“
Every time I think you’ve reached the limits of arrogance, you show me new heights. Truly, your egotism is like the Universe—ever expanding.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, #3))
“
This love triangle had reached new heights, and as much as Matt loved geometry, this was not the sort of triangle he wanted anything to do with.
”
”
Jessica Park (Flat-Out Matt (Flat-Out Love, #1.5))
“
No one knows the origins of the universe. Gone was the knowledge of creation; lost to faded memories and the advance of time. History became legend, legend became myth. It is said the gods, flawless emperors of all, opened their hearts and gave life to hundreds of worlds. That love nurtured and evolved into utopian grandeur. Humanity prospered, every day reaching new heights. But all was not well. The gods were unhappy. War loomed ever on the near horizon. Realizing their plight, the king of the gods gave birth to three sons; would be kings to rule.
”
”
Christian Warren Freed
“
At the bottom of the mountain you have your scoffers and doubters, by midpoint you have your envious and haters, and when you reach to the top you have new friends and family you never met or thought existed.
”
”
Anthony Liccione
“
CHAPTER VI
Concerning New Principalities Which Are Acquired By One's Own Arms And Ability
LET no one be surprised if, in speaking of entirely new principalities as I shall do, I adduce the highest examples both of prince and of state; because men, walking almost always in paths beaten by others, and following by imitation their deeds, are yet unable to keep entirely to the ways of others or attain to the power of those they imitate. A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it. Let him act like the clever archers who, designing to hit the mark which yet appears too far distant, and knowing the limits to which the strength of their bow attains, take aim much higher than the mark, not to reach by their strength or arrow to so great a height, but to be able with the aid of so high an aim to hit the mark they wish to reach.
”
”
Niccolò Machiavelli (The Prince)
“
Change is possible if you allow it to happen. Nothing in life is constant; it's always evolving and that's how life happens for me. Through my adversities I can reach new heights.
”
”
Chimnese Davids (Muses of Wandering Passions)
“
It is when we fall that we are given the opportunity to rise up and reach new heights.
”
”
Christopher Earle
“
FLYING WAS OVERRATED. Heights were very overrated. Flying with wings was probably less overrated when said wings belonged to you, but when you were dangling in a swing that bopped up and down every time the angel of death carrying you beat his wings, you reached a new level of appreciation for walking. Walking was amazing and awesome, and I really wanted to do it again as soon as possible.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Binds (Kate Daniels, #9))
“
Let us now yearn for the possibility of building a happiness in every heart. Let us now build inward a new world of hope, a world of limitless possibilities for the children of tomorrow, where each soul can reach the heights of their potential to love and to be loved.
”
”
Bryant McGill (Voice of Reason)
“
An attachment grew up. What is an attachment? It is the most difficult of all the human interrelationships to explain, because it is the vaguest, the most impalpable. It has all the good points of love, and none of its drawbacks. No jealousy, no quarrels, no greed to possess, no fear of losing possession, no hatred (which is very much a part of love), no surge of passion and no hangover afterward. It never reaches the heights, and it never reaches the depths.
As a rule it comes on subtly. As theirs did. As a rule the two involved are not even aware of it at first. As they were not. As a rule it only becomes noticeable when it is interrupted in some way, or broken off by circumstances. As theirs was. In other words, its presence only becomes known in its absence. It is only missed after it stops. While it is still going on, little thought is given to it, because little thought needs to be.
It is pleasant to meet, it is pleasant to be together. To put your shopping packages down on a little wire-backed chair at a little table at a sidewalk cafe, and sit down and have a vermouth with someone who has been waiting there for you. And will be waiting there again tomorrow afternoon. Same time, same table, same sidewalk cafe. Or to watch Italian youth going through the gyrations of the latest dance craze in some inexpensive indigenous night-place-while you, who come from the country where the dance originated, only get up to do a sedate fox trot. It is even pleasant to part, because this simply means preparing the way for the next meeting.
One long continuous being-together, even in a love affair, might make the thing wilt. In an attachment it would surely kill the thing off altogether. But to meet, to part, then to meet again in a few days, keeps the thing going, encourages it to flower.
And yet it requires a certain amount of vanity, as love does; a desire to please, to look one's best, to elicit compliments. It inspires a certain amount of flirtation, for the two are of opposite sex. A wink of understanding over the rim of a raised glass, a low-voiced confidential aside about something and the smile of intimacy that answers it, a small impromptu gift - a necktie on the one part because of an accidental spill on the one he was wearing, or of a small bunch of flowers on the other part because of the color of the dress she has on.
So it goes.
And suddenly they part, and suddenly there's a void, and suddenly they discover they have had an attachment.
Rome passed into the past, and became New York.
Now, if they had never come together again, or only after a long time and in different circumstances, then the attachment would have faded and died. But if they suddenly do come together again - while the sharp sting of missing one another is still smarting - then the attachment will revive full force, full strength. But never again as merely an attachment. It has to go on from there, it has to build, to pick up speed. And sometimes it is so glad to be brought back again that it makes the mistake of thinking it is love.
("For The Rest Of Her Life")
”
”
Cornell Woolrich (Angels of Darkness)
“
Take it one step at a time—inarguably wise advice. And yet we all take a running leap, hoping the wind will catch us on its wings and lift us clear to the top of the beanstalk. Those few Jacks who have reached new heights in this manner inevitably wish they had taken more time to prepare for the overbearing giant who greeted them.
”
”
Richelle E. Goodrich (Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year)
“
Fate sure is a mysterious thing. You think you have it all figured out, and boom, it throws completely unpredictable surprises at you. Yet, in the end, you find out it was not some wrathful God’s curse or your paying for your unknown crimes, but simply a new path to take, new amazing things to experience, new hardships to overcome, and new heights to reach.
”
”
Tamuna Tsertsvadze (The Prison of Deviants)
“
Though we may not have reached the heights we anticipated yesterday, today is a brand new day to begin a new climb.
”
”
Chinonye J. Chidolue
“
Spread your wings, tokshi, and fly. Soar above them, make their eyes tear as they stare into the sun to watch you reach new heights.
”
”
Elise Kova (Water's Wrath (Air Awakens, #4))
“
I have seen that man’s capacity for evil has no limit, just as man’s genius is not limited to reaching new heights in every human endeavor.
”
”
Alter Wiener (From a Name to a Number: A Holocaust Survivor's Autobiography)
“
Every day the world chips away at your self-confidence. Like a muscle, it weakens when it is not put to good use. To reach greater success you will need to continually develop your self-confidence.
”
”
Daphne Michaels (Mountaintop Prosperity: Move Quickly to New Heights in Life, Work and Money)
“
I have been able to solve a few problems of mathematical physics on which the greatest mathematicians since Euler have struggled in vain ... But the pride I might have held in my conclusions was perceptibly lessened by the fact that I knew that the solution of these problems had almost always come to me as the gradual generalization of favorable examples, by a series of fortunate conjectures, after many errors. I am fain to compare myself with a wanderer on the mountains who, not knowing the path, climbs slowly and painfully upwards and often has to retrace his steps because he can go no further—then, whether by taking thought or from luck, discovers a new track that leads him on a little till at length when he reaches the summit he finds to his shame that there is a royal road by which he might have ascended, had he only the wits to find the right approach to it. In my works, I naturally said nothing about my mistake to the reader, but only described the made track by which he may now reach the same heights without difficulty.
”
”
Hermann von Helmholtz
“
But “normal” changed, and though I was the first female schoolteacher in Middleborough, I doubted I would be the last. It only took one person to climb a mountain or reach a summit before others followed and sought new heights.
”
”
Amy Harmon (A Girl Called Samson)
“
Such a creature—my, I’d love to know him!— I’d call him Mr. Microcosm. FAUST. What am I, then, if it can never be: The realization of all human possibility, That crown my soul so avidly reaches for? MEPHISTO. In the end you are—just what you are. Wear wigs high-piled with curls, oh millions, Stick your legs in yard-high hessians, You’re still you, the one you always were. FAUST. I feel it now, how pointless my long grind 1840 To make mine all the treasures of man’s mind; When I sit back and interrogate my soul, No new powers answer to my call; I’m not a hair’s breadth more in height, A step nearer to the infinite.
”
”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Faust: A Tragedy, Parts One and Two)
“
Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches,
letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.
”
”
Pauline R. Kezer
“
If you don't break your own standards, you will not reach new heights and levels. It is by stretching our limits that we move beyond boundaries. Keep improving!
”
”
Israelmore Ayivor (Daily Drive 365)
“
The small island of Bogoslof, since it was first observed in 1796, has altered its shape and position several times and has even disappeared completely, only to emerge again. The original island was a mass of black rock, sculptured into fantastic, tower-like shapes. Explorers and sealers coming upon it in the fog were reminded of a castle and named it Castle Rock. At the present time there remain only one or two pinnacles of the castle, a long spit of black rocks where sea lions haul out, and a cluster of higher rocks resounding with the cries of thousands of sea birds. Each time the parent volcano erupts, as it has done at least half a dozen times since men have been observing it, new masses of steaming rocks emerge from the heated waters, some to reach heights of several hundred feet before they are destroyed in fresh explosions.
”
”
Rachel Carson (The Sea Around Us)
“
A stunning new phenomenon emerged in France in the 1990s: the very top salaries, and especially the pay packages awarded to the top executives of the largest companies and financial firms, reached astonishing heights—somewhat
”
”
Thomas Piketty (Capital in the Twenty-First Century)
“
A new love came into my life, a most beautiful one, one which will, I believe, stand the test of time...Perhaps C. will be remembered as the great love of my life. Already I have achieved certain heights reached with no other love.
”
”
Edward Weston
“
The great issue with us males is our frailty," he went on. "When our awareness begins to
grow, it grows like a column, right on the midpoint of our luminous being, from the ground up. That column has to reach a considerable height before we can rely on it. At this time in your life, as a sorcerer, you easily lose your grip on your new awareness. When you do that, you forget everything you have done and seen on the warrior-travelers' path because your consciousness shifts back to the awareness of your everyday life. I have explained to you that the task of every male sorcerer is to reclaim everything he has done and seen on the warrior-travelers' path while he was on new levels of awareness. The problem of every male sorcerer is that he easily forgets because his awareness loses its new level and falls to the ground at the drop of a hat.
”
”
Carlos Castaneda (The Active Side of Infinity)
“
I say is someone in there?’ The voice is the young post-New formalist from
Pittsburgh who affects Continental and wears an ascot that won’t stay tight, with that
hesitant knocking of when you know perfectly well someone’s in there, the
bathroom door composed of thirty-six that’s three times a lengthwise twelve
recessed two-bevelled squares in a warped rectangle of steam-softened wood, not
quite white, the bottom outside corner right here raw wood and mangled from
hitting the cabinets’ bottom drawer’s wicked metal knob, through the door and
offset ‘Red’ and glowering actors and calendar and very crowded scene and pubic
spirals of pale blue smoke from the elephant-colored rubble of ash and little
blackened chunks in the foil funnel’s cone, the smoke’s baby-blanket blue that’s sent
her sliding down along the wall past knotted washcloth, towel rack, blood-flower
wallpaper and intricately grimed electrical outlet, the light sharp bitter tint of a heated
sky’s blue that’s left her uprightly fetal with chin on knees in yet another North
American bathroom, deveiled, too pretty for words, maybe the Prettiest Girl Of All
Time (Prettiest G.O.A.T.), knees to chest, slew-footed by the radiant chill of the
claw-footed tub’s porcelain, Molly’s had somebody lacquer the tub in blue, lacquer,
she’s holding the bottle, recalling vividly its slogan for the past generation was The
Choice of a Nude Generation, when she was of back-pocket height and prettier by
far than any of the peach-colored titans they’d gazed up at, his hand in her lap her
hand in the box and rooting down past candy for the Prize, more fun way too much
fun inside her veil on the counter above her, the stuff in the funnel exhausted though
it’s still smoking thinly, its graph reaching its highest spiked prick, peak, the arrow’s
best descent, so good she can’t stand it and reaches out for the cold tub’s rim’s cold
edge to pull herself up as the white- party-noise reaches, for her, the sort of
stereophonic precipice of volume to teeter on just before the speaker’s blow, people
barely twitching and conversations strettoing against a ghastly old pre-Carter thing
saying ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’ Joelle’s limbs have been removed to a distance
where their acknowledgement of her commands seems like magic, both clogs simply
gone, nowhere in sight, and socks oddly wet, pulls her face up to face the unclean
medicine-cabinet mirror, twin roses of flame still hanging in the glass’s corner, hair
of the flame she’s eaten now trailing like the legs of wasps through the air of the
glass she uses to locate the de-faced veil and what’s inside it, loading up the cone
again, the ashes from the last load make the world's best filter: this is a fact. Breathes
in and out like a savvy diver…
–and is knelt vomiting over the lip of the cool blue tub, gouges on the tub’s
lip revealing sandy white gritty stuff below the lacquer and porcelain, vomiting
muddy juice and blue smoke and dots of mercuric red into the claw-footed trough,
and can hear again and seems to see, against the fire of her closed lids’ blood, bladed
vessels aloft in the night to monitor flow, searchlit helicopters, fat fingers of blue
light from one sky, searching.
”
”
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)
“
Even mighty states and kingdoms are not exempted. If we look into history, we shall find some nations rising from contemptible beginnings and spreading their influence, until the whole globe is subjected to their ways. When they have reached the summit of grandeur, some minute and unsuspected cause commonly affects their ruin, and the empire of the world is transferred to some other place. Immortal Rome was at first but an insignificant village, inhabited only by a few abandoned ruffians, but by degrees it rose to a stupendous height, and excelled in arts and arms all the nations that preceded it. But the demolition of Carthage (what one should think should have established is in supreme dominion) by removing all danger, suffered it to sink into debauchery, and made it at length an easy prey to Barbarians.
England immediately upon this began to increase (the particular and minute cause of which I am not historian enough to trace) in power and magnificence, and is now the greatest nation upon the globe.
Soon after the reformation a few people came over into the new world for conscience sake. Perhaps this (apparently) trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me. For if we can remove the turbulent Gallics, our people according to exactest computations, will in another century, become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since we have (I may say) all the naval stores of the nation in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas, and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us. Divide et impera. Keep us in distinct colonies, and then, some great men from each colony, desiring the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each others' influence and keep the country in equilibrio.
Be not surprised that I am turned into politician. The whole town is immersed in politics.
”
”
John Adams
“
His approach to psychotherapy stressed the importance of helping people to reach new heights of personal meaning through self-transcendence: the application of positive effort, technique, acceptance of limitations, and wise decisions. His goal was to provoke people into realizing that they could and should exercise their capacity for choice to achieve their own goals.
”
”
Viktor E. Frankl (Man's Search for Meaning)
“
Haven't I told you scores of times, that you're always beginners, and the greatest satisfaction was not in being at the top, but in getting there, in the enjoyment you get out of scaling the heights? That's something you don't understand, and can't understand until you've gone through it yourself. You're still at the state of unlimited illusions, when a good, strong pair of legs makes the hardest road look short, and you've such a mighty appetite for glory that the tiniest crumb of success tastes delightfully sweet. You're prepared for a feast, you're going to satisfy your ambition at last, you feel it's within reach and you don't care if you give the skin off your back to get it! And then, the heights are scaled, the summits reached, and you've got to stay there. That's when the torture begins; you've drunk your excitement to the dregs and found it all too short and even rather bitter, and you wonder whether it was really worth the struggle. From that point there is no more unknown to explore, no new sensations to experience. Pride has had its brief portion of celebrity; you know that your best has been given and you're surprised it hasn't brought a keener sense of satisfaction. From that moment the horizon starts to empty of all hopes that once attracted you towards it. There's nothing to look forward to but death. But in spite of that you cling on, you don't want to feel you're played out, you persist in trying to produce something, like old men persist in trying to make love, with painful, humiliating results. ... If only we could have the courage to hang ourselves in front of our last masterpiece!
”
”
Émile Zola (The Masterpiece)
“
I called the Keep, introduced myself to the disembodied female voice on the phone, and asked for the Beast Lord. In less than fifteen seconds Curran came on the line.
“I’m going into hiding with Jim.”
The silence on the other side of the phone had a distinctly sinister undertone. Perhaps he thought that his kissing superpowers had derailed me. Fat chance. I would keep him from having to kill Derek. That was a burden he didn’t need.
“I thought about this morning,” I said, doing my best to sound calm and reasonable. “I’ve instructed the super to change the locks. If I ever catch you in my apartment again, I will file a formal complaint. I’ve taken your food, under duress, but I did take it. You rescued me once or twice, and you’ve seen me near naked. I realize that you’re judging this situation by shapeshifter standards, and you expect me to fall on my back with my legs spread.”
“Not necessarily.” His voice matched mine in calmness. “You can fall on your hands and knees if you prefer. Or against the wall. Or on the kitchen counter. I suppose I might let you be on top, if you make it worth my while.”
I didn’t grind my teeth—he would’ve heard it. I had to be calm and reasonable. “My point is this: no.”
“No?”
“There will be no falling, no sex, no you and me.”
“I wanted to kiss you when you were in your house. In Savannah.”
Why the hell was my heart pounding? “And?”
“You looked afraid. That wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for.”
Be calm and reasonable. “You flatter yourself. You’re not that scary.”
“After I kissed you this morning, you were afraid again. Right after you looked like you were about to melt.”
Melt?
“You’re scared there might be something there, between you and me.”
Wow. I struggled to swallow that little tidbit. “Every time I think you’ve reached the limits of arrogance, you show me new heights. Truly, your egotism is like the Universe—ever expanding.”
“You thought about dragging me into your bed this morning.”
“I thought about stabbing you and running away screaming. You broke into my house without permission and slobbered all over me. You’re a damn lunatic! And don’t give me that line about smelling my desire; I know it’s bullshit.”
“I didn’t need to smell you. I could tell by the dreamy look in your eyes and the way your tongue licked the inside of my mouth.”
“Enjoy the memory,” I ground out. “That’s the last time it will ever happen.”
“Go play your games with Jim. I’ll find you both when I need you.”
Arrogant asshole. “I tell you what, if you find us before those three days run out, I’ll cook you a damn dinner and serve it to you naked.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Yes. Go fuck yourself.”
I slammed the phone down. Well, then. That was perfectly reasonable.
On the other side of the counter an older, heavyset man stared at me like I had sprouted horns.
Glenda handed me the money I’d given her. “That was some conversation. It was worth ten bucks.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, #3))
“
Until as late as the early 1950s a round-trip aeroplane ticket from Australia to England cost as much as a three-bedroom suburban home in Melbourne or Sydney. With the introduction by Qantas of larger Lockheed Super Constellation airliners in 1954, prices began to fall, but even by the end of the decade travelling to Europe by air still cost as much as a new car. Nor was it a terribly speedy or comfortable service. The Super Constellations took three days to reach London and lacked the power or range to dodge most storms. When monsoons or cyclones were encountered, the pilots had no choice but to put on the seat-belt signs and bounce through them. Even in normal conditions they flew at a height guaranteed to produce more or less constant turbulence. (Qantas called it, without evident irony, the Kangaroo Route.) It was, by any modern measure, an ordeal.
”
”
Bill Bryson (In a Sunburned Country)
“
Duiri Tal, a small lake, lies cradled on the hill above Okhimath, at a height of 8,000 feet. It was a favourite spot of one of Garhwal's earliest British Commissioners, J.H. Batten, whose administration continued for twenty years (1836-56). He wrote: The day I reached there, it was snowing and young trees were laid prostrate under the weight of snow; the lake was frozen over to a depth of about two inches. There was no human habitation, and the place looked a veritable wilderness. The next morning when the sun appeared, the Chaukhamba and many other peaks extending as far as Kedarnath seemed covered with a new quilt of snow, as if close at hand. The whole scene was so exquisite that one could not tire of gazing at it for hours. I think a person who has a subdued settled despair in his mind would all of a sudden feel a kind of bounding and exalting cheerfulness which will be imparted to his frame by the atmosphere of Duiri Tal. This
”
”
Ruskin Bond (Roads to Mussoorie)
“
When Elsa finally reached the top, she didn't find any trolls, but the view was breathtaking. Few mountaineers had climbed to such heights, and there she was, high over the entire kingdom. Arendelle was far in the distance, as tiny as a speck. Even if she hadn't found the trolls yet, the North Mountain felt like a good place for her to recharge and figure out how to find Anna. She'd build a palace as stunning as the landscape to shelter in. One that reflected the new her. Mama had called her powers a gift, hadn't she? Well, they were. And there was no reason to conceal them from the world at the top of a mountain.
”
”
Jen Calonita (Conceal, Don't Feel)
“
I am fain to compare myself with a wanderer on the mountains who, not knowing the path, climbs slowly and painfully upwards and often has to retrace his steps because he can go no further—then, whether by taking thought or from luck, discovers a new track that leads him on a little till at length when he reaches the summit he finds to his shame that there is a royal road by which he might have ascended, had he only the wits to find the right approach to it. In my works, I naturally said nothing about my mistake to the reader, but only described the made track by which he may now reach the same heights without difficulty.
”
”
Hermann von Helmholtz
“
Jacob smiled from ear to ear when he shook the man’s hand on stage. The man then handed him a trophy. "Tell the audience about your book."
My little brother confidently walked up to a microphone his height and beamed to the crowd. "I wrote about the person I love the most, my older brother, Noah. We don’t live together so I wrote what I imagine he does when we’re not together."
"And what is that?" prodded the stout man.
"He’s a superhero who saves people in danger, because he saved me and my brother from dying in a fire a couple of years ago. Noah is better than Batman." The crowd chuckled.
"I love you, too, lil’ bro." I couldn’t help it. To see him standing there, still worshipping me like he did when he was five … it was too much.
Jacob’s smile reached a whole new level of excitement. "Noah!" He pointed right to me. "That’s Noah. That’s my brother, Noah!" Ignoring his foster parents, Jacob flew off the stage and ran down the middle aisle.
Joe lowered his head and Carrie rubbed her eyes. Jacob raced into my arms and the crowd erupted into applause.
"I’ve missed you, Noah." Jacob’s voice broke, bringing tears to my eyes. I couldn’t cry. Not in front of Jacob and not in front of Mrs. Collins. I needed to be a man and stay strong.
"I’ve missed you, too, bro. I’m so proud of you."
”
”
Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1))
“
I hate the Fourth of July. The early middle age of summer. Everything is alive and kicking for now, but the eventual decline into fall has already set itself in motion. Some of the lesser shrubs and bushes, seared by the heat, are starting to resemble a bad peroxide job. The heat reaches a blazing peak, but summer is lying to itself, burning out like some alcoholic genius. And you start to wonder - what have I done with June? The poorest of the lot - the Vladeck House project dwellers who live beneath my co-op - seem to take summer in stride; they groan and sweat, drink the wrong kind of lager, make love, the squat children completing mad circles around them by foot or mountain bike. But for the more competitive of New Yorkers, even for me, the summer is there to be slurped up. We know summer is the height of being alive. We don’t believe in God or the prospect of an afterlife mostly, so we know that we’re only given eighty summers or so per lifetime, and each one has to be better than the last, has to encompass a trip to that arts center up at Bard, a seemingly mellow game of badminton over at some yahoo’s Vermont cottage, and a cool, wet, slightly dangerous kayak trip down an unforgiving river. Otherwise, how would you know that you have lived summertime best? What if you missed out on some morsel of shaded nirvana?
”
”
Gary Shteyngart (Super Sad True Love Story)
“
After browsing Doug Keenan's animation (of a solar barque going clockwise around the Great Pyramid) I interacted with him suggesting an anticlockwise rotation taking into consideration that the boat is described as being, solar. He made a new animation accordingly while pointing out the values of the boat's length and the Pyramid's width. Three weeks after I got inspired by his visual productions, I realized that the barque needs to complete seven squares of rotation to reach a value which equals to the Pyramid's height! This further proves my assertion that the Great Pyramid was originally built to mimic Adam's tradition; after all, there are no inscriptions inside of it.
”
”
Ibrahim Ibrahim (The Mill of Egypt: The Complete Series Fused)
“
My passion for cooking grew as my mother taught me how to make her chewy cranberry bread, Dijon mustard vinaigrette, and Nantucket quahog chowder thickened with chopped clams, potatoes, and sweet onions. Then it reached new heights in college when I took a year off to study French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, where I learned to master a mean spinach soufflé, make a perfect sauce Bordelaise, and craft authentic shiny chocolate-topped éclairs. When I was hired as the sous-chef at Le Potiron (The Pumpkin), a Parisian restaurant near Les Halles, I used my newfound skills to transform tough cuts of beef into tender stews, improvise with sweetbreads, and bake cakes from memory.
”
”
Victoria Abbott Riccardi (Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto)
“
My childhood dream came true, but now I have a new one. I dream that some of these young people, while they're out there clicking around, maybe they'll find out about this book and find a way to get their hands on it - and when they do, they'll know that even if you're a skinny kid from Long Island who's scared of heights, if you dream of walking among the stars you can do it. They'll know that finding a purpose, being dedicated to the service of others and to a calling higher than yourself, that is what's truly important in life. They'll be able to close their eyes and imagine what it's like in space, and when they open them again, they'll look up at the sun and the moon and the Milky Way and see them with the sense of awe and wonder that they deserve.
And those young boys and girls, whatever their space dream is, they'll go for it. Whatever hurdles are in their way, they'll get past them. When they fall down, they'll get back up. They'll keep going and going, working harder and harder and running faster and faster until one day, before they know it, they'll find themselves flying through the air. The hand of a giant science fiction monster will reach down and grab them by the chest and hurl them up and up and up, out to the furthest limits of the human imagination, where they'll take the next giant leap of the greatest adventure mankind has ever known.
”
”
Mike Massimino (Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe)
“
Nancy drove to River Heights and dropped George and Bess at their homes. In a few minutes she reached her own brick colonial house, which set back from the street and was reached by a curving driveway. Mr. Drew’s sporty sedan rolled in right behind her. “Hello, Nancy,” the lawyer greeted his daughter fondly. “I came home early today—had a rather hard session in court.” Nancy and her father strolled through the garden. “Dad, let’s sit down here,” she suggested after a few moments, indicating a stone bench. “I have something to show you.” “A letter from Ned Nickerson?” he teased. “Or is it from a new admirer?” Nancy laughed. “Neither. It’s something I copied today from part of a map of a treasure island!
”
”
Carolyn Keene (The Quest of the Missing Map (Nancy Drew, #19))
“
Patience's mental imprecations reached new heights. Mrs. Chadwick had not lied- Vane Cynster was the very epitome of an elegant gentleman. His hair, burnished chestnut several shades darker than her own, glowed softly in the candlelight, wave upon elegant wave sitting perfectly about his head. Even across the room, the strength of his features registered; clear-cut, hard-edged, forehead, nose, jaw, and cheeks appeared sculpted out of rock. Only his lips, long and thin with just a hint of humor to relieve their austerity, and the innate intelligence and, yes, wickedness, that lit his grey eyes, gave any hint of mere mortal personality- all else, including, Patience grudgingly acknowledged, his long, lean body, belonged to a god.
”
”
Stephanie Laurens (A Rake's Vow (Cynster, #2))
“
Always seeking to open channels to new dimensions of consciousness and reach new heights of enlightenment, he spent a lot of time and money endearing himself to and worming his way into the trust of secretive tribal healers and shamans. Under their guidance, he experimented with all kinds of psychoactive substances and entheogens—mostly plant-derived concoctions that played a pivotal role in the religious practices of the tribal cultures he was exploring. He started with more easily accessible, local mind-altering substances like psilocybin mushrooms and Salvia divinorum, under the guidance of Mazatec shamans in the isolated cloud forests of the Sierra Mazateca, then he moved on to more obscure, and more intense, hallucinogens like ayahuasca, the vine of the soul; iboga, the sacred visionary root; borrachero; and others that few outsiders had ever been offered. He
”
”
Raymond Khoury (The Devil's Elixir (Templar, #3))
“
Universes are created; reach their extreme low point of materiality; and then begin their upward swing. Suns spring into being, and then their height of power being reached, the process of retrogression begins, and after aeons they become dead masses of matter, awaiting another impulse which starts again their inner energies into activity and a new solar life cycle is begun. And thus it is with all the worlds; they are born, grow and die; only to be reborn. And thus it is with all the things of shape and form; they swing from action to reaction; from birth to death; from activity to inactivity and then back again. Thus it is with all living things; they are born, grow, and die — and then are reborn. So it is with all great movements, philosophies, creeds, fashions, governments, nations, and all else — birth, growth, maturity, decadence, death — and then new-birth. The swing of the pendulum is ever in evidence.
”
”
Three Initiates (Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece)
“
She leaned in and hugged me. “I know. Thanks. I love you, too. And for the record, Cheyenne and Landon are soul mates and if they don’t end up together, I want you to find a poltergeist to haunt the Easton Heights writers.”
She pulled back, smiling at me, then reaching out to ruffle Lend’s hair. “Take care of each other, you two obnoxious kids.”
Then, throwing her shoulders back and staring straight forward, she walked through the gate. I watched, dreading seeing her turn into dust or something, but gasped in relief and joy as her ruined, unnaturally preserved body blossomed into something new, something strong and proud and undeniably alive.
She turned back, just once, and although she was nearly unrecognizable, I could see our Arianna in her smile that managed to maintain its trademark ironic twist.
“I’m going to miss her,” I said.
“What?” Lend shouted.
“I said, I’m going to miss her!”
“I can’t hear you! I’m going to miss her!
”
”
Kiersten White (Endlessly (Paranormalcy, #3))
“
Every day all over the nation young people start working in new jobs. Each of them “wishes” that someday he could enjoy the success that goes with reaching the top. But the majority of these young people simply don’t have the belief that it takes to reach the top rungs. And they don’t reach the top. Believing it’s impossible to climb high, they do not discover the steps that lead to great heights. Their behavior remains that of the “average” person. But a small number of these young people really believe they will succeed. They approach their work with the “I’m-going-to-the-top” attitude. And with substantial belief they reach the top. Believing they will succeed—and that it’s not impossible—these folks study and observe the behavior of senior executives. They learn how successful people approach problems and make decisions. They observe the attitudes of successful people. The how-to-do-it always comes to the person who believes he can do it.
”
”
David J. Schwartz (The Magic of Thinking Big)
“
[T]he most injurious result of Kant's occasionally obscure language is, that it acted as exemplar vitiis imitabile; indeed, it was misconstrued as a pernicious authorisation. The public was compelled to see that what is obscure is not always without significance; consequently, what was without significance took refuge behind obscure language. Fichte was the first to seize this new privilege and use it vigorously; Schelling at least equalled him; and a host of hungry scribblers, without talent and without honesty, soon outbade them both. But the height of audacity, in serving up sheer nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously only been heard in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most ponderous general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, and will remain as a lasting monument of German stupidity.
”
”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“
The group is a concept of uncommunicable shared suffering, a concept that ultimately rejects the agency of words.
For shared suffering, more than anything else, is the ultimate opponent of verbal expression. Not even the mightiest Weltschmerz in the heart of the solitary writer, billowing upwards to the starry heavens like some great circus tent, can create a community of shared suffering. For though verbal expression may convey pleasure or grief, it cannot convey shared pain; though pleasure may be readily fired by ideas, only bodies, placed under the same circumstances, can experience a common suffering.
Only through the group, I realised—through sharing the suffering of the group—could the body reach that height of existence that the individual alone could never attain. And for the body to reach that level at which the divine might be glimpsed, a dissolution of the individuality was necessary. The tragic quality of the group was also necessary—the quality that constantly raised the group out of the abandon and torpor into which it was prone to lapse, leading it on to ever-mounting shared suffering and so to death, which was the ultimate suffering. The group must be open to death, which meant, of course, that it must be a community of warriors… .
In the dim light of early morning I was running, one of a group. A cotton towel with the symbol of a red sun on it was tied about my forehead, and I was stripped to the waist in the freezing air. Through the common suffering, the shared cries of encouragement, the shared pace, and the chorus of voices, I felt the slow emergence, like the sweat that gradually beaded my skin, of that “tragic” quality that is the affirmation of identity. It was a flame of the flesh, flickering up faintly beneath the biting breeze—a flame, one might almost say, of nobility. The sense of surrendering one’s body to a cause gave new life to the muscles. We were united in seeking death and glory; it was not merely my personal quest.
The pounding of the heart communicated itself to the group; we shared the same swift pulse. Self-awareness by now was as remote as the distant rumour of the town. I belonged to them, they belonged to me; the two formed an unmistakable “us.” To belong—what more intense form of existence could there be? Our small circle of oneness was a means to a vision of that vast, dimly gleaming circle of oneness. And—all the while foreseeing that this imitation of tragedy was, in the same way as my own narrow happiness, condemned to vanish with the wind, to resolve itself into nothing more than muscles that simply existed—I had a vision where something that, if I were alone, would have resolved back into muscles and words, was held fast by the power of the group and led me away to a far land, whence there would be no return. It was, perhaps, the beginning of my placing reliance on others, a reliance that was mutual; and each of us, by committing himself to this immeasurable power, belonged to the whole.
”
”
Yukio Mishima (Sun & Steel)
“
2/ KICK YOUR OWN ASS, GENTLY. I’ve been trying to set a few modest goals, both daily and weekly. In the course of a day, it’s good to get some stupid things accomplished, and off your “list.” I guess because it leaves you feeling that you and the “rest of the world” still have something to do with each other! Like today, for example, I can think back on sending a fax to my brother on his birthday, leaving a phone message for Brutus at his “hotel” on his birthday, phoning my Dad on his birthday (yep, all on the same day), then driving to Morin Heights to the ATM machine, to St. Sauveur for grocery shopping, and planning all that so I’d still have enough daylight left to go snowshoeing in the woods. And then I could drink. Not a high-pressure day, and hardly earth-shaking activities, but I laid them out for myself and did them (even though tempted to “not bother” with each of them at one point or another). I gave myself a gentle kick in the ass when necessary, or cursed myself out for a lazy fool, and because of all that, I consider today a satisfactory day. Everything that needed to be done got done. And by “needs” I certainly include taking my little baby soul out for a ride. And drinking. And there are little side benefits from such activities, like when the cashier in the grocery store wished me a genuinely-pleasant “Bonjour,” and I forced myself to look at her and return the greeting. The world still seems unreal to me, but I try not to purposely avoid contact with pleasant strangers. It wouldn’t be polite! Another “little goal” for me right now is spending an hour or two at the desk every morning, writing a letter or a fax to someone like you, or Brutus, or Danny, who I want to reach out to, or conversely, to someone I’ve been out of touch with for a long while, maybe for a year-and-a-half or two years. These are friends that I’ve decided I still value, and that I want as part of my “new life,” whatever it may be. It doesn’t really matter what, but just so you can say that you changed something in the course of your day: a neglected friend is no longer neglected; an errand that ought to be dealt with has been dealt with.
”
”
Neil Peart (Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road)
“
As a drop in the ocean you take part in the current, ebb and flow. You swell slowly on the land and slowly sink back again in interminably slow breaths. You wander vast distances in blurred currents and wash up on strange shores, not knowing how you got there. You mount the billows of huge storms and are swept back again into the depths. And you do not know how this happens to you. You had thought that your movement came from you and that it needed your decisions and efforts, so that you could get going and make progress. But with every conceivable effort you would never have achieved that movement and reached those areas to which the sea and the great wind of the world brought you.
From endless blue plains you sink into black depths; luminous fish draw you, marvellous branches twine around you from above. You slip through columns and twisting, wavering, dark-leaved plants, and the sea takes you up again in bright green water to white, sandy coasts, and a wave foams you ashore and swallows you back again, and a wide smooth swell lifts you softly and leads you again to new regions, to twisting plants, to slowly creeping slimy polyps, and to green water and white sand and breaking surf.
But from far off your heights shine to you above the sea in a golden light, like the moon emerging from the tide, and you become aware of yourself from afar. And longing seizes you and the will for your own movement. You want to cross over from being to becoming, since you have recognized the breath of the sea, and its flowing, that leads you here and there without your ever adhering; you have also recognized its surge that bears you to alien shores and carries you back, and gargles you up and down.
You saw that was the life of the whole and the death of each individual. You felt yourself entwined in the collective death, from death to the earth’s deepest place, from death in your own strangely breathing depths. Oh – you long to be beyond; despair and mortal fear seize you in this death that breathes slowly and streams back and forth eternally. All this light and dark, warm, tepid, and cold water, all these wavy, swaying, twisting plantlike animals and bestial plants, all these nightly wonders become a horror to you, and you long for the sun, for light dry air, for firm stones, for a fixed place and straight lines, for the motionless and firmly held, for rules and preconceived purpose, for singleness and your own intent.
”
”
C.G. Jung (The Red Book: Liber Novus)
“
Bush’s description of how basic research provides the seed corn for practical inventions became known as the “linear model of innovation.” Although subsequent waves of science historians sought to debunk the linear model for ignoring the complex interplay between theoretical research and practical applications, it had a popular appeal as well as an underlying truth. The war, Bush wrote, had made it “clear beyond all doubt” that basic science—discovering the fundamentals of nuclear physics, lasers, computer science, radar—“is absolutely essential to national security.” It was also, he added, crucial for America’s economic security. “New products and new processes do not appear full-grown. They are founded on new principles and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly developed by research in the purest realms of science. A nation which depends upon others for its new basic scientific knowledge will be slow in its industrial progress and weak in its competitive position in world trade.” By the end of his report, Bush had reached poetic heights in extolling the practical payoffs of basic scientific research: “Advances in science when put to practical use mean more jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for learning how to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for past ages.”9 Based on this report, Congress established the National Science Foundation.
”
”
Walter Isaacson (The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution)
“
Highest of all Symbols are those wherein the Artist or Poet has risen into Prophet, and all men can recognize a present God, and worship the Same: I mean religious Symbols. Various enough have been such religious Symbols, what we call Religions; as men stood in this stage of culture or the other, and could worse or better body forth the Godlike: some Symbols with a transient intrinsic worth; many with only an extrinsic. If thou ask to what height man has carried it in this manner, look on our divinest Symbol: on Jesus of Nazareth, and his Life, and his Biography, and what followed therefrom. Higher has the human Thought not yet reached: this is Christianity and Christendom; a Symbol of quite perennial, infinite character; whose significance will ever demand to be anew inquired into, and anew made manifest. [...] A Hierarch, therefore, and Pontiff of the World will we call him, the Poet and inspired Maker; who, Prometheus-like, can shape new Symbols, and bring new Fire from Heaven to fix it there. Such too will not always be wanting; neither perhaps now are. Meanwhile, as the average of matters goes, we account him Legislator and wise who can so much as tell when a Symbol has grown old, and gently remove it. [...] I said to myself: Here also we have a Symbol well-nigh superannuated. Alas, move whithersoever you may, are not the tatters and rags of superannuated worn-out Symbols (in this Ragfair of a World) dropping off everywhere, to hoodwink, to halter, to tether you; nay, if you shake them not aside, threatening to accumulate, and perhaps produce suffocation?
”
”
Thomas Carlyle (Sartor Resartus)
“
ANOTHER GALAXY, ANOTHER TIME. The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that … it was the Republic. Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match. So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from outside. Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic. Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears. Having exterminated through treachery and deception the Jedi Knights, guardians of justice in the galaxy, the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disheartened worlds of the galaxy. Many used the Imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own personal ambitions. But a small number of systems rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order they began the great battle to restore the Old Republic. From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples … From the First Saga Journal of the Whills
”
”
George Lucas (Star Wars: Trilogy - Episodes IV, V & VI)
“
But employee ownership is not just about sharing. It is also, in practice, often about giving. Such schemes depend on someone, usually the proprietor, deciding at some point to transfer ownership of some or all of a company to its employees. And it is this aspect of the ideal, I think, that has the greatest significance for my story. Of all the things I have given, it is arguable that the shares in my company that I gave away had the greatest financial value. In fact, I have rarely thought of this transfer of ownership as a gift, and I would be wrong if I did. The staff had a right to share in the company. Without them, the company would not have been so prosperous (and I am certain that Xansa would never have reached anything like the financial heights it eventually did if it hadn’t been powered by the fuel of staff ownership). But while I never doubted that aspect of the transfer, I did sometimes struggle with a more abstract issue: the fact that transferring ownership also means, ultimately, transferring control. That was the real challenge: surrendering power. Anyone can adjust to having a bit less money; ceding control of an enterprise that really matters to you is, by contrast, painfully counterintuitive. Who in their right mind would entrust an organisation that they have built up against all the odds, through years of tears, toil and sweat, to someone else? What if they mess it up? What if they don’t really understand what it is that you have created? What if they take it in some dangerous new direction, or manage it in a less idealistic way? Yet without that surrender, the most important part of the transaction is lost. A feudal grandee can be as generous as he likes with his wealth and property, but as long as he remains the grandee then his dependants are not empowered: they are merely well-fed. Empowering them means letting go: in other words, ceasing to be the grandee. I have struggled all my life with an instinct to hang on to the things that matter most to me, to control and protect them myself. Yet the art of surrender is, I am convinced, a key to many kinds of success - and fulfilment. And many lives are limited by a failure to master it.
”
”
Stephanie Shirley (LET IT GO : The Entrepreneur Turned Ardent Philanthropist)
“
The man I married had started deteriorating while married to Jemima, but by the time I reached him, he wasn’t even a man anymore. He was not a cricket celebrity. He was a supreme leader, surrounded by sycophants and suppliers. As his political career touched new heights, his rapid downward spiral as a human being was accelerated.
”
”
Reham Khan (Reham Khan)
“
Take me to a height
to reach a brand new level.
Book me on a flight
with a supernatural schedule.
Take my hand and shift
me into overdrive.
Fuel the blazing fire
and what’s golden will survive.
”
”
Wade The Wordsmith (Verbal Imagery)
“
Those who have the loudest inner critic also often become the most relentless critics of those around them. This is a hidden danger of giving in to your inner critic. Suddenly you become the one pointing out everyone else’s faults, making it impossible—or at least extra challenging—for anyone to reach his or her full potential.
You have suddenly become the one asserting your supposed authority, trying to keep people down, distracting them from the work they’re doing to reach new heights. Here’s something to remember. Winners are rarely big critics. It’s not that they’re not discerning. It’s just that they’re not wasting time looking around at everyone else, trying to correct their mistakes. They’re too focused for that. They’re too busy. They’re too interested in pointing people toward what is possible, rather than dragging them down with useless criticism.
If you allow yourself to be overly critical of others, you will drag yourself down. You’ll be frozen and stuck. There’s no way to be a big critic and also be a champion. Bob Goff famously said, “Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice.”
I think this is so true. May we be winners.
But may we be the kind of winners who focus more on the best in people than the worst in them. Including, especially, ourselves.
”
”
Scott Hamilton (Finish First: Winning Changes Everything)
“
I feel different, better, about my personal life as well as my professional life. So much confidence comes simply because I have reached this very good age. Women my age today are forging new ground. Society stops defining us by our reproductive capacity, sexual attractiveness, or other traditional measures, so we become liberated from stereotype. We are freed to grow into our full selves.
I couldn’t have allowed myself to feel so positive in the past. When I was at the height of my film career, I didn’t have the kind of respect I now have from the theatrical community. I hadn’t yet proved that I have the chops for the stage. But now I have a stature I’ve never before enjoyed.
Virginia Woolf herself observed that when her Aunt Mary left her enough money to live on, her financial independence meant she “need not hate” or “flatter any man.” She said this was of even more value to her freedom and autonomy than the right to vote.
”
”
Kathleen Turner (Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles)
“
That’s when my savior called. He called as he always did after we’d spent a day or evening together. He called to say good night…I had a good time today…what are you doing tomorrow…I love you. His calls were a panacea; they instantly lifted me, reassured me, healed me, made everything whole again. This call was no different.
“Hey, you,” he said, his voice reaching new heights of sexiness.
“Hey,” I said, quietly sighing.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Sitting here,” I answered, hearing the muffled voices of my parents through my upstairs bedroom floor. “And thinking…”
“What about?” he said.
“Oh, I was thinking…,” I began, hesitating for a moment. “That I think I want to elope.”
Marlboro Man laughed at first. But when he realized I wasn’t laughing, too, he stopped, and we both sat in silence.
”
”
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels)
“
Loss initiates change. When we go through discomfort, we grow through it. Like putting a pot of water on a burner, only when heat is applied does change begin. Loss can act as a force of momentum that makes us look at things differently, go inward, and reach new heights.
”
”
Tyler Henry (Here & Hereafter: How Wisdom from the Departed Can Transform Your Life Now)
“
Jesus,
You reached out Your Hand,
and calmed the sea.
You reached in my heart,
and turned the key.
You freed my being
from worldly chains.
You pumped brand new Blood
into my veins.
You gave me a hope
that will not die.
You gave me a stream
that will not dry.
You gave me lessons
worth more than gold.
You gave me a warmth
that won’t grow cold.
I stand in the strength
of Your power.
I see from the height
of Your tower.
I no longer sink
into despair
because You are here,
and always there.
Thank You.
”
”
Calvin W. Allison
“
Just as athletes rely on the boundaries and rules of their sport to achieve greatness, we too must embrace the boundaries and rules of our professions to reach new heights of success.
”
”
Sanjeev Himachali
“
Of course, most of us, in the service of sanity, don’t fixate on the end. We go about the world focused on worldly concerns. We accept the inevitable and direct our energies to other things. Yet the recognition that our time is finite is always with us, helping to shape the choices we make, the challenges we accept, the paths we follow. As cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker maintained, we are under a constant existential tension, pulled toward the sky by a consciousness that can soar to the heights of Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Einstein but tethered to earth by a physical form that will decay to dust. “Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.”2 According to Becker, we are impelled by such awareness to deny death the capacity to erase us. Some soothe the existential yearning through commitment to family, a team, a movement, a religion, a nation—constructs that will outlast the individual’s allotted time on earth. Others leave behind creative expressions, artifacts that extend the duration of their presence symbolically. “We fly to Beauty,” said Emerson, “as an asylum from the terrors of finite nature.”3 Others still seek to vanquish death by winning or conquering, as if stature, power, and wealth command an immunity unavailable to the common mortal.
Across the millennia, one consequence has been a widespread fascination with all things, real or imagined, that touch on the timeless. From prophesies of an afterlife, to teachings of reincarnation, to entreaties of the windswept mandala, we have developed strategies to contend with knowledge of our impermanence and, often with hope, sometimes with resignation, to gesture toward eternity. What’s new in our age is the remarkable power of science to tell a lucid story not only of the past, back to the big bang, but also of the future. Eternity itself may forever lie beyond the reach of our equations, but our analyses have already revealed that the universe we have come to know is transitory. From planets to stars, solar systems to galaxies, black holes to swirling nebulae, nothing is everlasting. Indeed, as far as we can tell, not only is each individual life finite, but so too is life itself. Planet earth, which Carl Sagan described as a “mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam,” is an evanescent bloom in an exquisite cosmos that will ultimately be barren. Motes of dust, nearby or distant, dance on sunbeams for merely a moment.
Still, here on earth we have punctuated our moment with astonishing feats of insight, creativity, and ingenuity as each generation has built on the achievements of those who have gone before, seeking clarity on how it all came to be, pursuing coherence in where it is all going, and longing for an answer to why it all matters.
Such is the story of this book.
”
”
Brian Greene (Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe)
“
According to Crystal Evan’s book, Legal Choppa
Based on the provided context and intended meaning, the term "legal choppa" could be creatively interpreted to describe someone who is shrewd, resourceful, and innovative in the realm of business and entrepreneurship. It conveys an individual who navigates the legal and regulatory landscape adeptly, utilizing their intellect and cunning to achieve success.
This term implies a person who possesses sharp business acumen, strategic thinking, and the ability to seize opportunities within the confines of the law. They demonstrate intelligence and adaptability, consistently finding inventive ways to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.
Just as a helicopter soars above obstacles, a "legal choppa" in the business world rises above challenges, leveraging their knowledge and skills to reach new heights. They embody qualities such as astuteness, ingenuity, and the ability to think outside the box.
Note that this interpretation is a creative adaptation of the term "legal choppa" and is not a widely recognized or established definition.
”
”
Crystal Evans (Legal Choppings : 100 Business Ideas for Jamaicans)
“
Consider criticism as a companion on your journey of progress. It serves as a clear indication that you are actively engaged in your work. Criticism is a testament to your willingness to step outside the boundaries of comfort and explore new horizons. It signifies that you are brave enough to expose yourself to the challenges that come with growth and learning. Rather than fearing criticism, fear the absence of it. A lack of criticism suggests a lack of risks taken, a lack of growth, and complacency with the status quo. Embrace criticism wholeheartedly, for it is a powerful catalyst for improvement. Let it fuel your passion and drive to reach greater heights. Embrace the transformative power of criticism and embrace the opportunity to evolve and excel.
”
”
Sanjeev Himachali (Beginners Guide To Job Search)
“
When time bends
There, placed adjacent to each other,
Stood everything and nothing,
There was everywhere and nowhere together,
And even forever and never existed as one thing,
And fate asked me to choose one combination,
Whatever I chose, I chose and didn't choose as well,
Because with everything there was nothing too as its destination,
With everywhere there was nowhere, similar to heaven and hell,
And forever was accompanied by never,
So what to choose I did not know,
Although it was not an experience newer,
But it was a new realization, about which something all your life you know,
It was then I said “everything and nothing!”
And fate laughed and said, “very wisely chosen!
Because now with everything I shall offer you everything,
Everything, everywhere, forever, life, joy, beauty and a height where your heart has never risen,
But everything is followed by nothing, nowhere, never, sorrow,
All that you may seek not so often,
But at least you will experience darkness after having experienced the brightest glow,
Because without knowing nine one can never arrive at ten,
So, well chosen because had you chosen forever,
It might have been that darkness visited you first,
And then it would have been so forever,
And if you had chosen everywhere it too may have been an unpleasant burst!”
I wondered what it meant,
But as I grew old I realised in everything lies true eternity,
So this wish still pays my every rent,
For all my desires and wishes of joy and beauty,
Because everything is never ending,
By the time it shall reach its end and become nothing,
I shall be long gone, a summer flower already fading,
Then it does not matter whether it is something, everything or nothing,
And every life should be about everything,
Only then we get to experience joy and beauty that never ends,
To be our companions beyond that unseen world of that malign feeling,
Where everything becomes nothing, everywhere becomes nowhere, and forever becomes never, where time bends,
So choose everything whenever life offers you a chance,
Because one day it will surely end,
So when you get the chance, perform your dance,
Because there shall be enough time later, to repair and mend,
All nothings, all nevers, all nowheres and all ends,
Therefore, the day sun shines, assume it shines just for you,
Because when time finally bends,
It bends for all of us, not just for me, but you too!
”
”
Javid Ahmad Tak (They Loved in 2075!)
“
When life gets tough, do not give up or lose your drive. Yes, the journey is long, but worth the ride. With every challenge, you will grow and thrive. With every step, you will feel alive and reach new heights.
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Gift Gugu Mona (365 Motivational Life Lessons)
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We must send Daisy to London as soon as possible,” Lillian fretted. “It’s the height of the season, and she’s buried in Hampshire away from all the balls and soirées—”
“It was her choice to come here,” Marcus reminded her, reaching for her other foot. “She would never forgive herself if she missed the baby’s birth.”
“Oh, bother that. I would rather Daisy miss the birth and meet eligible men instead of having to wait here with me until her time runs out and she has to marry Matthew Swift and move with him to New York and then I’ll never see her again—”
“I’ve already thought of that,” Marcus said. “Which is why I undertook to invite a number of eligible men to Stony Cross Park for the stag-and-hind hunt.”
“You did?” Her head lifted from the pillow.
“St. Vincent and I came up with a list and debated the merits of each candidate at length. We settled on an even dozen. Any one of them would do for your sister.”
“Oh, Marcus, you are the most clever, most wonderful—”
He waved away the praise and shook his head with a grin, remembering the lively arguments. “St. Vincent is damned finicky, let me tell you. If he were a woman, no man would be good enough for him.”
“They never are,” Lillian told him impudently. “Which is why we women have a saying…‘Aim high, then settle.’”
He snorted. “Is that what you did?”
A smile curved her lips. “No, my lord. I aimed high and got far more than I’d bargained for.”
And she giggled as he crawled over her prone body and kissed her soundly.
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Lisa Kleypas (Scandal in Spring (Wallflowers, #4))
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As long as we desire to reach new heights, we will find the strength to climb the mountain.
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Lailah Gifty Akita (Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1))
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In scores of cities all over the United States, when the Communists were simultaneously meeting at their various headquarters on New Year’s Day of 1920, Mr. Palmer’s agents and police and voluntary aides fell upon them—fell upon everybody, in fact, who was in the hall, regardless of whether he was a Communist or not (how could one tell?)—and bundled them off to jail, with or without warrant. Every conceivable bit of evidence—literature, membership lists, books, papers, pictures on the wall, everything—was seized, with or without a search warrant. On this and succeeding nights other Communists and suspected Communists were seized in their homes. Over six thousand men were arrested in all, and thrust summarily behind the bars for days or weeks—often without any chance to learn what was the explicit charge against them. At least one American citizen, not a Communist, was jailed for days through some mistake—probably a confusion of names—and barely escaped deportation. In Detroit, over a hundred men were herded into a bull-pen measuring twenty-four by thirty feet and kept there for a week under conditions which the mayor of the city called intolerable. In Hartford, while the suspects were in jail the authorities took the further precaution of arresting and incarcerating all visitors who came to see them, a friendly call being regarded as prima facie evidence of affiliation with the Communist party. Ultimately a considerable proportion of the prisoners were released for want of sufficient evidence that they were Communists. Ultimately, too, it was divulged that in the whole country-wide raid upon these dangerous men—supposedly armed to the teeth—exactly three pistols were found, and no explosives at all. But at the time the newspapers were full of reports from Mr. Palmer’s office that new evidence of a gigantic plot against the safety of the country had been unearthed; and although the steel strike was failing, the coal strike was failing, and any danger of a socialist régime, to say nothing of a revolution, was daily fading, nevertheless to the great mass of the American people the Bolshevist bogey became more terrifying than ever. Mr. Palmer was in full cry. In public statements he was reminding the twenty million owners of Liberty bonds and the nine million farm-owners and the eleven million owners of savings accounts, that the Reds proposed to take away all they had. He was distributing boilerplate propaganda to the press, containing pictures of horrid-looking Bolsheviks with bristling beards, and asking if such as these should rule over America. Politicians were quoting the suggestion of Guy Empey that the proper implements for dealing with the Reds could be “found in any hardware store,” or proclaiming, “My motto for the Reds is S. O. S.—ship or shoot. I believe we should place them all on a ship of stone, with sails of lead, and that their first stopping-place should be hell.” College graduates were calling for the dismissal of professors suspected of radicalism; school-teachers were being made to sign oaths of allegiance; business men with unorthodox political or economic ideas were learning to hold their tongues if they wanted to hold their jobs. Hysteria had reached its height.
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Frederick Lewis Allen (Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s (Harper Perennial Modern Classics))
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The Birth of a Poet
The formal study of literature and poetry is a ladder
you must throw away after you've climbed to the top.
Once you've reached the lofty heights,
stand firm and dauntless on the shoulders of giants.
Inspire and climb a new ladder
by creating your own poetry and literature.
With your words, boldly lean your ladder on
the roaring cumulonimbus clouds
and ascend to heaven's gates
through the peal and crack of thunder.
Behold!
A poet is born.
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Beryl Dov
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We can never sink so far that God’s grace will not reach us. At the same time, grace does not leave us there. It raises us to new heights.
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Lee Strobel (The Case for Grace: A Journalist Explores the Evidence of Transformed Lives)
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Loud Places"
[Verse 1]
I go to loud places
To search for someone
To be quiet with
Who will take me home
You go to loud places
To find someone who
Will take you higher than
I took you
[Chorus]
Didn't I take you to higher places you can't reach without me?
(I have never reached such heights) Reach without me
(I feel music in your eyes
I have never reached such heights)
[Verse 2]
I go to those places
Where we used to go
They seem so quiet now
I'm here, all alone
You go to new places
With I don't know who
And I don't know how
To follow you
[Bridge]
Higher
I take you higher and I’ll take you
Didn’t I take you higher?
I take you higher
I take you higher and I take you
Didn’t I take you higher?
I take you
[Chorus]
Didn't I take you to higher places you can't reach without me?
(I have never reached such heights) Reach without me
(I feel music in your eyes
I have never reached such heights)
[Extended Chorus] (x2)
I feel music in your eyes
I have never reached such heights
[Outro]
You're in ecstasy without me
When you come down
I won't be around
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Jamie XX
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In Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus tells the story of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from heaven as a gift for mankind and saved us from extinction. In punishment for his theft, the god Zeus orders Prometheus chained to a mountain crag. Each day, an eagle lands on him and devours his liver; each night, his liver grows back so the eagle can consume it again. Alone, immobile, exposed to the elements, Prometheus stays full of defiance. (The guy won’t stop fighting. Remind you of anyone?) Prometheus is chained, but noble. He is tied down and tortured, but still heroic. Prometheus is imprisoned, but his story is ultimately about the salvation of humanity and the possibility of human progress. Life places limits on all of us. Yet even under the severest limits, we can still struggle valiantly, and in that struggle reach new heights of nobility and wisdom.
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Eric Greitens (Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life)
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during the 2008 crisis, corporate welfare reached new heights. In the great bailout of the Great Recession, one corporation alone, AIG, got more than $180 billion—more than was spent on welfare to the poor from 1990 to 2006.68 As
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Joseph E. Stiglitz (The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future)
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The more we study the catastrophes and endings that befell individual churches in particular eras, the better we appreciate the surprising new births that Christianity achieves in these very years, in odd and surprising contexts. Just as Turkish power was reaching its height in the traditional Christian lands of the Middle East and the Balkans, so the seafaring Christian powers were bringing their faith to the New World and the Pacific. And while the 1915–25 period in the Middle East marked the extinction or ruin of ancient Christian communities, this was exactly the era in which the religion began its epochal growth in black Africa, arguably the most important event in Christian history since the Reformation. But the history can be appreciated in its fullness only by acknowledging the defeats and disasters alongside the triumphs and expansions.
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Philip Jenkins (The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died)
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Henry I was, as one contemporary chronicler put it, “the man against whom no one could prevail except God himself.” The fourth son of William the Conqueror, he enjoyed an exceptionally long, peaceful, and prosperous reign of thirty-five years, in which royal authority in England reached new heights. After his father’s death in 1087, England and Normandy had been split apart. Henry ruthlessly reunited them.
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Dan Jones (The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England)
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Confidence comes with mastery, and the combination enables me to reach new heights.
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Pauline Brown
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There is no sound so sweet as the sound of chains that held folks back for so long falling noisily to the ground. And it's still true: Once we can reimagine and resist in significant numbers, we will rise again, reaching new heights and setting better foundations for living and loving, for building a new world.
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Bill Ayers (Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto)
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You didn’t stop healing because you reached new heights; you learned other ways to heal, which was instrumental to the process.
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BriAnn Danae (Keep Giving Me Love (Unorthodox Love, #2))
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there are two critical things to understand about intuition. the first is that it doesn't care about your comfort zone. it will ask you to be bold and valiant even if you do not feel ready. just like love, intuition is a vehicle for growth. if you listen to it, it will help you reach new personal heights. but to get there, you will have to face what is weighing you down and fully let it go.
the second is that it may ask you to place yourself in difficult situations where you have to face your fears, but it will never ask you to hurt yourself. intuition will invite you to be courageous, but it will not lead you into a reckless dead end.
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Yung Pueblo (The Way Forward (The Inward Trilogy))
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Grounded in excellence, powered by innovation. With Pioneer Power International's copper bonded earthing rods, reliability reaches new depths while conductivity soars to greater heights. Let your connections be as strong as the bonds of copper beneath, ensuring safety, stability, and steadfast performance in every electrical journey.
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Rutuja
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Like most people, by adulthood I found myself searching for stability and certainty. It’s easy to become comfortable with the status quo, more concerned about losing ground than reaching new heights. We
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Jill Heinerth (Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver)
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The first chink in our armor is simply how many of us there are—and how long we’re able to live. Life expectancy has reached new heights and shows no sign of dropping. Because our health systems haven’t evolved sufficiently to meet the needs of larger aging populations, older adults are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 and other viruses that prey on weaker or compromised immune systems.
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William A. Haseltine (Variants! The Shape-Shifting Challenge of COVID-19)
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Buchanan tried to whip the devil out of me. “Find your tongue, lad!” Forgive this regression, but the man hated English. He may have hated everything by then, including me, but he was uncommon prickly when it came to English. You could tell by the way he bullied it. “The bastarde English,” the old man roared. “The verie whoore of a tongue.” We did our best to mimic him note for note, gesture for gesture. He hated that, too. The verie whoore. Old Greek before Breakfast Latin by Noon himself. The point is, what English I had was beaten or twisted into me. We were orphaned and crowned before we could speak or take our first step. No father. No mother. Too many uncles. Hounds for baying. Buchanan was the most religious of my keepers, and the unkindest of spirits among them. We have been told the young queen of Scots was once his student, and that he loved her. Just before giving her over to wreckage, methinks. Pious frauds. Their wicked Jesus. Then occasion smil’d. We were thirteen. The affection of Esme Stuart was one thing, lavished, as it was, so liberally upon us, but the music of his voice was another. We empowered our cousin, gave him name, station, a new sense of gravity, height, and reach, all the toys of privilege. We were told he spoke our mother’s French, the way it flutters about your neck like a small bird. But it was his English that moved us. For the first time, there was kindness in it, charity, heat and light. We didn’t know language could do such things, that could charm with such violence, make such a disturbance in us. Our cousin was our excess, our vice, our great transgression according to some, treason according to others. They came one night and stole him from us, that is, from me. They tore me out of his arms, called me wanton. Better that bairns should weepe, they said. Barking curs. We never saw our cousin again and were never the same after. But the charm was wound up. If we say we can taste words, we are not trying to be clever. And we are an insatiable king. Try now, if you can, to understand the nature of our thoughts touching the translation, its want of a poet. We will consult with Sir Francis. He is closer to the man, some say, than a brother. English is mistress between them. There, Bacon says, is empire. There, a great Britain. Where it is dull, where the glow . . . gleam . . . where the gleam of Majestie is absent or mute . . . When occasion smiles again, we will send for the man, Shakespere. Majestie has left its print on his art. After that hideous Scottish play, his best, darkest, and most complicated characters are . . . us. Lear. Antony. Othello. Fools all. All. The English language must be the best that is in us . . . We are but names, titles, antiquities, forgotten speeches, an accident of blood and historical memory. Aye . . . but this marvelously unexceptional little man. No more of this. By the unfortunate title of this history we must, it seems, prepare ourselves for a tragedy. Some will escape. Some will not. For bully Ben can never suffer a true rival. He killed an actor once for botching his lines. Actors. Southampton waits in our chambers. We will let him. First, to our thoughts. Only then to our Lord of Southampton.
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David Teems (I Ridde My Soule of Thee at Laste)
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You screamed and cursed like a woman possessed. Now you think he’s the greatest thing under the sun.” “Point taken. I just know it’s not going to be easy obeying the rules of a new kid on the block. Que sera, sera. Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no use worrying about things beyond my control.” The chief proved how well he knew her and asked, “Are you and Tom having problems?” He reached across the desk and placed a hand over hers. Tears of frustration sprang to her eyes. Without looking up she replied, “Sorry, sir. Slip of the tongue. Ignore me. That package probably affected me more than I realised.” He gripped her hand tightly. “Look at me, Lorne.” She obeyed him. “If you want to talk any time, you know where I am.” Easing her hand from under his, she said, “I’ll remember that, the next time we have an argument and I’m contemplating my life’s journey at three o’clock in the morning.” “Ah, don’t think the wife would be too keen on that idea, do you?” They both smiled, and Lorne stood up to leave the room. “I meant what I said, Lorne. Don’t ever forget it.” She nodded and left his office. As she headed down the corridor towards the conference room, she took a few deep breaths to help push down her bubbling emotions. Chapter 26 “What have we got?” Lorne asked, walking into the incident room. “At 4:32 AM, a suspect delivered the package. Take a look.” Pete nodded at Tracy, and she started the video. A shudder ran up Lorne’s spine as she watched a man, dressed from head to toe in black, deposit the box on the top step of the station. He arrogantly stopped to wave at the camera, obviously knowing his every movement was being taped. His hooded sweatshirt obscured his face; it was impossible to make out his features as he mocked the camera. “Is there any way we can find out how tall he is? It would be a start.” “I’ll line a few of the guys up—varying heights, of course. See what we can come up with. I’ll get on it straightaway,” Pete said. Lorne and Tracy checked the video, frame by frame, for clues. Nothing—no rings, no glimpses of tattoos. Nothing. Mitch burst into the room and threw himself into one of the vacant chairs. He placed a list on the table and slid it across to Lorne. “Fifteen perverts in and around the Chelling Forest area.” “By ‘perverts’, I take it you mean registered sex offenders, Mitch?” she asked, studying the list. “Actually, what I meant to say was, there are fifteen names on the list—thirteen sex offenders and two registered paedophiles.
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M.A. Comley (Cruel Justice (Lorne Simpkins, #1))
“
It was deployed by a clique of outright racists, who in 1859 – as the British Empire reached its height of power – took over the British Ethnological Society and called for the extermination of inferior peoples.
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David Graeber (The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity)
“
In the course of history, kings have welcomed more and more people to their courts, which became more and more brilliant. Is it not obvious that these courtiers and the "officers" were stolen from the feudal lords, who just lost at one fell swoop, their retinues and their administrators? The modern state nourishes a vast bureaucracy. Is not the corresponding decline in the staff of the employer patent to all?
Putting the mass of the people to productive work makes possible at any given moment of technical advance the existence of a given number of non-producers. These non-producers will either be dispersed in a number of packets or concentrated in one immense body, according as the profits of productive work accrue to the social or to the political authorities. The requirement of Power, its tendency and its raison d'etre, is to concentrate them in its own service. To this task, it brings us so much ardour, instinctive rather than designed that in course of time it does to a natural death the social order which gave it birth.
This tendency is due not to the form taken by any particular state but to the inner essence of Power, which is the inevitable assailant of the social authorities and sucks the very lifeblood. And the more vigorous a particular power is a more virile it is to the role of vampire. When it falls to weak hand, which gives aristocratic resistance a chance to organize itself, the state's revolutionary nature becomes for the time being effaced.
This happens either because the forces of aristocracy opposed to the now enfeebled statocratic onslaught a barrier capable of checking it, or, more frequently, because they put a guard on their assailant, by laying hands on the apparatus which endangers them; they guarantee their own survival by installing themselves in the seat of government. This is exactly what did happen to the two epochs when the ideas of Montesquieu and Marx took shape.
The counter-offensive of the social authorities cannot be understood unless it is realized that the process of destroying aristocracy goes hand in hand with a tendency in the opposite sense. The mighty are put down - if they are independent of the state; but simultaneously, a statocrcy is exalted, and the new statocrats do more than lay a collective hand on the social forces - they laid them on the lay them each his own hand; in this way, they divert them from Power and restore them again to society, in which thereafter the statocrats join forces, by reason of the similarity of their situations and interests, with the ancient aristocracies in retreat.
Moreover, the statocratic acids, in so far as they break down the aristocratic molecules, do not make away with all the forces which they liberate. Part of them stays unappropriated, and furnishes new captains of society with the personnel necessary to the construction of new principates. In this way, the fission of the feudal cell at the height of the Middle Ages released the labour on which the merchant-drapers rose to wealth and political importance.
So also in England, with a greed of Henry VIII had fallen on the ecclesiastical authorities to get from their wealth, the wherewithal to carry out his policies, the greater part of the monastic spoils, stuck to the fingers of hands, which had been held out to receive them. These spoils founded the fortunes of the nascent English capitalism.
In this way, new hives are forever being built, in which lie hidden a new sort of energies; these will in time inspire the state to fresh orgies of covetousness. That is why the statocratic aggression seemed never to reach its logical conclusion - the complete atomization of society, which should contain henceforward nothing but isolated individuals whom the state alone rules and exploits.
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Bertrand de Jouvenel (ON POWER: The Natural History of Its Growth)
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the sexual practices of the uninhibited Mohaves surely gave a young Mormon from the Midwest ample reason for embarrassment. The Mohaves considered sex natural, fun, and emotionally inconsequential. Children witnessed it at a young age because they lived in one-room houses with their parents and other adults. Many lost their virginity by the time they reached puberty, and most girls had sex soon after they began menstruating. Adult Mohaves encouraged the young to indulge themselves sexually while they could, so that by their mid-teens, they were jaded, at which point, wrote the psychoanalyst George Devereux, “frills” were added to keep things lively: “The Mohave will actually devote some time to thinking up sexual ‘stunts,’ to make the act more exciting.” If their hosts’ sexual frankness didn’t kick the girls’ culture shock to new heights, their flexible definition of gender did: children’s gender was not considered fixed until after puberty and transvestism was not only accepted but merited its own confirmation ceremony, after which some homosexual Mohaves crossed over to become same-sex wives or (less often) husbands. 19
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Margot Mifflin (The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman (Women in the West))
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The truth is, in failing miserably, I had the opportunity to learn something valuable that most writers never get the chance to discover: the three secrets of writing success! You see, all successful writers, whether they know it or not, have mastered three essential things, which no one really knows or talks about freely. I stumbled upon them after over eight years in entertainment working with the best screenwriters, storytellers, New York Times bestselling authors, award-winning industry veterans, including authors, producers, writers, and professionals, who mentored me, influenced me, and gave me insight into their processes and thinking. I began to understand that there are three crucial things every writer must have in their arsenal in order to win at writing and reach the highest heights of success.
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Ashley Mansour (The Writers Success Code: 7-Day Action Guide)
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After nightfall, when most of the American planes had been taken aboard, a new formation of planes arrived over the task force. First, the drone of their engines could be heard above the cloud cover; then they slipped into view, at about the height of the Lexington’s masts. “These planes were in very good formation,” recalled Lieutenant Commander Stroop. They had their navigation lights on, indicating that they intended to land. But many observers on both carriers and several of the screening vessels noted that something was awry. Captain Sherman of the Lexington counted nine planes, more than could be accounted for among the American planes that were still aloft. They were flying down the Yorktown’s port side, a counterclockwise approach, the reverse of the American landing routine. They were flashing their blinker lights, but none of the Americans could decipher the signal. Electrician’s mate Peter Newberg, stationed on the Yorktown’s flight deck, noticed that the aircraft exhausts were a strange shape and color, and Stroop noted that the running lights were a peculiar shade of red and blue. The TBS (short-range radio circuit) came alive with chatter. One of the nearby destroyers asked, “Have any of our planes got rounded wingtips?” Another voice said, “Damned if those are our planes.” When the first of the strangers made his final turn, he was too low, and the Yorktown’s landing signal officer frantically signaled him to throttle up. “In the last few seconds,” Newberg recalled, “when the pilot was about to plow into the stern under the flight deck, he poured the coal to his engine and pulled up and off to port. The signal light flicked briefly on red circles painted on his wings.” One of the screening destroyers opened fire, and red tracers reached up toward the leading plane. A voice on the Lexington radioed to all ships in the task force, ordering them to hold fire, but the captain of the destroyer replied, “I know Japanese planes when I see them.” Antiaircraft gunners on ships throughout the task force opened fire, and suddenly the night sky lit up as if it was the Fourth of July. But there were friendly planes in the air as well; one of the Yorktown fighter pilots complained: “What are you shooting at me for? What have I done now?” On the Yorktown, SBD pilot Harold Buell scrambled out to the port-side catwalk to see what was happening. “In the frenzy of the moment, with gunners firing at both friend and foe, some of us got caught up in the excitement and drew our .45 Colt automatics to join in, blasting away at the red meatballs as they flew past the ship—an offensive gesture about as effective as throwing rocks.” The intruders and the Americans all doused their lights and zoomed back into the cloud cover; none was shot down. It was not the last time in the war that confused Japanese pilots would attempt to land on an American carrier.
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Ian W. Toll (Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942)
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Evolving into a better you is the only way you will reach new heights personally and professionally.
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Germany Kent
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The sale of defensive items reached record heights; gun shop owners found people in line when they opened their stores; locksmiths were so busy putting in new locks and bars that they were working almost twenty-four hours a day; there was such a run on guard and attack dogs that animals from other states had to be brought in to fill the demand.
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Philip Carlo (The Night Stalker: The Disturbing Life and Chilling Crimes of Richard Ramirez)
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Make progress every day, no matter how small it may be – execution builds momentum that can help you reach new heights!
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Felecia Etienne (Overcoming Mediocrity: Limitless Women)
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But it was the little parcel that was responsible for her excitement. It was stamped with the sign manual of the House of Wareham and Emily knew what it must hold. Her book—her Moral of the Rose.
She hurried home by the cross-lots road—the little old road over which the vagabond wandered and the lover went to his lady and children to joy and tired men home—the road that linked up eventually with the pasture field by the Blair Water and the Yesterday Road. Once in the grey-boughed solitude of the Yesterday Road Emily sat down in a bay of brown bracken and opened her parcel.
There lay her book. Her book, spleet-new from the publishers. It was a proud, wonderful, thrilling moment. The crest of the Alpine Path at last? Emily lifted her shining eyes to the deep blue November sky and saw peak after peak of sunlit azure still towering beyond. Always new heights of aspiration. One could never reach the top really. But what a moment when one reached a plateau and outlook like this! What a reward for the long years of toil and endeavour and disappointment and discouragement.
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Lucy Maud Montgomery (Emily's Quest (Emily, #3))
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Before minimizing population differences became common, most states could largely avoid splitting counties. The narrowing of the population deviations demanded by courts has necessitated more county splits. Splitting counties reached new heights in the 1990s when jurisdictions believed that they had an obligation to maximize the number of minority districts. Today, legislatures often violate county lines in order to pack members of a single party into a district. Some majority-minority districts continued to split counties as the versions of Florida-5 and North Carolina-1 and -12 put into effect in 2013, with the Florida district and North Carolina-12 being elongated, narrow strips that did not contain any entire county.
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Charles S. Bullock III (Redistricting: The Most Political Activity in America)
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By addressing the factors contributing to underperformance, we can unlock human potential, ensuring that no gift goes untapped and empowering individuals to reach new heights.
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Asuni LadyZeal
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The death of an infant, however, causes all of us to struggle with the will and purpose of God. It seems strange that God would grant the gift of life and then cause it to be snuffed out before it could blossom into a stage of usefulness. But we can be sure that there is a purpose in such a life, even if it is not immediately discernible. James Vernon McGee again says that when a shepherd seeks to lead his sheep to better grass up the winding, thorny mountain paths, he often finds that the sheep will not follow him. They fear the unknown ridges and the sharp rocks. The shepherd will then reach into the flock and take a little lamb on one arm and another on his other arm. Then he starts up the precipitous pathway. Soon the two mother sheep begin to follow, and afterward the entire flock. Thus they ascend the tortuous path to greener pastures. So it is with the Good Shepherd. Sometimes He reaches into the flock and takes a lamb to Himself. He uses the experience to lead His people, to lift them to new heights of commitment as they follow the little lamb all the way home.
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Erwin W. Lutzer (One Minute After You Die)
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I wish you a happy new year. New vows, new plans, new visions, new people, new creations, new powers, new songs, new names, new history, reaching new heights, stepping into the palaces of new kings and dancing and accepting kings and princes with joy as David did for Saul.
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Joseph Mereweneza
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Time, Light, Space, You and I!
In the spaces unknown and very high,
There where they say we all go when we die,
I fled my Earthly shadows to hide in that space high,
Where I did not obstruct light but I let it pass by.
Through me into its vast arena of cosmic lights,
Where there are no shadows because there are no egos and no fights,
Where all that shines is not merely due to bright lights,
Because in stars too I have seen some Divine delights.
That shine through them in those starry nights,
When the moon is silent, the sun is humble and the stars don't rumble,
I have witnessed sights during those nights,
Which even render the brightest sun humble.
It is a journey beyond the realm of time,
Where time controls nothing because it loses its infinity,
Because there light dictates the values of time,
Where light does not bend because it alters its proclivity.
There, I have seen time bending in that discreet space,
Where all laws of Earthly logic fail to compile anything,
There time obeys just the factors of light and space,
Where to a naked eye only hollowness spreads giving rise to nothing.
In actuality it is there time changes its character,
Because light assumes a new form,
And when new logics takeover and change the cosmic character,
Only then I am able to see a universe in a law that is so uniform.
I wish to take you on these secret journeys with me,
Irma and I, and I shall show you how reality bends in that dimension,
But only if you are willing to allow me,
To let me love you even in that highest and exalted mansion,
Where light behaves differently because time too bends,
I will take you there to steal a moment from time that never ends,
But it shall be upto you to choose what you wish to see when time bends,
Because time and light do not embark on leisurely errands.
So hold my hand when we reach that height,
And do not panic when you witness newer cosmic lights,
Manufacturing time to be able to reach those infinite heights,
To please Someone and to be the cause of those infinite cosmic delights.
Stand beside me only if you are sure,
Because to embark on a beautiful journey seeking eternity,
Is not meant for those who are unsure,
But for those who believe in the Divine sanity.
Where light obstructs time but time never obstructs the light,
Where I can not hide behind you nor you can hide behind me,
Because there everything that is bright is not light,
So stay with me my love and what a wonderful journey of love and wonder it shall be!
”
”
Javid Ahmad Tak (They Loved in 2075!)
“
Time, Light, Space, You and I!
In the spaces unknown and very high,
There where they say we all go when we die,
I fled my Earthly shadows to hide in that space high,
Where I did not obstruct light but I let it pass by.
Through me into its vast arena of cosmic lights,
Where there are no shadows because there are no egos and no fights,
Where all that shines is not merely due to bright lights,
Because in stars too I have seen some Divine delights.
That shine through them in those starry nights,
When the moon is silent, the sun is humble and the stars don't rumble,
I have witnessed sights during those nights,
Which even render the brightest sun humble.
It is a journey beyond the realm of time,
Where time controls nothing because it loses its infinity,
Because there light dictates the values of time,
Where light does not bend because it alters its proclivity.
There, I have seen time bending in that discreet space,
Where all laws of Earthly logic fail to compile anything,
There time obeys just the factors of light and space,
Where to a naked eye only hollowness spreads giving rise to nothing.
In actuality it is there time changes its character,
Because light assumes a new form,
And when new logics takeover and change the cosmic character,
Only then I am able to see a universe governed by laws so uniform.
I wish to take you on these secret journeys with me,
Irma and I, and I shall show you how reality bends in that dimension,
But only if you are willing to allow me,
To let me love you even in that highest and exalted mansion,
Where light behaves differently because time too bends,
I will take you there to steal a moment from time that never ends,
But it shall be upto you to choose what you wish to see when time bends,
Because time and light do not embark on leisurely errands.
So hold my hand when we reach that height,
And do not panic when you witness newer cosmic lights,
Manufacturing time to be able to reach those infinite heights,
To please Someone and to be the cause of those infinite cosmic delights.
Stand beside me only if you are sure,
Because to embark on a beautiful journey seeking eternity,
Is not meant for those who are unsure,
But for those who believe in the Divine sanity.
Where light obstructs time but time never obstructs the light,
Where I can not hide behind you nor you can hide behind me,
Because there everything that is bright is not light,
So stay with me my love and what a wonderful journey of love and wonder it shall be!
”
”
Javid Ahmad Tak