#us

There are two sacred causes in this world,” he said, holding up his pinkie and ring ringer. “Chance and necessity. By chance I was there to help when you had need. ↗

— Rachel Hartman

#cause #chance #help #necessity #beauty

You know what—gyms make the largest chunk of their profit from clients who pay their monthly dues on auto-pay but never bother to show up and use the gym. The DVD-rental companies make a good chunk of their profits from late fees; the credit-card companies make a fortune on sundry fines and penalties; the airlines’ margins are highest on ticket changes and cancellations… So, the key to running a successful business in America is to sign up a customer and pray he’ll somehow screw up… ↗

— Ali Sheikh

#economy #jobs #success #business

I worry about Lily, sluggish as she is. Will she see Carter's truths? Will he tell her? God knows she won't hear them. She's moving too fast to hear anyone's music but her own. She's so set, but I know he could make her settled. I tried to sync their noise into music, but they both pushed back. Too obdurate to be oblong. Silly Lily. How can she resist someone who brings gum and sounds like math? ↗

— Emily McKay

#music

Now, I normally do not like it when people sing near me, much less at me. I don't care if they're good, bad, or mediocre. It's all the same. Unless you're signed to a major label with music I can find on iTunes, I don't want to hear your live performance. It's why I can't watch American Idol. I keep worrying the contestants will mess up and be embarrassed, and then I'll be embarrassed for them. ↗

— Lauren Morrill

#itunes #singing #music

I asked him if he wanted to play music but he refused. He said that the only thing he wanted to hear was the pleasure of my moans. ↗

— Shanora Williams

#nolan #resist #music

It is not for me to judge another man's life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#focus #humility #judgement #judgemental #self

To be human is to be beautifully flawed. ↗

— Eric Wilson

#christian #christianity #erick-wilson #love #novel

We are wolves, which are wild dogs, and this is our place in the city. We are small and our house is small on our small urban street. We can see the city and the train line and it's beautiful in its own dangerous way. Dangerous because it's shared and taken and fought for. That's the best way I can put it, and thinking about it, when I walk past the tiny houses on our street, I wonder about the stories inside them. I wonder hard, because houses must have walls and rooftops for a reason. My only query is the windows. Why do they have windows? Is it to let a glimpse of the world in? Or for us to see out? ↗

— Markus Zusak

#dangerous #houses #small #stories #windows

To every Armageddonist, every earth lover must keep saying with all the sincerity and affection we can muster, “May God make this world as beautiful to you as it has been to me. ↗

— David James Duncan

#nature #religion #religious-freedom #spirituality #beauty

Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it. I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave - that is, to acknowledge that there is more beauty than our eyes can bear, that precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. And therefore, this courage allows us, as the old men said, to make ourselves useful. It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing. ↗

— Marilynne Robinson

#brave #courage #generous #giving #grace