#er

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good. ↗

— Thomas J. Watson

#conformity #counted #down #flattened #from time to time

I try not to think. It interferes with being nuts" - Leo Valdez ↗

— Rick Riordan

#rick-riordan #the-mark-of-athena #heroes

You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same. ↗

— Jonathan Davis

#different #i #laugh #me #same

Very slowly using two fingers, Annabeth drew her dagger. Instead of dropping it, she tossed it as far as she could into the water. Octavian made a squeaking sound. "What was that for? I didn't say toss it! That could've been evidence. Or spoils of war!" Annabeth tried for a dumb-blonde smile, like: Oh, silly me. Nobody who knew her would have been fooled. But Octavian seemed to buy it. He huffed in exasperation. "You other two..." He pointed his blade a Hazel and Piper. "Put your weapons on the dock. No funny bus--" All around the Romans, Charleston Harbor erupted like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show. When the wall of seawater subsided, the three Romans were in the bay, spluttering and frantically trying to stay afloat in their armor. Percy stood on the dock, holding Annabeth's dagger. "You dropped this," he said, totally poker-faced. ↗

— Rick Riordan

#fighting #octavian #percy-jackson #seawater #smile

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. ↗

— T.S. Eliot

#mermaid #observation #singing #love

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness. ↗

— Edith Wharton

#conformity

The world moves on so fast, and we lose all chance of being the women our mothers were; we lose all understanding of what shaped them. ↗

— Hilary Mantel

#experience

Gundar isn't so much a ship's captain as a reformed pirate and a heathen." [Evanlyn] looked apologetically at Gundar. "No offense, Gundar." The skirl shrugged cheerfully. "None taken, little lady. It's a pretty fair description. Not sure about the reformed part," he added thoughtfully. ↗

— John Flanagan

#skandians #description

If your enemy offers you two targets, strike at a third. ↗

— Robert Jordan

#adversary #battle #strategy #war #strategy

Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#descriptive #flying #prose #writing #description