#term

[L]asting love is something a person has to decide to experience. Lifelong monogamous devotion is just not natural—not for women even, and emphatically not for men. It requires what, for lack of a better term, we can call an act of will. . . . This isn't to say that a young man can't hope to be seized by love. . . . But whether the sheer fury of a man's feelings accurately gauges their likely endurance is another question. The ardor will surely fade, sooner or later, and the marriage will then live or die on respect, practical compatibility, simple affection, and (these days, especially) determination. With the help of these things, something worthy of the label 'love' can last until death. But it will be a different kind of love from the kind that began the marriage. Will it be a richer love, a deeper love, a more spiritual love? Opinions vary. But it's certainly a more impressive love. ↗

— Robert Wright

#determination #evolutionary-psychology #feelings #lasting-love #love

The city was different back then--poor and crumbling--kept alive only by the gritty determination and steely cynicism of its occupants. But underneath the dirt was the apple-cheeked optimism of possibility, and while she worked, the whole city seemed to throb along with her. ↗

— Candace Bushnell

#determination #new-york-city #possibility #victory-ford #new-york-city

A veces, para exorcizar los demonios de un recuerdo es necesario contarlo como un cuento ↗

— Isabel Allende

#vida

You know something? There are sandstorms that strip man and horse and bury them — I've seen them. I saw bones piled higher than my head for the folly of a bad king and those who wanted his throne. I lived through a blizzard that froze every other living creature solid. Against those things, you're only a man. I can deal with you. ↗

— Tamora Pierce

#hardships #higher-living

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all. ↗

— Niccolo Machiavelli

#inflict #injuries #must #need #new

I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo. ↗

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

#black americans #changing #expect #i #i think

I don't want to talk in terms of miracles. I think this is a very serious situation. But I do want to talk in terms of Bush becoming a man of the hour, and I think this is way to do it. ↗

— F. Murray Abraham

#bush #hour #i #i do #i think

Key metaphors help determine what and how we perceive and how we think about our perceptions. ↗

— M. H. Abrams

#determine #help #how #key #metaphors

The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. ↗

— Chinua Achebe

#bad #body #contact #european #five

People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to. ↗

— George Allen, Sr.

#achieve #because #determined #know #mediocre