#jo

Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it. ↗

#amulet-of-samarkand #bartimaeus-trilogy #jonathan-stroud #ambition

Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold. And all of them were caught in something larger than themselves. Some of them hated the mathematics that drove them, and some were afraid, and some worshiped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling. If a bank or a finance company owned the land, the owner man said, The Bank - or the Company - needs - wants - insists - must have - as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These last would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time. Some of the owner men were a little proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters. The owner men sat in the cars and explained. You know the land is poor. You've scrabbled at it long enough, God knows. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#john-steinbeck #land #the-grapes-of-wrath #men

What about your servant? Did he see anything?" [...]As soon as the crisis was over, Billy had fled into his necklace and I hadn't seen him since. I gave him little poke, just for the hell of it, and got back the metaphysical version of the finger. "Billy doesn't know anything," I translated. "Are you certain?" Tell him to suck my balls! "Pretty certain. ↗

— Karen Chance

#cassie #pritkin #the-finger #metaphysics

The more one suffered and lived, the more one had known of joy and grief, the deeper the response must be if an artist were great enough to summon it. ↗

— Rachel Field

#artists #grief #joy #life #life-and-living

He wanted her to experience all the glorious cheese of life. ↗

— Christopher Moore

#experience

Lesson #456 of high school life: Never, EVER trust an alarm clock. ↗

— Heather Brewer

#journalism

You're miserable, edgy and tired. You're in the perfect mood for journalism. ↗

— Warren Ellis

#journalism #miserable #mood #perfect #tired

How frail the human heart must be -- a mirrored pool of thought. ↗