#des

When we neared the orchard a flock of birds lit from its outer rows. They hadn't been there long. The branches shook with their absent weight and the birds circled above in the riddy mackerel sky, where they made an artless semaphore. I was afraid, I smelled copper and cheap wine. The sun was up, but a half-moon hung low on the opposite horizon, cutting through the morning sky like a figure from a child's pull-tab book. We were lined along the ditch up to our ankles in a soupy muck. It all seemed in that moment to be the conclusion of a poorly designed experiment in inevitability. Everything was in its proper place, waiting for a pause in time, for the source of all momentum to be stilled, so that what remained would be nothing more than detritus to be tallied up. The world was paper-thin as far as I could tell. And the world was the orchard, and the orchard was what came next. But none of that was true. I was only afraid of dying. ↗

— Kevin Powers

#fighting #iraq-war #terror #war #design

You have very accurately described the difficulty of presenting my books on film: many of my characters are alone most of the time, and when they do talk, what they say is mostly lies. That can make for a pretty confusing film. ↗

— Thomas Perry

#alone #books #characters #confusing #described

When a bull is being lead to the slaughter, it still hopes to break loose and trample its butchers. Other bulls have not been able to pass on the knowledge that this never happens and that from the slaughterhouse there is no way back to the herd. But in human society there is a continuous exchange of experience. I have never heard of a man who broke away and fled while being led to his execution. It is even thought to be a special form of courage if a man about to be executed refuses to be blindfolded and dies with his eyes open. But I would rather have the bull with his blind rage, the stubborn beast who doesn't weigh his chances of survival with the prudent dull-wittedness of man, and doesn't know the despicable feeling of despair. ↗

— Nadezhda Mandelstam

#despair #hope #anger

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired. ↗

— Martin Luther

#asked #call #certainly #desired #earnestly

Today is today, only today... tomorrow...it will only be yesterday. ↗

— L. Curt Erler

#energy #faith #industrious #inspiration #faith

The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith. ↗

— C.G. Jung

#despair #faith #jung #psychology #faith

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. ↗

— George Bernard Shaw

#democracy #deserve #device #governed #shall

This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be a long process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#desperate #faith #long-process #patience #thread

Sometimes you are in the middle of your destiny before you even know it has begun. ↗

— Sarah Holman

#faith #inspirational #faith

We are not called to fight the battles of our fathers with a blind faith. We are called to examine their wars, and moreover, to discern whether their actions were sinful or just. Furthermore, we are called to decide whether to correct the errors of our fathers battles through either peace, war, or some combination of the two. We are not bonded to our fathers' fate, but rather called to build on their trespasses or triumphs for a better future. ↗

— Cristina Marrero

#destiny #fate #fathers #liberty #trespasses