#nation

A frown lowered his brow as he headed toward the shower, stripping as he went. She was untried. Virginal in mind and spirit. The innocence that hovered about her, disparate with her wily reporter persona, teased Adrian’s senses like an aphrodisiac. She wasn’t the kind of woman who could give away sex without giving away her heart, and he liked that in her, that vulnerability. It was, at the very core, something new and different in his world. It also stood as a reminder of another time, when he believed in the wholesomeness, the rightness of desire. Desire earned and given freely, not bought, before he knew its worth could be meted out in paper currency. She was hot-blooded and sensuous too, and didn’t seem aware of it. It called to the primal male in him, made him restless and hungry to touch her. But tonight a deeper part of him had won out, preserved the strange wholesomeness between them and shielded it from the anomaly his lifestyle had become because of sex. Maybe, at the very bottom of it, he knew a whore—even a high-priced one—didn’t deserve a woman like Billie. She was reality, gritty and truthful and tangible. He…he was a phantom born out of Azure Elan’s sensuous imagination. ↗

— Shelby Reed

#shelby-reed #the-fifth-favor #imagination

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses. ↗

— George Eliot

#initiative #positivity #rose

When the president during the campaign said he was against nation building, I didn't realize he meant our nation. ↗

— Al Franken

#bush #foreign-policy #iraq #nation-building #politics

I wondered if he ever thought of me, and hated the pang I felt when I told myself he didn't. ↗

— Sarah Dessen

#yearning #hate

Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. ↗

— Dallin H. Oaks

#choices #priorities #determination

The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. ↗

— Mark Twain

#determination

I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me. ↗

— Elizabeth Taylor

#self-esteem #determination

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service. ↗

— Martin Luther King Jr.

#greatness #determination

Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. ↗

— Leonard Cohen

#light #living #perfection #determination

I'll fight when needed, revel when there's an occasion, mourn when there is greif and die if my time comes...But I will not let anyone use me against my will. ↗

— Christopher Paolini

#self-determination #determination