#gains

It was easy, terribly easy, to become with time a middle-aged spinster with a sharp tongue. She would have to guard against this. ↗

— Alexander McCall Smith

#middle-age #sharp-tongue #spinster #age

It is often said that mankind needs a faith if the world is to be improved. In fact, unless the faith is vigilantly and regularly checked by a sense of man's fallibility, it is likely to make the world worse. From Torquemada to Robespierre and Hitler the men who have made mankind suffer the most have been inspired to do so have been inspired to do so by a strong faith; so strong that it led them to think their crimes were acts of virtue necessary to help them achieve their aim, which was to build some sort of an ideal kingdom on earth. ↗

— David Cecil

#evil #faith #fanaticism #fundamentalism #good-intentions

Help me, Mikey, she wanted to say. I’m afraid. More afraid than you’d ever believe.’ And he’d take her hand and they’d fly across the rooftops and up into space and sit on some planet and watch a double sunrise or maybe a star being born or some other event that no human had ever seen, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. And she’d tell him everything. ↗

— Jenny Downham

#jenny-downham #made-me-cry #romance #you-against-me #young-adult

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#gains #good #good fortune #humility #instruction

Private religious speech can't be discriminated against. It has to be treated equally with secular speech. ↗

— Samuel Alito

#against #discriminated #equally #private #religious

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. ↗

— Woodrow Wilson

#against #knows #man #stream #strength

We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod ... to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit. ↗

— Julian Assange

#always #attacks #attract #credit #criticism

To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#animal #crushes #dignity #even #foot

Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#any #born #conspiracy #cultivation #feels

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. ↗

— Edward Abbey

#always #country #defend #government #his