“
Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper.
”
”
David Quammen (The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder)
“
All men fear death. It’s a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear death because we feel that we haven’t loved well enough or loved at all, which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart with a great woman the world fades away. You two are the only ones in the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never conquered before, you have conquered a great woman’s heart, the most vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task for it takes insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are making love with a woman of true greatness you will feel immortal.
I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.
”
”
Woody Allen
“
Rhino-mounted Bantu shock troops could have overthrown the Roman Empire. It never happened.
”
”
Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies)
“
Where are we going?” Desandra asked.
“We’re going to Blue Ribbon Stables,” I said. “It’s the closest place to rent a horse.
“Why?” Desandra asked.
“Because I can’t keep up with you on foot,” I said.
“And she runs like a rhino.” Derek added. “You can hear her a mile away.”
Traitor. “I thought you had my back?”
“I do,” Derek said. “The rhino running is nice. Makes it easy to keep track of you. If I ever lose you, I just have to listen and there you are.”
“Yes,” Desandra agreed. “It’s convenient.”
I laughed.
“Are you always this casual?” Robert asked.
“Derek and I worked together for a long time,” I told him. “He’s allowed some leeway.”
“What about Desandra?”
“She only bothers with protocol when she wants something. The rest of the time it’s lewd jokes and descriptions of plums.”
Desandra snickered.
Robert’s eyebrows crept up. “Plums?”
I waved my hand. “Don’t ask.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels, #7))
“
You just want to know that you’re all right. You just want to feel all right.” And now he dives into the sneer. Arty’s sneer could flay a rhino. “That’s all you need other people’s love for!
”
”
Katherine Dunn (Geek Love)
“
No one in the world needs a Rhino horn but a Rhino.
”
”
Paul Oxton
“
a hint was to Esk what a mosquito bite was to the average rhino because she was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don’t apply to you.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
“
The natives knew better than to screw around with Tarzan. He was one bad dude. Lions, rhinos, just him and his knife. Great penthouse and elevator. Wouldnt last long in Brooklyn. Busted for indecent exposure. Me Tarzan you Judge. That is absolutely correct, and you are going to do sixty days. Try dressing as Beau Brummel the next time. Next case!
”
”
Hubert Selby Jr. (Waiting Period)
“
If you ask all the cells
in my body,
they only answer your name.
Follicles push the hair upwards
so they may brush
against your skin.
Nails grow faster as well.
Lungs breathe rapidly
in hopes of inhaling your scent.
Toes curl to smile and
knees form dimples when you are near.
Brain fireworks.
Stomach fills with flies of butter
and swallows, and
swans swoon.
Cattle, rhinos, and walruses too—
there’s a stampede when you are near.
I love you from the bottom of my liver
to the tip of my lashes.
One wink from you and heart stops,
like a sneeze. Bless you.
I cannot even begin to tell you
what happens to soul,
for soul is off
flying with its mate.
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
never thought I'd see a jaguar brought to its knees by rhino shit." Oberon
”
”
Kevin Hearne (Trapped (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #5))
“
In every remote corner of the world there are people like Carl Jones and Don Merton who have devoted their lives to saving threatened species. Very often, their determination is all that stands between an endangered species and extinction.
But why do they bother? Does it really matter if the Yangtze river dolphin, or the kakapo, or the northern white rhino, or any other species live on only in scientists' notebooks?
Well, yes, it does. Every animal and plant is an integral part of its environment: even Komodo dragons have a major role to play in maintaining the ecological stability of their delicate island homes. If they disappear, so could many other species. And conservation is very much in tune with our survival. Animals and plants provide us with life-saving drugs and food, they pollinate crops and provide important ingredients or many industrial processes. Ironically, it is often not the big and beautiful creatures, but the ugly and less dramatic ones, that we need most.
Even so, the loss of a few species may seem irrelevant compared to major environmental problems such as global warming or the destruction of the ozone layer. But while nature has considerable resilience, there is a limit to how far that resilience can be stretched. No one knows how close to the limit we are getting. The darker it gets, the faster we're driving.
There is one last reason for caring, and I believe that no other is necessary. It is certainly the reason why so many people have devoted their lives to protecting the likes of rhinos, parakeets, kakapos, and dolphins. And it is simply this: the world would be a poorer, darker, lonelier place without them.
”
”
Mark Carwardine (Last Chance to See)
“
Before that day, I had always thought that I needed to be somebody in the world. That rhino and the path he walked told me something different: don’t try to be someone, rather find the thing that is so engaging that it makes you forget yourself.
”
”
Boyd Varty (The Lion Tracker's Guide To Life)
“
It's funny: one starts off thinking one is shrinkingly sensitive & intelligent & always one down & all the rest of it: then at thirty one finds one is a great clumping brute, incapable of appreciating anything finer than a kiss or a kick, roaring our one's hypocrisies at the top of one's voice, thick skinned as a rhino. At least I do.
”
”
Philip Larkin (Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica)
“
Most of us make assumptions about how someone will relate to us, and they are often unfounded.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
We’re really going to ride rhinos?” asked Conor excitedly.
”
”
Garth Nix
“
I decided rhinos were like magical creatures. The only reason they aren’t considered magical is because they’re real.
”
”
Emily R. Austin (Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead)
“
She asked another question: "What does it matter if the rhinos die out? Is it really important that they are saved?"
This would normally have riled me... but I had come to think of her as Dr. Spock from Star Trek - an emotionless, purely logical creature, at least with regards to her feelings for animals. Like Spock, though, I knew there were one or two things that stirred her, so I gave an honest reply.
"... to be honest, it doesn't matter. No economy will suffer, nobody will go hungry, no diseases will be spawned. Yet there will never be a way to place a value on what we have lost. Future children will see rhinos only in books and wonder how we let them go so easily. It would be like lighting a fire in the Louvre and watching the Mona Lisa burn. Most people would think 'What a pity' and leave it at that while only a few wept
”
”
Peter Allison (Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide)
“
It’s a salad bar, they say, it’s got the kind of stuff salad bars have, if it was surprising it wouldn’t be a salad bar, you’re not here to look at it. What do you expect to find? Rhino chunks? Pickled coelacanth?
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Going Postal (Discworld, #33; Industrial Revolution, #4; Moist von Lipwig, #1))
“
Leaders step up, even when they feel like hiding. And they do so because they care.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
His desire hit her like a charging rhino. His lust taking on a life of its own as he enveloped her within it, piercing all the way through to her core. There was nothing pretty about it. No rainbows or rose petals. He was more like hot wax on bare skin. His touch seared and burned its way into her marrow. He was all animal and baser need, and he somehow transmitted all of that, until it became her own.
”
”
Payne Hawthorne (Adventures in Payne)
“
One of the things that people who don't know anything about white rhinoceroses find most interesting about them is their colour.
It isn't white.
Not even remotely. It's a rather handsome dark grey. Not even a sort of pale grey that might arguably pass as an off-white, just plain dark grey. People therefore assume that zoologists are either perverse or colour-blind, but it's not that, it's that they are illiterate.
"White" is a mistranslation of the Afrikaans word "weit" meaning "wide", and it refers to the animal's mouth, which is wider than that of the black rhino.
”
”
Douglas Adams (Last Chance to See)
“
I told him how we were washed out to sea and how it was like making furious love to a clash of orgiastic rhinos in a swimming pool filled with broken glass, and how you made a fire by staring balefully down into the reflective bottom of an aluminum can until your immense force of will was concentrated and magnified by the parabolic mirror into a white-hot spark of pure Turtle rage that could light anything on fire, even the hearts of unwary high schoolers.
”
”
Gabriel Tallent (My Absolute Darling)
“
There is every reason to believe that if humans had not arrived on the scene, the Neanderthals would be there still, along with the wild horses and the woolly rhinos. With the capacity to represent the world in signs and symbols comes the capacity to change it, which, as it happens, is also the capacity to destroy it.
”
”
Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History)
“
The children danced on. They were alive; that is all that mattered. They lived for the moment. They danced when they could, and died when they would.
”
”
Lawrence Anthony (The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures)
“
But sometimes you have to go for it in life. If you just sit around thinking, then nothing ever happens. And with that I was seized by a moment of clarity.
”
”
Lawrence Anthony (The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures)
“
It (the room) used to be a lot smaller, but an accidental incursion by rhinos had changed that.
”
”
Eva St. John (The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg (The Quantum Curators #1))
“
how to perform an ultrasound with one arm up a rhino’s rectum.
”
”
Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History)
“
But even when you weren't nice, you were so much less of a constipated rhino than I am.
”
”
Harper Fox (Don't Let Go (Tyack & Frayne #3))
“
You do not go for a rhine-stone when you can go for the rhino.
”
”
Anyaele Sam Chiyson (The Sagacity of Sage)
“
In the living room, sectional couches lumbered through the vast space like a herd of rhinos, and both coffee tables were the size of double beds.
”
”
Anne Tyler (Vinegar Girl)
“
at that moment the girl thinks she can see twenty red parrots, wings on fire, fly into the sun, and the boy thinks he can see a rhino poke its horn through the moon
”
”
Deborah Levy (Beautiful Mutants)
“
I am not ashamed to admit that I screamed like a child with three rhinos chasing her in an abandoned parking lot. I am also not ashamed to admit that I run like a Muppet, only slower.
”
”
Mary E. Twomey (Undraland (Undraland, #1))
“
True art imitates nature's total process: endless blind experiment (fish that climb tress, hands with nine fingers, shifts in and out of tonality) and then ruthless selectivity-the artist's sober judgements, like a lion's, of what can be killed, what is better left alone, such as (for the lion) rhinos and certain nasty snakes. Art, in sworn opposition to chaos, discovers by its process what it can say. That is art's morality.
”
”
John Gardner (On Moral Fiction)
“
Before heading back up the road, she had turned for a moment toward the sea. In the late afternoon light, the water was gray wrinkled with orange. Tiger water, she called it when it looked like that. Rhino water was smooth and leaden, dull as smoke. But her favorite was polar bear water, when the moon hung low and large, as if too heavy to rise very high, and scattered great radiant patches, like ice floes, across a dark blue ocean.
”
”
Julia Glass (The Whole World Over)
“
Last night I gave birth to a rhinoceros. Not just any rhino, mind you: a pregnant rhino, with twins. And three horns. Lots of horns. I birthed a double-pregnant, triple-horned rhino. That’s what it feels like, at least.
”
”
A.G. Riddle (Departure)
“
How such incredibly powerful creatures could be so vulnerable was a crime against the universe. The tragic futility of it all was what really got me. The rhino’s brilliant million-year evolutionary effort to build up three tons of muscle, bone and horn to defend itself meant nothing in a modern technological world that didn’t care a fig about them. The fact that our grandchildren may never see a rhino in the wild again was a pivotal reason to continue to try and save them.
”
”
Lawrence Anthony (The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures)
“
The barges stopped at some of the towns. By tradition only the men went ashore, and only Amschat, wearing his ceremonial Lying hat, spoke to non-Zoons. Esk usually went with him. He tried hinting that she should obey the unwritten rules of Zoon life and stay afloat, but a hint was to Esk what a mosquito bite was to the average rhino because she was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don’t apply to you.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
“
KINOHI’S tragicomic sex life provides more evidence—if any more was needed—of how seriously humans take extinction. Such is the pain the loss of a single species causes that we’re willing to perform ultrasounds on rhinos and handjobs on crows.
”
”
Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History)
“
We are coral. Rocks at the bottom of the ocean. ¿What's it gonna be like during the day? Coco Liso didn't promise a van at sunrise. We're walking until sunset. Looking for Rhino Mountain. Chino comes back faster, a giant fish swimming toward us.
”
”
Javier Zamora (Solito)
“
In keeping with its code-breaking theme, the opening credits of Sneakers has the names of some of the film’s major players presented as anagrams before they get unscrambled: “BLOND RHINO SPANIEL” becomes “PHIL ALDEN ROBINSON,” while “FORT RED BORDER” turns into “ROBERT REDFORD” and “A TURNIP CURES ELVIS” reveals itself as “UNIVERSAL PICTURES.” Not all cast members got their names shuffled—if they had, the world might have discovered that one anagram for “RIVER PHOENIX” is “VIPER HEROIN X.
”
”
Gavin Edwards (Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind)
“
You took me for a date at the zoo,
said my love left something to prove,
so I did all I knew to do,
I stole a fat rhinoceros for you!
Stolen rhino, in my car,
Stolen rhino, now love me more
Stolen rhino, I did it for you,
Stolen rhino, don't make me steal two!
”
”
J.L. Bryan (Fairy Metal Thunder (Songs of Magic, #1))
“
The strangest thing was, as beautiful as I found her to be, she admitted that she wasn’t always comfortable in her own skin. I found that hard to believe until she explained herself. All of the sudden I was not so much in awe of her but found myself empathizing with her.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
Too bad Justice refused to let him toss live grenades to the side of the course. That would add motivation. He knew from personal experience. His personal best time for a quarter-mile run had been in Africa—while being chased by an angry rhino. Imminent death made for a great workout.
”
”
Susan Mallery (When We Met (Fool's Gold, #13))
“
Want to find your friends sitting under a tree for a picnic? Use a what3words address. Need to pin exactly where on a sidewalk you took that picture? Or find your Airbnb tree house in Costa Rica? What3words can help with that, too. The technology has more serious uses. The Rhino Refugee Camp in Uganda is using what3words to help people find their way to the camp’s churches, mosques, markets, and doctors’ office. The Mongolian postal service is using the addresses to send mail to nomadic families. And Dr. Louw now uses the three words to find patients in the townships of South Africa.
”
”
Deirdre Mask (The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power)
“
every lost book, before it vanished forever, got down to one final copy somewhere, and how it made Hillary think about seeing a white rhinoceros in a zoo in Czechoslovakia once, how the sign said the rhino was one of the last twenty northern white rhinos in the world, the only one left in Europe,
”
”
Anthony Doerr (Cloud Cuckoo Land)
“
There is one last reason for caring, and I believe that no other is necessary. It is certainly the reason why so many people have devoted their lives to protecting the likes of rhinos, parakeets, kakapos, and dolphins. And it is simply this: the world would be a poorer, darker, lonelier place without them.
”
”
Douglas Adams (Last Chance to See)
“
There is one last reason for caring, and I believe that no other is necessary. It is certainly the reason why so many people have devoted their lives to protecting the likes of rhinos, parakeets, kakapos, and dolphins. And it is simply this: the world would be a poorer, darker, lonelier place without them.
”
”
Mark Cawardine (Last Chance to See)
“
People will say we're being a little bit anthropomorphic?' I remembered Brendan's use of the word - 'human-like'.
'Anyone who doesn't believe that animals are aware that they have family and friends, and care about them, must also be a paid-up member of the Flat Earth Society, or still think the sun revolves around the earth,' replied Dylan disdainfully. 'I mean, how switched off can you be? How can anyone still believe animals don't have emotions? They're alive and emotions are a response to life. I've seen warthogs that are more intelligent and more responsible than some people I know. Not to say better parents.
”
”
Lawrence Anthony (The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures)
“
...in all the Kalahari Desert, only six true hunters remained. The renegades agreed to let Louis hang around, an offer he took to the extreme; once installed, Louis acted like an unemployed in-law, basically squatting with the Bushmen for the next four years...He learned to keep his campfire burning and tent zipped even on the most sweltering nights, since packs of hyenas were known to drag people from open shelters and tear out their throats. He leaned that if you stumble upon an angry lioness and her cubs, you stand tall and make her back down, but in the same situation with a rhino, you run like hell. (p. 234) Know why people run marathons? he said... Because running is rooted in our collective imagination, and our imagination is rooted in running. Language, art, science; space shuttles... intravascular surgery, they all had their roots in our ability to run. Running was the superpower that made us human- which means it's a superpower all humans possess. (p. 239)
”
”
Christopher McDougall
“
The five largest criminal syndicates—Japan’s Yakuza, the Russian Bratva, Italy’s Camorra and ’Ndrangheta, and Mexico’s Sinaloa—have globalized the reach of their operations and rake in an estimated $1 trillion per year as they bridge the supply and demand for rhino horns, counterfeit currency, synthetic drugs, and prostitutes.
”
”
Parag Khanna (Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization)
“
The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers: is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?
”
”
Sheila McCraith (Yell Less, Love More: How the Orange Rhino Mom Stopped Yelling at Her Kids - and How You Can Too!)
“
Knowing how you want your work to look helps you decide who best to work with and where.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
Being a good communicator Patch, begins with listening, and listening to yourself first.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
Communicating is about asking good questions and engaging with each other.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
If we don’t communicate, we certainly can’t get much done and if we don’t communicate authentically, what we get done is less effective.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
Somehow, the road rises up to meet you Patch, when you are ready.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
The picture of Chelsea and me that flashed around the world showed a happy mother-daughter team perched on our pachyderm and watching a rare Asian rhino. Later, when we got back to Washington, James Carville remarked: “Don’t you just love it? You spent two years trying to get people better health care and they tried to kill you. You and Chelsea rode an elephant, and they loved you!
”
”
Hillary Rodham Clinton (Living History)
“
Frogs, ducks, rhinos, octopuses – whatever you desire. The world will be built new for you every morning. If you stay here, you can have whatever you want.’
Coraline sighed. ‘You really don’t understand, do you?’ she said. ‘I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?
”
”
Neil Gaiman (Coraline)
“
This is what I decided:
Chloe is gone. She is never coming back. And the way I've been acting would hurt her. For at least an hour, I switch places with her in my mind-I am dead and Chloe is alive. How would she handle it? She would cry. She would be sad. She would miss me. But she wouldn't stop living. She would let people comfort her. She would sleep in her own room and smile at the memories as she drifted to sleep. And she would probably punch Galen Forza. Which brings me to what else I decided:
Galen Forza is a jerk. The details are hazy, but I'm pretty sure he had something to do with my accident on Monday. Also, he's a bit weird. Staring habit aside, he keeps popping up everywhere. Every time he does, I handle it with the grace of a rhino on stilts. So I'm switching my schedule as soon as I get to school. There is no good reason I should humiliate myself for seven periods a day.
”
”
Anna Banks (Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy, #1))
“
But yet, but yet . . . the night he died, they [the elephants] were right there outside his house. And they came every evening for the next week as the sun set, until his ashes were scattered on the land he loved. Then they left.
”
”
Lawrence Anthony (The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures)
“
Field biologists studying large and charismatic animals wanted to know if their own species had genetic problems. I listened carefully to stories of koalas in Australia, giant pandas in China, black-footed ferrets in the Midwest, elephants, rhinos, and leopards in Africa, and orangutans in Asia--all threatened or endangered species attended by packs of worried field biologists. If cheetahs paid a price for their brush with extinction, did these species suffer the same?
”
”
Stephen J. O'Brien (Tears of the Cheetah: The Genetic Secrets of Our Animal Ancestors)
“
The Neanderthals lived in Europe for more than a hundred thousand years and during that period they had no more impact on their surroundings than any other large vertebrate. There is every reason to believe that if humans had not arrived on the scene, the Neanderthals would be there still, along with the wild horses and the wooly rhinos. With the capacity to represent the world in signs and symbols comes the capacity to change it, which, as it happens, is also the capacity to destroy it.
”
”
Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History)
“
Truth be told, I’m still in awe of her, but I found it easier to relate to her. She really made me see that we are all the same. We all suffer the same feelings of inadequacy because we are not like others, but that’s what makes us so special too.
”
”
Runa Heilung (CHARGE! The Patchwork Rhino)
“
Alex took four small figurines from inside; a wolf, a jaguar, a rhino, and a horse. Each figure was about the same size, rendered in dark green Alaskan jade, with a rectangular base. “What are those for?” Hannah asked, her fear for her husband momentarily forgotten. Alex picked up the wolf and smiled an enigmatic smile. He rolled the map out to its full size and placed the figurine on the corner. “Weight,” he said. Hannah couldn’t help herself and snickered while Alex placed the other four figures on the other corners of the map.
”
”
Dan Willis (Ghost of a Chance (Arcane Casebook #2))
“
We avoid asking the questions for which we don’t want to know the answers, because we don’t want to deal with the consequences of knowing, especially when inconvenient truths get in the way of the stories we tell ourselves about how wonderful things will be if they go the way we’ve told ourselves they would.
”
”
Michele Wucker (The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore)
“
We are often appalled at the tragic prevalence of wildlife poaching in Africa, where only a resolute if underfunded band of park guards works to prevent the total elimination of rhino and elephant.* But 70 years ago things were even more desperate in Europe, for Europe had lost its megafauna, and even its wisent had been driven into extinction in the wild. Its largest surviving wild creatures were antelope-sized, and even some of them were being exterminated by the most determined poaching. The lessons of history should make the world more helpful to the dozens of unsung African Renzo Videsotts working today. With a little help, they may succeed in conserving some of Africa’s fauna.
”
”
Tim Flannery (Europe: A Natural History)
“
The Lonely Astronomer
I have slain the stars
and hung them like heads of game
on heaven's ceiling.
The night has become my trophy room,
slung with big cats and hippos,
rhinos and buffalos and an exotic
barasingha, a swampy cabaret star
among the celestial jazz singers who,
she claims, take liberties with the sacred lyrics
and melodies of the spheres.
Their eyes twinkle at me,
their light ancient,
folded in wrinkles of time
like a black velvet purse.
I wink back
and smile.
There is an intimate relationship
between the suns and the rain,
between the slayers and the slain.
I run my fingers through their celestial skins,
tracing their ley lines,
and for a brief moment,
linger in the tactile pleasures within.
”
”
Beryl Dov
“
I pulled Slayer from its sheath and pushed the door open with my fingertips. It swung soundlessly on well-greased hinges. Through the hallway, I saw the living room lamp glowing with soothing yellow light. I smelled coffee.
Who breaks into a house, turns on the lights, and makes coffee?
I padded into the living room on soft feet, Slayer ready.
“Loud and clumsy, like a baby rhino,” said a familiar voice.
I stepped into the living room. Curran sat on my couch, reading my favorite paperback. His hair was back to its normal short length. His face was clean shaven. He looked nothing like the dark, demonic figure who shook a would-be god’s head on a field a month ago.
I thought he had forgotten about me. I had been quite happy to stay forgotten.
“The Princess Bride?” he said, flipping the book over.
“What are you doing in my house?” Let himself in, had he? Made himself comfortable, as if he owned the place.
“Did everything go well with Julie?”
“Yes. She didn’t want to stay, but she’ll make friends quickly, and the staff seems sensible.”
I watched him, not quite sure where we stood.
“I meant to tell you but haven’t gotten a chance. Sorry about Bran. I didn’t like him, but he died well.”
“Yes, he did. I’m sorry about your people. Many losses?”
A shadow darkened his face. “A third.”
He had taken a hundred with him. At least thirty people had never come back. The weight of their deaths pressed on both of us.
Curran turned the book over in his hands. “You own words of power.”
He knew what a word of power was. Lovely. I shrugged. “Picked up a couple here and there. What happened in the Gap was a one shot deal. I won’t be that powerful again.” At least not until the next flare.
“You’re an interesting woman,” he said.
“Your interest has been duly noted.” I pointed to the door.
He put the book down. “As you wish.” He rose and walked past me. I lowered my sword, expecting him to pass, but suddenly he stepped in dangerously close. “Welcome home. I’m glad you made it. There is coffee in the kitchen for you.”
My mouth gaped open.
He inhaled my scent, bent close, about to kiss me . . .
I just stood there like an idiot.
Curran smirked and whispered in my ear instead. “Psych.”
And just like that, he was out the door and gone.
Oh boy.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Burns (Kate Daniels, #2))
“
What I like to see is when actors use their celebrity in an interesting way. Some of them have charitable foundations, they do things like try to bring attention to the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan, or they're trying to save the White African Rhino, or they discover a passion for adult literacy, or what have you. All worthy causes, of course, and I knowtheir fame helps to get the word put.
But let's be honest here.None of them went into the entertainment industry because they wanted to do good in the world. Speaking for myself, I didn't even think about until I was already successful. Before they were famous, my actor friends were just going to auditions and struggling to be noticed, taking any work they could find, acting for free in friends movies, working in restaurants or as caterers, just trying to get by. They acted because they loved acting, but also, let's be honest here, to be noticed. All they wantedf was to be seen.
I've been thinking lately about immortality. What it means to be remembered, what I want to be remembered for, certainquestions concerning memory and fame. I love watching old movies. I watch the faces of long-dead actors on the screen, and I think about how they'll never truly die. I know that's a cliche but it happens to be true. Not just the famous ones who everyone knows, but the bit players, the maid carrying the tray, the butler, the cowboys in the bar, the third girl from the left in the night-club. They're all immortal to me. First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. Afterthat, we want to be remembered.
”
”
Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven)
“
The whole of his life was only one long protest against his lack of importance: that, I’m sure, was what drove him to kill so many magnificent animals — some of the finest and most powerful in creation. One day, I won the confidence of a writer who comes regularly to Africa to kill his ration of elephants, lions and rhino. I had asked him where he got this need and he had had enough to drink to make him sincere: ‘All my life I’ve been half-dead with fear. Fear of living, fear of dying, fear of illness, fear of becoming impotent, fear of the inevitable physical decline. When it becomes intolerable, I come to Africa, and all my dread, all my fear, is concentrated on the charging rhino, on the lion rising slowly in front of me out of the grass, on the elephant that swerves in my direction. Then at last my dread becomes something tangible, something I can kill. I shoot, and for a while I’m delivered, I have complete peace, the animal has taken away with him in his sudden death all my accumulated terrors — for a few hours I’m rid of them. At the end of six weeks it amounts to a real cure.’ I’m sure there was something of that in Orsini — but above all, there was a violent protest against the smallness and impotence of being a man, the smallness and impotence of being Orsini. He had to kill a lot of elephants and lions to compensate for that.
”
”
Romain Gary
“
Frankie turned back and forth in front of the three-way mirror. "I have absolutely no ass whatsoever."
A few feet away,a woman whose designer velour fit her like a sausage casing, gave an amused snort. "Honey," she said over a display of two-hundred-dollar T-shirts. "I have been waiting forty years to say those words."
Frankie padded toward her in his socks and Alexander McQuenn pants.He thrust his hands into the pockets, pulling the fabric tighter, and presented her with his outthrust bottom. "Honestly. This is what you want?"
She lasted about five seconds before grinning-and sighing at the same time. "No,I guess not."
He turned around, leaned in, and informed her conspiratorially, "There is not a T-shirt on earth worth that much."
She looked down at the plain blue cotton in her hands. "You are so right." She put it back. "And with that face, sweetie, you could have the ass of a rhino and no one would notice.I'm just saying."
"What does she know?" he muttered when she'd gone. "What good has this face done me?"
Apparently, Connor hadn't been quite as available as he'd let on. Apparently, along with dancing, juggling was one of his talents.
"You couldn't have known," Sadie said gently.
"Oh,yes,I could.I mean, he's a guy,isn't he?"
There's not much you can say to a boy when he makes a statement like that. So we just scooted in until we were up against Frankie's thin shoulders, bookending him.
”
”
Melissa Jensen (The Fine Art of Truth or Dare)
“
In the wild, a young female is an allomother long before she bears her own offspring. She has fifteen years to practice being a big sister to the calves that are born to the herd. I’d seen calves approach young female elephants to suckle for comfort, even though the juveniles did not have breasts or milk yet. But the young female would put her foot forward, the way her mother and aunties did, and proudly pretend. She could act like a mother without having any of the real responsibility until she was ready. But when there is no family to teach a young female to raise her own calf, things can go horribly awry. When I was working in Pilanesberg, this story repeated itself. There, young bulls that had been translocated began to charge vehicles. They killed a tourist. More than forty white rhino were found dead in the reserve before we realized that these subadult males were the ones who’d attacked them—highly aggressive behavior that was far from normal. What is the common denominator for the odd behavior of the young female elephant that didn’t care about her own calf and the belligerent pack of teenage bulls? Certainly there was a lack of parental guidance. But was that the only issue at play? All those elephants had seen their families killed in front of them, as a result of culling. The grief that I have studied in the wild, where a herd loses an old matriarch, for example, must be contrasted to the grief that comes from observing the violent death of a family member—because the long-term effects are so markedly different. After a natural death, the herd encourages the grieving individual to eventually move on. After a mass killing by humans, there is—by definition—no herd left for support. To date, the animal research community has been reluctant to believe that elephant behavior might be affected by the trauma of watching one’s family being killed. I think this isn’t scientific objection as much as it is political shame—after all, we humans have been the perpetrators of this violence. At the very least, it is crucial when studying the grief of elephants to remember that death is a natural occurrence. Murder is not.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Leaving Time)
“
Simon laughs when I audibly exhale. “Relieved she’s not here yet?”
I roll my suitcase into one of the barren bedrooms and then plunk down on the rock-hard, hideous orange sofa in the lounge. Simon takes a swivel chair from my room and slides it in front of me, where he then plants himself. “Why are you so worried?”
I cross my arms and look around the concrete room. “I’m not worried at all. She’s probably very nice. I’m sure we’ll become soul mates, and she’ll braid my hair, and we’ll have pillow fights while scantily clad and fall into a deep lesbian love affair.” I squint my eyes at a cobweb and assume there are spider eggs preparing to hatch and invade the room.
“Allison?” Simon waits until I look at him. “You can’t do that. You can’t become a lesbian.”
“Why not?”
“Because then everyone will say that your adoptive gay father magically made you gay, and it’ll be a big thing, and we’ll have to hear about nature versus nurture, and it’ll be soooooo boring.”
“You have a point.” I wait for spider eggs to fall from the sky. “Then I’ll go with assuming she’s just a really sweet, normal person with whom I do not want to engage in sexual relations.”
“Better,” he concedes. “I’m sure she’ll be nice. This kind of strong liberal arts college attracts quality students. There’re good people here.” He’s trying to reassure me, but it’s not working.
“Totally,” I say. My fingers run across the nubby burned-orange fabric covering the couch, which is clearly composed of rock slabs. “Simon?”
“Yes, Allison?”
I sigh and take a few breaths while I play with the hideous couch threads. “She probably has horns.”
He shrugged. “I think that’s unlikely.” Simon pauses. “Although . . .”
“Although what?” I ask with horror.
There’s a long silence that makes me nervous. Finally, he says very slowly, “She might have one horn.”
I jerk my head and stare at him.
Simon claps his hands together and tries to coax a smile out of me. “Like a unicorn! Ohmigod! Your roommate might be a unicorn!”
“Or a rhinoceros,” I point out. “A beastly, murderous rhino.”
“There is that,” he concedes.
I sigh. “In good news, if I ever need a back scratcher, I have this entire couch.” I slump back against the rough fabric and hold out my hands before he can protest. “I know. I’m a beacon of positivity.”
“That’s not news to me.
”
”
Jessica Park (180 Seconds)
“
The very best, most optimistic hope we can cling to is that we’re tic birds who ride the rhino’s back and eat the parasites out of the flesh and keep the beast from disease and hope we’re not parasites too. In the end we suspect it’s all vanity and delusion. Parasites, all of us.” “Yeah,
”
”
Joseph Wambaugh (The Choirboys)
“
life is tough and like a jungle, and that life rewards the rhinos who charge hard at their goals and never give up. And above all, not to follow the cows of life who drift aimlessly and suck purpose and joy out of the journey.
”
”
Timothy Ferris (Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World)
“
Do You Like Animals? is a wild animal menagerie of fun as children view pictures and read stories about elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, hippos, zebras, giraffes, camels, kangaroos, penguins, and much more. The book helps children meet the animals up close and learn fun facts about how they live in the wild. The author/illustrator viewed the animals in the jungles, bush, and deserts of Africa, Australia, and South America before writing about them and painting them in forms that would be enjoyable and educational for children.
For example, children will learn why elephants have trunks, why giraffes and leopards have spots, whether zebras’ stripes are black-on-white or white-on-black, how long hippos can hold their breath, the amazing characteristics of howler monkeys’ tails, why some kangaroos have a pouch, whether ostriches really bury their heads in the sand, the types of camels that have either one or two humps…
Through stories that rhyme and pictures painted with punch this book is a must for children who like to have fun while they learn!
”
”
M.S. Gatto (Do You Like Wild Animals?)
“
I’m going out, and I want you to wait for me here. If all goes as I hope it may, I shall need you in the morning. I’ve seen Stogumber today, and he has agreed to stay within doors until he hears from me again.’ ‘Are you going to tell him where the ready and rhino’s hid?’ ‘No: you will do that! You’ve nothing to fear from him. I must go now: I’ll tell you what
”
”
Georgette Heyer (The Toll-Gate (Regency Romances, #13))
“
Before I could give it too much thought, my attention snagged on Darius as he charged across the pitch like a stampeding rhino, tackling a member of the other team so hard that I heard something crack.
My breath caught in my throat as the Starlight player groaned on the ground while Darius snatched the ball from him and launched it across the pitch with the force of a torpedo.
A timer was counting down as the Starlight player failed to get up and Darius raced away from him without a backwards glance. I knew it was part of the game but it was insanely brutal. Although if I was being totally honest, watching all of them brawl like that and seeing the power they exuded even while they were losing, was totally hot too.
Darius’s muscles pumped fiercely as he sprinted away from me and I found myself staring at his legs which were splattered with mud and somehow looked even better because of it.
“Olef you’re Out!” Prestos yelled but the Starlight player still didn’t move. A pair of medics jogged onto the pitch and gave him a quick inspection.
“Broken back!” one of them yelled. “This is a long heal, call in a sub once his time out is up.”
My lips parted, I stared on in shock and I couldn’t quite believe what I’d heard.
“Did he just say that Darius broke that guy’s back?” I asked in disbelief.
“That’s the risk you take when you play,” Orion said darkly as he walked past me to regain his seat.
Darcy raised her eyebrows at me and I returned my gaze to the match just as Geraldine tore up the pitch with a rumble of writhing earth magic, knocking the Starlight Waterguard off of her feet and forcing her to drop the ball. A huge -5 flashed into place on the Starlight scoreboard and I leapt from my seat in excitement to applaud my friend.
“Go Geraldine!” I screamed and she flashed me a smile as she somehow managed to hear me.
Seth almost missed the ball as it was thrown to him next while he was distracted by scratching his head. He managed to wrangle it with a gust of air magic and started sprinting for the Pit as the timer above us ticked down to ten seconds.
The crowd started counting down, “Nine! Eight! Seven-”
Seth leapt into the air, propelling himself forward with his magic but the two air Elementals on the opposing team threw their own magic up to counter him.
“Three! Two-”
Seth gritted his teeth as he threw even more power into his propulsion but he was out of time.
The ball in his arms exploded in a blast of pure air which snapped his head back and sent him tumbling out of the sky. He hit the ground hard as the crowd oooohed in disappointment. For three whole seconds my heart didn’t beat at all as I stared at his prone body in the mud, wondering if he was dead.
Seth coughed, pushing himself into a sitting position just as Darius appeared to offer him a hand up. He shook his head to clear it and my eyebrows rose all the way into my hairline.
“This game is crazy,” Darcy breathed, her eyes wide with the thrill of it.
“I think I love it,” I agreed.
(tory)
”
”
Caroline Peckham (Ruthless Fae (Zodiac Academy, #2))
“
went to Kruger National Park, a vast stretch of dry, barren land the size of Israel. In the war on poachers, Kruger was the absolute front line. Its rhino populations, both black and white, were plummeting, due to armies of poachers being incentivized by Chinese and Vietnamese crime syndicates. One rhino horn fetched enormous sums, so for every poacher arrested, five more were ready to take their place.
”
”
Prince Harry (Spare)
“
but a hint was to Esk what a mosquito bite was to the average rhino because she was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don’t apply to you.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
“
Australians: Men who forked snakes in the sun-baked desert, and popped the eyes out of dingoes with old ANZAC rifles, and surfed between gaping shark mouths, all while downing 20oz. cans of Victoria Bitter. Men trained by gap years padding about Thailand and India in a drunken stupor, flipping off the local constabulary. These men, friends of the groom, would dare each other to feats of athletic drinking. One of them, called Bonko or Rhino, would collapse off his chair half conscious as his comrades hooted with raucous delight.
”
”
Steve Hely (How I Became a Famous Novelist)
“
Anger flared when he thought of the old rhino being killed simply for his horn. It would be made into dagger handles for Yemini princes or to be ground up so rich Chinese businessmen could eat it and get their dicks hard.
”
”
Jonathan Brazee (Thor (The BOHICA Chronicles Book 4))
“
One of the best things you can do is grow a thick layer of rhino skin. Unfortunately, you will need it. People will try to pierce through it and reach your heart, but don't let them.
”
”
Karen Stensgaard
“
Even everything on a rhino can be used by the man living in the bush. THe hide makes fine table tops, the legs - baskets, the hair on the tail - fine bracelets, the teeth - good carvings, and if you grind up the horn and eat it, you can have children even if you are ninety years old. The flesh is delicious, if aged properly.
”
”
George Leonard Herter (How to Get out of the Rat Race and Live on $10 a Month)
“
Charles sold these and several other items before moving onto the next lot.
"Next up is a figurine of a rhino in amber-coloured glass, maker unknown but definitely of the art deco period. Where is it? Oh it's up here. I'll pass it down to you Angela, my dear. That's right, let me give you the horn."
Laughter ran through the crowd but Charles didn't understand why. He did his best to carry on but the mood of the audience had turned playful.
"Lot forty-seven is a beautiful pair of French, silver and cut-glass claret jugs."
Angela held them up carefully.
"These really are exquisite and well worth a good look," Charles continued, "Now, can everyone see Angela's jugs?"
The crowd laughed out loud again. Angela stood there, feeling her face turning red with embarrassment.
”
”
Stuart Bone (Long Shadows)
“
When Marco Polo first saw rhinos, he thought they were unicorns.
”
”
Nayden Kostov (853 Hard To Believe Facts)
“
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”
”
RhinoStorm Male Enhancement
“
His sister sailed in, then screeched to a halt on her extremely high heels. He wasn't sure why she bothered wearing them. The stilettos were long and lethal enough to kill a rhino, and Pet would still have trouble getting on half the rides at Disneyland Paris.
”
”
Lucy Parker (Battle Royal (Palace Insiders, #1))
“
deal with Vice to shoot north Indian transvestite rhino poachers.
”
”
Lucy Sykes (Fitness Junkie)
“
Experience the pinnacle of adult entertainment at Spearmint Rhino Pittsburgh, the leading strip club in the Three Rivers Area. Opening at 7pm daily, it offers an elite experience with the most seductive entertainers, the best in local food and drinks, VIP bottle service, and private suites. Plus, enjoy guest appearances by top adult stars. Perfect for a premium night out, Spearmint Rhino ensures a memorable experience with luxurious amenities and unparalleled service.
”
”
Spearmint Rhino Pittsburgh
“
Watching Eduardo and Mahon spar was like watching two rhinos trying to wrestle. They smashed against each other and then puffed and strained for ten minutes without moving an inch. Finally, red-faced, they broke apart and shook. “Thank you,” Eduardo said. “Good match,” Mahon said.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Rises (Kate Daniels, #6))
“
And she runs like a rhino,” Derek added. “You can hear her a mile away.” Traitor. “I thought you had my back?” “I do,” Derek said. “The rhino running is nice. Makes it easy to keep track of you. If I ever lose you, I just have to listen and there you are.” “Yes,” Desandra agreed. “It’s convenient.” I laughed. “Are you always this casual?” Robert asked. “Derek and I worked together for a long time,” I told him. “He’s allowed some leeway.” “What about Desandra?” “She only bothers with protocol when she wants something. The rest of the time it’s lewd jokes and descriptions of plums.” Desandra snickered. Robert’s eyebrows crept up. “Plums?” I waved my hand. “Don’t ask.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels, #7))
“
Black rhinos survived for 8 million years before being killed off by poachers. Lehman Brothers adapted and prospered for 150 years and 33 recessions before it met its match in mortgage-backed securities. Poof, gone.
”
”
Morgan Housel (Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes)
“
Discover Spearmint Rhino Dallas, the top destination for live adult entertainment. Open Mon-Fri, noon to 2AM, featuring seductive topless entertainers, personalized service, premium local cuisine, VIP bottle service, private suites, and star appearances. Plus, enjoy live sports, including UFC and boxing. Experience the ultimate in seduction and hospitality in Dallas.
”
”
Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club Dallas
“
What is the ultimate quantification of success? For me, it’s not how much time you spend doing what you love. It’s how little time you spend doing what you hate. And this woman spent all day, every day doing what she loved.” Spirit animal: Rhino Morgan Spurlock Morgan Spurlock (TW: @MorganSpurlock, morganspurlock.com) is an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker based in New York.
”
”
Timothy Ferriss (Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers)
“
Your first contacts with most support agencies will put the last nails in the coffin of faintheartedness, and graft onto you a layer of scar tissue and cynicism as thick as rhino hide. There are gifted and resourceful people working in autism support, but with depressing regularity government policy appears to be about Band-Aids and fig leaves, and not about realizing the potential of children with special needs and helping them become long-term net contributors to society
”
”
Naoki Higashida (The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism)
“
Он посмотрел на меня. И время остановилось. Навсегда…”
The Adventures of the Moon and the Bearded Rhino
#Novella
”
”
Mahtab Safdari
“
Feathers are among the most complex structural organs found in nature. Nothing of comparable dimension is stronger. They are made of keratin, the same as a human’s fingernails, a horse’s hooves, and a rhino’s horn—but the keratin in feathers, due to a difference in molecular structure, is even tougher.
”
”
Sy Montgomery (The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings)
Uncle Amon (Randall the Rhino: Short Stories, Games, Jokes, and More!)
Uncle Amon (Randall the Rhino: Short Stories, Games, Jokes, and More!)