#val

She was so delicate that, while we sat beneath the linden branches, a leaf would fall and drift down and touch her skin, and it would leave a bruise. So as we sat in the afternoon hour, beneath that fragrant linden bower, I had to chase all of the leafs that fell away. ↗

— Roman Payne

#bruise #chivalry #courtesy #courting #delicate

We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder ‘censorship,’ we call it ‘concern for commercial viability. ↗

— David Mamet

#genius #mamet #censorship

The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen. ↗

— Tommy Smothers

#ideas #listen #only #people #right

She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge'. ↗

— Rick Riordan

#heroes

Gods of Olympus." Piper stared at Leo. "What happened to you?" His hair was greased back. He had welding goggles on his forehead, a lipstick mark on his cheek, tattoos all over his arms, and a T-shirt that read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO. "Long story," he said. ↗

— Rick Riordan

#leo-valdez #percy-jackson-and-the-olympians #piper-mclean #the-mark-of-athena #heroes

Leo drummed his fingers. “Great. I should have installed a smoke screen that makes the ship smell like a giant chicken nugget. Remind me to invent that, next time.” Hazel frowned. “What is a chicken nugget?” “Oh, man…” Leo shook his head in amazement. “That's right. You’ve missed the last, like, seventy years. Well, my apprentice, a chicken nugget—” “Doesn’t matter,” Annabeth interrupted. ↗

— Rick Riordan

#chicken #hazel-levesque #heroes-of-olympus #leo-valdez #percy-jackson-and-the-olympians

If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you'll see your rivals scrambling for second place. ↗

— Criss Jami

#athletes #athletics #competition #confidence #improvement

It's hard to think when someone's trying to kill you. We human beings aren't wired to be rational and creative when we know our lives are in danger of a swift and violent end. The body has definite ideas of which survival strategies it prefers to embrace, and those are generally limited to "rip threat to pieces" or "run like hell." No thinking need be involved, as far as our instincts are concerned. Our instincts were a long time in the making, though, and the threats that can come after us now have outpaced them. You can't outrun a bullet, and you don't go hand-to-hand with a gunman unless you're certain you are about to die anyway. Speed and mindless aggression weren't going to keep me alive. ↗

— Jim Butcher

#survival-instinct #strategy

Whenever we want to combat our enemies, first and foremost we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives. ↗

— Criss Jami

#battle #bias #combat #discernment #disputes

The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel still sit on the hill, and drink vodka, and wear black furs, and slurp borscht by the pail, like blood. Children may wear through their socks marching in righteous parades, but Papa never misses his wine with supper. Therefore, it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one’s stomach than of one’s nation. ↗

— Catherynne M. Valente

#strength #survival-of-the-fittest #communism