#iron

The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony. ↗

— Orhan Pamuk

#attention #beauty #color #compassion #detail

She walks in beauty. (118) ↗

— Ron Rash

#irony #beauty

In 1913, when Anthony Patch was twenty-five, two years were already gone since irony, the Holy Ghost of this later day, had, theoretically at least, descended upon him. Irony was the final polish of the shoe, the ultimate dab of the clothes-brush, a sort of intellectual «There!» yet at the brink of this story he has as yet gone no further than the conscious stage. As you first see him he wonders frequently whether he is not without honor and slightly mad, a shameful and obscene thinness glistening on the surface of the world like oil on a clean pond, these occasions being varied, of course, with those in which he thinks himself rather an exceptional young man, thoroughly sophisticated, well adjusted to his environment, and somewhat more significant than any one else he knows. ↗

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

#beautiful-and-the-damned #fitzgerald #irony #shallow #superficial

I know the consequences, Manon,” Ilyse conceded. “I know the fate you endured might one day be my own. But I refuse to be a prisoner for the rest of my life. ↗

— Melika Dannese Lux

#courage #defiance #freedom #ilyse-charpentier #iron-will

Royal Young's writing is that rare blend of irony and beauty. ↗

— Simon Van Booy

#british #celebrity #fame #irony #romance

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn. ↗

— Joss Whedon

#humour #irony #show-business #wit #business

But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than anything and still not love the person all that much, if you were busy with other things. ↗

— Jonathan Franzen

#business

There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation. ↗

— Herman E. Daly

#business

Her hand shot to the front of his breeches, making claws of her fingers and trapping his genitals in a tight grip. He froze. As if testing, she hefted the firm weight she found. Heavy, but so very delicate. She bared her teeth. “And even in the dark, now I’ll know that I’m ripping off the right cods.” His eyes narrowed, and the hot interest she saw in his gaze sent shivers skittering down her spine. That wasn’t just business now. She tightened her grip. ↗

— Meljean Brook

#business

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, for modernity, and for prosperity. The wealthy pay more because they have benefitted more. Taxes, well laid and well spent, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare. Taxes protect property and the environment; taxes make business possible. Taxes pay for roads and schools and bridges and police and teachers. Taxes pay for doctors and nursing homes and medicine. During an emergency, like an earthquake or a hurricane, taxes pay for rescue workers, shelters, and services. For people whose lives are devastated by other kinds of disaster, like the disaster of poverty, taxes pay, even, for food. ↗

— Jill Lepore

#business #common-defense #disasters #domestic-tranquility #emergencies