empire, yet they lived a life of austerity.
β
β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn't take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.
β
β
H.L. Mencken
β
There's nothing of any importance in life - except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are, will come from that. It's the only measure of human value. All the codes of ethics they'll try to ram down your throat are just so much paper money put out by swindlers to fleece people of their virtues. The code of competence is the only system of morality that's on a gold standard.
β
β
Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)
β
Souls love. Thatβs what souls do. Egos donβt, but souls do. Become a soul, look around, and youβll be amazed-all the beings around you are souls. Be one, see one. When many people have this heart connection, then we will know that we are all one, we human beings all over the planet. We will be one. One love. And donβt leave out the animals, and trees, and clouds, and galaxies-itβs all one. Itβs one energy.
β
β
Ram Dass
β
Everything youβve told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now. Frankly, as soon add you have two things to do stored in your RAM, youβve generated personal failure, because you canβt do two things at the same time. This produces an all-pervasive stress factor whose source canβt be pin-pointed.
β
β
David Allen (Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity)
β
Then he reached up and tore my shirtfront open.
"Not much to see, is there?" I said, struggling to talk with a crushed windpipe. "I know, I know, they can fix things like that these days. Call me a feminist, but I think a woman's worth should be defined not by the size of her bust, but - "
I rammed my fist up into his Adam's apple. He grunted and stumbled back.
"- by the strength of her right hook.
β
β
Kelley Armstrong
β
You told me once of t he plants that lie dormant through the
drought; that wait, half dead, deep in the earth. The plants that
wait for the rain. You said they'd wait for years, if they had to;
that they'd almost kill themselves before they grew again. But
as soon as those first drops of water fall, those plants begin to
stretch and spread their roots. They travel up through the soil
and sand to reach the surface. There's a chance for them again.
One day they'll let you out of that dry, empty cell. You'll
return to the Separates, without me, and you'll feel the ram
once more. And you'll grow straight, this time, towards this
sunlight. I know you will." - Gemma
β
β
Lucy Christopher (Stolen (Stolen, #1))
β
I pointed my nose right at the bomber down below, then i hit the overburn. "Cadet?" Ironsides said. "Pilot, what are you doing?"
"My weapons are gone . . . I have to ram it."
"Understood," Ironsides whispered. "Saints' own speed, pilot."
"What?" Jorgen said over the line. "What? Ram it? Spin!"
I dove toward the enemy bomber
"Spin," Jorgen said . . . "Spin you'll die."
"Yes," I whispered. "But I'll win anyway.
β
β
Brandon Sanderson (Skyward (Skyward, #1))
β
Love is excruciating, especially when you can feel it slipping through your fingers and there is nothing you can do about it. Like someone was playing tug-of-war with my limbs, ripping to shreds whatever was left behind. What it would feel like when love was lost...I wouldn't survive that. I closed my eyes willing the tears to stay hidden behind my eyelids and focusing on breathing in and out instead of the pain that was ramming in my heart.
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β
Julie Hockley (Crow's Row (Crow's Row, #1))
β
The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skirts, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. There are tyrants, not Muslims.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are against is a no brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend? Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the preceding list -- yes, even the short skirts and the dancing -- are worth dying for?
The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them.
How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.
β
β
Salman Rushdie (Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002)
β
She stepped forward as if to pick up the fur she'd tossed over a chair. Smoothly, she turned to hand it to him. And with perfect timing, flung herself into his arms.
The sable fell as he took her shoulders to shove her back.
Eve stepped to the doorway to see Magdelana with her arms locked around Roarke's neck, his hands on her bare shoulders--one of the ivory straps sliding to her elbow.
"Son of a bitch," she said.
On cue, Magdelana spun around, her face full of passion and shock. "Oh, God. Oh...it's not what it looks like."
"Bet." Eve strode in.
Actually, Roarke thought, it was more of a swagger. He had a moment to admire it, before Eve rammed her fist in his face.
"Fuck me." His head snapped back, and he tasted blood.
Magdelana cried out, but even the deaf would have caught the suppressed laughter in the sound. "Roarke! Oh, my God, you're bleeding. Please, let me just--"
"Don't look now," Eve said cheerfully. "But he's not the only one." She decked Magdelana with a straight-armed jab. "Bitch," Eve added as Magdelana's eyes rolled back and she fell, unconscious, to the floor.
Roarke looked down. "Well, now, fuck us all.
β
β
J.D. Robb (Innocent in Death (In Death, #24))
β
When somebody provokes your anger, the only reason you get angry is because youβre holding on to how you think something is supposed to be. Youβre denying how it is. Then you see itβs the expectations of your own mind that are creating your own hell. When you get frustrated because something isnβt the way you thought it would be, examine the way you thought, not just the thing that frustrates you. Youβll see that a lot of your emotional suffering is created by your models of how you think the universe should be and your inability to allow it to be as it is.
β
β
Ram Dass (Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart)
β
The cosmic humor is that if you desire to move mountains and you continue to purify yourself, ultimately you will arrive at the place where you are able to move mountains. But in order to arrive at this position of power you will have had to give up being he-who-wanted-to-move-mountains so that you can be he-who-put-the-mountain-there-in-the-first-place. The humor is that finally when you have the power to move the mountain, you are the person who placed it there--so there the mountain stays.
β
β
Ram Dass (Be Here Now)
β
Faith precedes the miracle. It has ever been so and shall ever be. It was not raining when Noah was commanded to build an ark. There was no visible ram in the thicket when Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. Two heavenly personages were not yet seen when Joseph knelt and prayed. First came the test of faithβand then the miracle. Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other. Cast out doubt. Cultivate faith.
β
β
Thomas S. Monson
β
Dear Goat,
How does one fall in love? Do you trip? Do you stumble, lose your balance and drop to the sidewalk, graze your knee, graze your heart? Do you crash to the stony ground? Is there a precipice, from which you float, over the edge, forever?
I know I'm in love when I see you, I know when I long to see you. Not a muscle has moved. Leaves hang unruffled by any breeze. The air is still. I have fallen in love without taking step. When did this happen? I haven't even blinked.
I'm on fire. Is that too banal for you? It's not, you know. You'll see. It's what happens. It's what matters. I'm on fire.
I no longer eat, I forget to eat. Food looks silly to me, irrelevant. If I even notice it. But I notice nothing. My thoughts are full and raging, a house full of brothers, related by blood, feuding blood feuds:
"I'm in love."
"Typically stupid choice."
"I am, though, I'm racked by love as if love were pain."
"Go ahead. Fuck up your life. It's all wrong and you know it. Wake up. Face it."
"There's only one face, it's all I see, awake or asleep."
I threw the book out the window last night. I tried to forget. You are all wrong for me, I know it, but I no longer care for my thoughts unless they're thoughts of you. When I'm close to you, in your presence, I feel your hair brush my cheek when it does not. I look away from you, sometimes. Then I look back.
When I tie my shoes, when I peel an orange, when I drive my car, when I lie down each night without you, I remain,
As ever,
Ram
β
β
Cathleen Schine (The Love Letter)
β
She's not much taller than Tess and definitely lighter than Kaede. For a second it seems like the crowd's attention has made her umcomfortable and I'm ready to dismiss her as a real contender until I study her again. No, this girl is nothing like the last one. She's hesitating not because she's afraid to fight,or because she fears losing,but because she's thinking. Calculating.She has dark hair tied back in a high ponytail and a lean, athletic build. She stands deliberately, with a hand resting on her hip, as if nothing in the world can catch her off guard. I find myself pausing to admire her face.
For a brief moment,I'm lost to my surroundings.
The girl shakes her head at Kaede. This surprises me too-I've never seen anyone refuse to fight. Everyone knows the rules: if you're chosen,you fight. This girl doesn't seem to fear the crowds wrath. Kaede laughs at her and says something I can't quite make out. Tess hears it,though, and casts me a quick, concerned glance.
This time the girl nods. The crowd lets out another cheer,and Kaede smiles. I lean a little bit out from behind the chimney. Something about this girl...I don't know what it is.But her eyes burn in the light,and although it's hot and might be my imagination, I think I see a small smile on the girl's face.
Tess shoots a questioning look at me.I hesitate for a split second,then hold up one finger again. I'm grateful to this mystery girl for helping Tess out, but with my money on the line,I decide to play it safe. Tess nods,then casts our bet in favor of Kaede.
But the instant the new girl steps into the circle and I see her stance...I know I've made a big mistake.Kaede strikes like a bull, a battering ram.
This girl strikes like a viper.
β
β
Marie Lu (Legend (Legend, #1))
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If my twelve-year-old self, of whom I had grown rather fond, thinking about him, were to reproach me: 'Why have you grown up such a dull dog, when I gave you such a good start? Why have you spent your time in dusty libraries, catologuing other people's books instead of writing your own? What had become of the Ram, the Bull and the Lion, the example I gave you to emulate? Where above all is the Virgin, with her shining face and curling tresses, whom I entrusted to you'- what should I say?
I should have an answer ready. 'Well, it was you who let me down, and I will tell you how. You flew too near to the sun, and you were scorched. This cindery creature is what you made me.'
To which he might reply: 'But you have had half a century to get over it! Half a century, half the twentieth century, that glorious epoch, that golden age that I bequeathed to you!'
'Has the twentieth century,' I should ask, 'done so much better than I have? When you leave this room, which I admit is dull and cheerless, and take the last bus to your home in the past, if you haven't missed it - ask yourself whether you found everything so radiant as you imagined it. Ask yourself whether it has fulfilled your hopes. You were vanquished, Colston, you were vanquished, and so was your century, your precious century that you hoped so much of.
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L.P. Hartley (The Go-Between)