#ten

Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it. ↗

— Mark Twain

#jane-austen #library

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am. ↗

— Sylvia Plath

#bray #breath #deep #deep breath #heart

To deny the existence of God would be to close your eyes to the beauty around you, to close your ears to the symphony of nature, to close your nostrils to the scents wafting on the breeze, to close your mouth to the delicacies of nourishment, to close your hands to the feel of luxury, to close your mind to the ability to think, and to close your heart to the only love that can penetrate the depths of the soul. For in Him all things consist, in Him we live, and move, and have our being, and without Him we cannot help but be fools. ↗

— J.E.B. Spredemann

#beauty #christ #christian #creation #creationism

People like to warn you that by the time you reach the middle of your life, passion will begin to feel like a meal eaten long ago, which you remember with great tenderness. ↗

— Meg Wolitzer

#eaten #emotion #food #life #meal

Science fiction is a dialogue, a tennis match, in which the Idea is volleyed from one side of the net to the other. Ridiculous to say that someone 'stole' an idea: no, no, a thousand times no. The point is the volley, and how it's carried, and what statement is made by the answering 'statement.' In other words — if Burroughs initiates a time-gate and says it works randomly, and then Norton has time gates confounded with the Perilous Seat, the Siege Perilous of the Round Table, and locates it in a bar on a rainy night — do you see both the humor and the volley in the tennis match? ↗

— C.J. Cherryh

#science-fiction #tennis #writing #science

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. ↗

— Calvin Coolidge

#inspirational #perseverance #persistence #work-ethic #education

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities. ↗

— Charles de Gaulle

#difficulty #perseverance #potentiality #trial #perseverance

When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed. ↗

— Sophocles

#failure #perseverance #persistence #perseverance

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ↗

— Henry Ward Beecher

#perseverance

The answer is that we don't choose our freaks, they choose us. ↗

— Steve Almond

#freaks #america