β
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.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3))
β
Are you always a smartass?'
Nope. Sometimes I'm asleep.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.
β
β
J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)
β
The entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.
β
β
Confucius (The Book of Rites (Selections))
β
The building was on fire, and it wasnβt my fault.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
She was also, by the standards of other people, lost. She would not see it like that. She knew where she was, it was just that everywhere else didn't.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.
β
β
Carlos Ruiz ZafΓ³n (The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1))
β
An errand is getting a tank of gas or picking up a carton of milk or something. It is not getting chased by flying purple pyromaniac gorillas hurling incendiary poo!
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
...it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
At Camp Half-Blood. The Hades cabin needs a head counsellor. Have you seen the decor? Itβs disgusting. Iβll have to renovate. And someone needs to do the burial rites properly, since demigods insist on dying heroically.β
βThatβs β thatβs fantastic! Dude!β Jason opened his arms for a hug, then froze. βRight. No touching. Sorry.β
Nico grunted. βI suppose we can make an exception.β Jason squeezed him so hard Nico thought his ribs would crack.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5))
β
Kiss me, k-k-kiss me, infect me with your love, and fill me with your poison, take me, t-t-take me, wanna be your victim, ready for abduction boy, you're a werewolf, your touch is so furry, its supernatural, extra-werewolf-iestrial," Jen sung as loud as she could.
β
β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
Decebel turned and growled, "One of these days your mouth is going to write a check that your cute little ass can't cash." Decebel thought this would render her speechless but he should have known better.
"Oh, don't worry fur ball, I plan to be writing that check out in your name.
β
β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
But there were some things I believed in. Some things I had faith in. And faith isn't about perfect attendance to services, or how much money you put on the little plate. It isn't about going skyclad to the Holy Rites, or meditating each day upon the divine.
Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others - even when there's not going to be anyone telling you what a hero you are.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Changes (The Dresden Files, #12))
β
Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being "false," "untrue," yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction.
β
β
Clark Zlotchew
β
Too many adults wish to 'protect' teenagers when they should be stimulating them to read of life as it is lived.
β
β
Margaret A. Edwards
β
Jobs are a part of life. Maybe you've heard of the concept. It's called work? See, what happens is that you suffer through doing annoying and humiliating things until you get paid not enough money. Like those Japanese game shows, only without all the glory.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Between childhood, boyhood, adolescence and manhood (maturity) there should be sharp lines drawn with tests, deaths, feats, rites, stories, songs, and judgments.
β
β
Jim Morrison
β
I can turn to that day as though it were a page in a book. Itβs written so deeply upon my mind I can almost taste the ink.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Hell's bells, irony blows.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Love is another kind of power, which shouldn't surprise you. Magic comes from emotions, among other things. And when two people are together, in that intimacy, when they really, selflessly love each other it changes them both. It lingers on in the energy of their lives, even when they are apart.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Itβs not fair. People claim to know you through the things youβve done, and not by sitting down and listening to you speak for yourself.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
A succubus on the set. Strike that, the health-conscious kid sister made it two⦠succubuses. Succubusees? Succubi? Stupid Latin correspondence course.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Million-to-one chances...crop up nine times out of ten.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
Ignorance is more than bliss, it's freaking orgasmic ecstacy!
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
That's one form of magic, of course."
"What, just knowing things?"
"Knowing things that other people don't know.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
- Did you really save the world ?...
- Mostly I was saving my own ass. Just happend that the world was in the same spot.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Ok, let me just write that down for you since you seem to think I'm you personal assistant," Sally responded, her tone clipped.
"You ever noticed how assistant starts with ass? Do you think that's a coincidence?" Jen shrugged her shoulders as she raised her eyebrows at Sally.
β
β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
I am your sire. I am to guide you through your first days as a vampire. Your first feeding is a rite of passage, a sacrament. It will not be wasted on some hormone-driven frenzy. This is why I wanted you to feed from me.β
βI will not drink it in a house, I will not drink it with a mouse. I will not drink it here or there, I will not drink it anywhere,β I wheezed, hoping I was able to communicate adequate sarcasm through the crippling belly cramps.
βDid you just quote Green Eggs and Ham?
β
β
Molly Harper (Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs (Jane Jameson, #1))
β
Hell's holy stars and freaking stones shit bells.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Do all of you think we have fleas?" Decebel asked as he looked at Jen and Sally.
"I think we just make an assumption because of the hair and what not, that you, ya know, might have a problem with the little buggers when you in your wolf form.
β
β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
Allowing yourself to stop reading a book - at page 25, 50, or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end - is a rite of passage in a reader's life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions.
β
β
Sara Nelson (So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading)
β
She gets a man who will love her completely and faithfully. She gets a man who will not only save her life, but lay down his own to keep her safe. He will provide for her no matter the cost, he will shelter her against all storms that come their way, he will be the one to bring a smile to her face when no one else can. She gets a friend, a lover, a mate, the only man in this world who can complete her and give her the other half of her soul.
β
β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
Thomas was an annoying wiseass who tended to make everyone he met want to kill him, and when I have that much in common with someone, I can't help but like him a little.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three. The closer it gets to four, the happier I'll feel. By four I'll be excited and worried; I'll discover what it costs to be happy! But if you come at any od time, I'll never know when I should prepare my heart... There must be rites.
β
β
Antoine de Saint-ExupΓ©ry
β
Kincaid! Bolshevik Muppet!
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
I was worst to the one I loved best.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Any woman knows that a thread, once woven, is fixed in place; the only way to smooth a mistake is to let it all unravel.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
Black Court vampires. I just shortened it some."
Ebenezar tsked. "Blampires. That's the problem with you young people. Shortening all the words.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
Do you know how wizards like to be buried?"
"Yes!"
"Well, how?"
Granny Weatherwax paused at the bottom of the stairs.
"Reluctantly.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
I've always felt that the best whips and chains are in the mind. With a little creativity, the physical ones are hardly necessary.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
BlΓndur er bΓ³klaus maβur. Blind is a man without a book.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
He tried to read an elementary economics text; it bored him past endurance, it was like listening to somebody interminably recounting a long and stupid dream. He could not force himself to understand how banks functioned and so forth, because all the operations of capitalism were as meaningless to him as the rites of a primitive religion, as barbaric, as elaborate, and as unnecessary. In a human sacrifice to deity there might be at least a mistaken and terrible beauty; in the rites of the moneychangers, where greed, laziness, and envy were assumed to move all men's acts, even the terrible became banal.
β
β
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia)
β
Granny sighed. "You have learned something," she said, and thought it safe to insert a touch of sternness into her voice. "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
Rituals can be reliable safeguards, but plot twists in the theatre of our life should not freak us out. If we are willing to transform ourselves and confront our inner self with the rites of our inner world, we can allow a dialogue within ourselves. In our existential challenge, faltering can give us a choice between ignoring, accepting, or integrating the plot twists on our path. ("Digging for white gold" )
β
β
Erik Pevernagie
β
His mate is the light that keeps that darkness at bay. She fills the hole that has been growing ever larger in his soul. When the bond is completed between mates, their very souls merge and the male will be able to leash the darker part of his nature and at last be at peace with his wolf.
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β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
Then you and I should bid good-bye for a little while?"
I suppose so, sir."
And how do people perform that ceremony of parting, Jane? Teach me; I'm not quite up to it."
They say, Farewell, or any other form they prefer."
Then say it."
Farewell, Mr. Rochester, for the present."
What must I say?"
The same, if you like, sir."
Farewell, Miss Eyre, for the present; is that all?"
Yes."
It seems stingy, to my notions, and dry, and unfriendly. I should like something else: a little addition to the rite. If one shook hands for instance; but no--that would not content me either. So you'll do nothing more than say Farwell, Jane?"
It is enough, sir; as much good-will may be conveyed in one hearty word as in many."
Very likely; but it is blank and cool--'Farewell.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
There are times when a feeling of expectancy comes to me, as if something is there, beneath the surface of my understanding, waiting for me to grasp it. It is the same tantalizing sensation when you almost remember a name, but don't quite reach it. I can feel it when I think of human beings, of the hints of evolution suggested by the removal of wisdom teeth, the narrowing of the jaw no longer needed to chew such roughage as it was accustomed to; the gradual disappearance of hair from the human body; the adjustment of the human eye to the fine print, the swift, colored motion of the twentieth century. The feeling comes, vague and nebulous, when I consider the prolonged adolesence of our species; the rites of birth, marriage and death; all the primitive, barbaric ceremonies streamlined to modern times. Almost, I think, the unreasoning, bestial purity was best. Oh, something is there, waiting for me. Perhaps someday the revelation will burst in upon me and I will see the other side of this monumental grotesque joke. And then I'll laugh. And then I'll know what life is.
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β
Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)
β
Sometimes I forget how much I like riding the bike."
Most chicks do," I said. "Roar of the engine and so on."
Murphy's blue eyes glittered with annoyance and anticipation. "Pig. You really enjoy dropping all women together in the same demographic, don't you?"
It's not my fault all women like motorcycles, Murph. They're basically huge vibrators. With wheels.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
You're so hypno-something, could you be the devil, could you be an angel, your touch is something good, feels like
going floating, leave my body glowing."
"Katy Perry? She's singing Katy Perry in the hospital bathroom. Just when you think you've seen it all," Sally mumbled. She knocked on the door again. Still no answer, so she started banging. Then she was banging and hollering, "JEN! OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR!" Wouldn't you know, she just sang louder. Why am I not surprised, she thought.
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β
Quinn Loftis (Blood Rites (The Grey Wolves, #2))
β
Cutangle: While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe.
Treatle: I hadn't looked at it like that, but you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance.
They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))
β
They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say βAgnesβ and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.
β
β
Hannah Kent (Burial Rites)
β
God afternoon," I said cheerfully, with an especially saccharine smile for the High Lord. He blinked at me, and both of the faerie men murmured their greetings as I took a seat across from Lucien, not my usual place facing Tamlin.
I drank deeply from my goblet of water before piling food on my plate. I savored the tense silence as I consumed the meal before me.
"You look . . . refreshed," Lucien observed with a glance at Tamlin. I shrugged. "Sleep well?"
"Like a babe." I smiled as him and took another bite of food, and felt Lucien's eyes travel inexorably to my neck.
"What is that bruise?" Lucien demanded.
I pointed my fork to Tamlin. "Ask him, he did it."
Lucien looked from Tamlin to me and then back again. "Why does Feyre have a bruise on her neck from you?" he asked with no small amount of amusement.
"I bit her," Tamlin said, not pausing as he cut his steak. "We ran into each other in the hall after the Rite.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1))
β
You can have everything in the world, but if you don't have love, none of it means crap," he said promptly. "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love always forgives, trusts, supports, and endures. Love never fails. When every star in the heavens grows cold, and when silence lies once more on the face of the deep, three things will endure: faith, hope, and love."
And the greatest of these is love," I finished. "That's from the Bible."
First Corinthians, chapter thirteen," Thomas confirmed. "I paraphrased. Father makes all of us memorize that passage. Like when parents put those green yucky-face stickers on the poisonous cleaning products under the kitchen sink.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6))
β
But happiness is a difficult thing-it is, as Aristotle posited in The Nicomachean Ethics, an activity, is is about good social behavior, about being a solid citizen. Happiness is about community, intimacy, relationships, rootedness, closeness, family, stability, a sense of place, a feeling of love. And in this country, where people move from state to state and city to city so much, where rootlessness is almost a virtue ("anywhere I hang my hat...is someone else's home"), where family units regularly implode and leave behind fragments of divorce, where the long loneliness of life finds its antidote not in a hardy, ancient culture (as it would in Europe), not in some blood-deep tribal rites (as it would in the few still-hale Third World nations), but in our vast repository of pop culture, of consumer goods, of cotton candy for all-in this America, happiness is hard.
β
β
Elizabeth Wurtzel (Prozac Nation)
β
People think of education as something that they can finish. And whatβs more, when they finish, itβs a rite of passage. Youβre finished with school. Youβre no more a child, and therefore anything that reminds you of school - reading books, having ideas, asking questions - thatβs kidβs stuff. Now youβre an adult, you donβt do that sort of thing any more.
You have everybody looking forward to no longer learning, and you make them ashamed afterward of going back to learning. If you have a system of education using computers, then anyone, any age, can learn by himself, can continue to be interested. If you enjoy learning, thereβs no reason why you should stop at a given age. People donβt stop things they enjoy doing just because they reach a certain age.
Whatβs exciting is the actual process of broadening yourself, of knowing thereβs now a little extra facet of the universe you know about and can think about and can understand. It seems to me that when itβs time to die, there would be a certain pleasure in thinking that you had utilized your life well, learned as much as you could, gathered in as much as possible of the universe, and enjoyed it. Thereβs only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it. And while it is inconceivable that anyone can grasp more than a tiny portion of it, at least you can do that much. What a tragedy just to pass through and get nothing out of it.
β
β
Isaac Asimov
β
The true Mason is not creed-bound. He realizes with the divine illumination of his lodge that as Mason his religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for he recognizes only the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque or cathedral, realizing with his truer understanding the oneness of all spiritual truth. All true Masons know that they only are heathen who, having great ideals, do not live up to them. They know that all religions are but one story told in divers ways for peoples whose ideals differ but whose great purpose is in harmony with Masonic ideals. North, east, south and west stretch the diversities of human thought, and while the ideals of man apparently differ, when all is said and the crystallization of form with its false concepts is swept away, one basic truth remains: all existing things are Temple Builders, laboring for a single end. No true Mason can be narrow, for his Lodge is the divine expression of all broadness. There is no place for little minds in a great work.
β
β
Manly P. Hall
β
Animal minds are simple, and therefore sharp. Animals never spend time dividing experience into little bits and speculating about all the bits they've missed. The whole panoply of the universe has been neatly expressed to them as things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. This frees the mind from unnecessary thoughts and gives it a cutting edge where it matters. Your normal animal, in fact, never tries to walk and chew gum at the same time.
The average human, on the other hand, thinks about all sorts of things around the clock, on all sorts of levels, with interruptions from dozens of biological calendars and timepieces. There's thoughts about to be said, and private thoughts, and real thoughts, and thoughts about thoughts, and a whole gamut of subconscious thoughts. To a telepath the human head is a din. It is a railway terminus with all the Tannoys talking at once. It is a complete FM waveband- and some of those stations aren't reputable, they're outlawed pirates on forbidden seas who play late-night records with limbic lyrics.
β
β
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches, #1))