#innocence

The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable. ↗

— Irving Howe

#innocence #knowledge #makes #unattainable #us

I saw something I could never forget. I saw lifetimes of acknowledgement, fear, wisdom, questioning, and understanding in a child's eye. It was the worst thing I would ever witness. ↗

— Shannon A. Thompson

#fear #innocence #life-lessons #life-loss #questioning

Experience had taught me that innocence seldom utters outraged shrikes. Guilt does. Innocence is a mighty shield, and the man or woman covered by it, is much more likely to answer calmly: 'My life is blameless. Look into it, if you like, for you will find nothing.' That is the tone of innocence. ↗

— Whittaker Chambers

#innocence #experience

the cold winds of insecurity... hadn't shredded the dreamy chrysalis of his childhood. He was still immersed in the dim, wet wonder of the folded wings that might open if someone loved him; he still hoped, probably, in a butterfly's unthinking way, for spring and warmth. How the wings ache, folded so, waiting; that is, they ache until they atrophy. ↗

— Harold Brodkey

#innocence #love

My brother is undoubtedly arrogant," Tyrion Lannister replied. "My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you? ↗

— George R.R. Martin

#avarice #innocence #power #lust

Well, did he do it?" She always asked the irrelevant question. It didn't matter in terms of the strategy of the case whether the defendant "did it" or not. What mattered was the evidence against him -- the proof -- and if and how it could be neutralized. My job was to bury the proof, to color the proof a shade of gray. Gray was the color of reasonable doubt. ↗

— Michael Connelly

#criminal-law #defense #evidence #guilt #innocence

There are wonders to behold in our world that few will ever experience…Wonders capable of providing an artist inspiration for a lifetime; Wonders to make the world into a place of beauty, and wonders that show us the connections we all share. We each enter our lives like a drop of water into a still ocean, spreading out with each experience in waves, touching the lives of each and every person we meet; and they, in turn, share their lives and experiences with us. ↗

— Alex G. Zarate

#cat-rule-chronicles #echoes-of-innocence #linked #ripples-of-mind #beauty

Innocence invites protection, yet we might be smarter to protect ourselves against it... ↗

— Megan Johns

#contemporary-romance #innocence #love #romance #women-s-fiction

And then the queen wept with all her heart. Not for the cruel and greedy man who had warred and killed and savaged everywhere he could. But for the boy who had somehow turned into that man, the boy whose gentle hand had comforted her childhood hurts, the boy whose frightened voice had cried out to her at the end of his life, as if he wondered why he had gotten lost inside himself, as if he realized that it was too, too late to get out again. ↗

— Orson Scott Card

#death #greed #grief #growing-up #lost

Unlike any other business in the United States, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence. ↗

— Lewis H. Lapham

#business #illusion #innocence #must #other