#desert

Everything that ever happened to me that was important happened in the desert. ↗

— Michael Ondaatje

#love #michael-ondaatje #novels #romance #the-english-patient

The cactus of the high desert is a small grubby, obscure and humble vegetable associated with cattle dung and overgrazing, interesting only when you tangle with it the wrong way. Yet from this nest of thorns, this snare of hooks and fiery spines, is born once each year a splendid flower. It is unpluckable and except to an insect almost unapproachable, yet soft, lovely, sweet, desirable, exemplifying better than the rose among thorns the unity of opposites ↗

— Edward Abbey "Desert Solitaire"

#edward-abbey #john-dunn #love

The cactus thrives in the desert while the fern thrives in the wetland. The fool will try to plant them in the same flowerbox. The florist will sigh and add a wall divider and proper soil to both sides. The grandparent will move the flowerbox halfway out of the sun. The child will turn it around properly so that the fern is in the shade, and not the cactus. The moral of the story? Kids are smart. ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#cactus #child #children #clever #desert

It was always the same; other people gave up loving before she did. They got spoilt, or else they went away; in any case, they were partly to blame. Why did it happen so? She herself never changed; when she loved anyone, it was for life. She could not understand desertion; it was something so huge, so monstrous that the notion of it made her little heart break. ↗

— Émile Zola

#fidelity #love #loyalty #change

For Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, 267,300 reserve component service men and women were called to service. ↗

— Ron Wyden

#component #desert #men #men and women #operation

You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst. ↗

— William Langewiesche

#faraway #forms #little #many #place

Yet the wonder of it all is that, while engaged in a seemingly endless struggle, the Israelis have managed to turn a desert into a garden. ↗

— George Ball

#endless #engaged #garden #into #israelis

A single three-bladed fan turned slowly in the centre of the ceiling, barely disturbing the scorching air which filled the small prefabricated hut like an oven... ↗

— Kevin Cowdall

#kevin-cowdall #north-africa-campaign #world-war-two #men

Men resemble great deserted palaces: the owner occupies only a few rooms and has closed-off wings where he never ventures. ↗

— Francois Mauriac

#few #great #men #never #occupies

I think its really matured a lot. I like the fact that there is now more to do there than gamble, since I don't do a lot of that. The people are great. I seldom have time for vacations and when I do I prefer the beach instead of the desert. ↗

— Doug Davidson

#desert #fact #gamble #great #i