#rate

I think we reminded them of what peace was like, we boys of sixteen. We were registered with no draft board, we had taken no physical examinations. No one had ever tested us for hernia or color blindness. Trick knees and punctured eardrums were minor complaints and not yet disabilities which would separate a few from the fate of the rest. We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve. Anyway, they were more indulgent toward us than at any other time; they snapped at the heels of seniors, driving and molding and arming them for the war. They noticed our games tolerantly. We reminded them of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction. ↗

— John Knowles

#gene-forrester #john-knowles #phineas #life

It was strange watching somebody sleep. It felt intrusive, as if you had caught them at their most defenseless. And as you watched them, motionless, you couldn't help but wonder -if only for a moment- whether they had died, and watch furiously for signs of life ↗

— Justin Somper

#life

It's easy to be humble when your life's prosper. Nothing could be denigrated when life's so poor. ↗

— Toba Beta

#humble #life #poor #prosper #prosperity

Question for your life: If Socrates had a clone, would he advise that clone to know thy self, or to know myself, with myself in this case being himself? ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#clone #clones #knowledge #philosophy #socrates

[O]ver the years I travelled to another universe. However alert we are, however much we think we know what will happen, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy. It is alien, and old people are a separate form of life. They have green skin, with two heads that sprout antennae. They can be pleasant, they can be annoying--in the supermarket, these old ladies won't get out of my way--but most important they are permanently other. When we turn eighty, we understand that we are extraterrestrial. If we forget for a moment that we are old, we are reminded when we try to stand up, or when we encounter someone young, who appears to observe green skin, extra heads, and protuberances. ↗

— Donald Hall

#aliens #antiquity #extraterrestrials #old-age #other

If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles. ↗

— Doug Larson

#fishing #important #important things #life #people

You must live a very free life." "Me?" she laughed. "I am not who swoops out of the sky to rain fire on pirates!" "Yeah, but before this I never did much. I mean I did a lot, but...I lived in a room at a university, and my whole world was in that little room. There was this world inside my head." De la Fitte studied his head as if she could see through his skull to a little globe inside it somewhere. ↗

— Sam Starbuck

#america #engineer #fire #london #pirates

All my life I've lived with a future which constantly diminishes but never vanishes. ↗

— Mark Doty

#encouraging #life

Time investment is the NEW Time Management. ↗

— Elizabeth Grace Saunders

#success-strategies #time-management #work-life-balance #life

It wasn't the sort of kiss I'd had with him before, hungry, wanting, desperate. It wasn't the sort of kiss I'd had with anyone before. This kiss was so soft that it was like a memory of a kiss, so careful on my lips that it was like someone running his fingers along them. ↗

— Maggie Stiefvater

#hungry #kiss #love #memory #someone