#hollow

It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man - the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse - the keeping up of a hollow show that must soon come to an end. ↗

— Washington Irving

#come #empty #end #hollow #keeping

A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood. ↗

— Franz Kafka

#footsteps #hollow #made #only #own

Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around. ↗

— Abdul Kalam

#around #bitterness #breeds #cannot #half-hearted

While the hollow oak our palace is, Our heritage the sea. ↗

— Allan Cunningham

#hollow #oak #our #palace #sea

My friends tell me that I've calmed down, that I seem more centered. I don't know, I think my inner self was more hollow before, which made me more scattered, and more needy to get laughs. ↗

— Chris Kattan

#calmed #centered #down #friends #get

How was I able to live alone before, my little everything? Without you I lack self-confidence, passion for work, and enjoyment of life--in short, without you, my life is no life. [Written to his wife, Mileva] ↗

— Albert Einstein

#enjoyment #everything #fulfillment #hollow #life

Is that what you were doing in my room?” he asks after a moment. I sigh. Why am I telling him any of this? “Yes. I was on assignment.” “I was your assignment?” “Yes.” He hesitates a moment, then grins. “That’s kind of hot. ↗

— Rachel Morgan

#faerie-guardian #funny #funny

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams In death's dream kingdom ↗

— T.S. Eliot

#death

Life and stories are alike in one way: They are full of hollows. The king and queen have no children: They have a child hollow. The girl has a wicked stepmother: She has a mother hollow. In a story, a baby comes along to fill the child hollow. But in life, the hollows continue empty. ↗

— Franny Billingsley

#reality #stories #life

So all the rest is O.K., but fame is a hollow ground, isn't it? It's an empty kind of thing. ↗

— Richard O'Brien

#fame #ground #hollow #kind #rest