#waters

Rabbits (says Mr. Lockley) are like human beings in many ways. One of these is certainly their staunch ability to withstand disaster and to let the stream of their life carry them along, past reaches of terror and loss. They have a certain quality which it would not be accurate to describe as callousness or indifference. It is, rather, a blessedly circumscribed imagination and an intuitive feeling that Life is Now. A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass. ↗

— Richard Adams

#human #resiliency #richard-adams #survival #watership-down

An old man sat down beside her. "Well, aren't you a pretty little peach?" His breath smelled near as foul as the dead men in the cages, and his little pig eyes were crawling up and down her. "Does my sweet peach have a name?" For half a heartbeat she forgot who she was supposed to be. She wasn't any peach, but she couldn't be Arya Stark either, not here with some smelly drunk she did not know. "I'm . . ." "She's my sister." Gendry put a heavy hand on the old man's shoulder, and squeezed. "Leave her be." The man turned, spoiling for a quarrel, but when he saw Gendry's size he thought better of it. "You sister, is she? What kind of brother are you? I'd never bring no sister of mine to the Peach, that I wouldn't." He got up from the bench and moved off muttering, in search of a new friend. "Why did you say that?" Arya hopped to her feet, "You're not my brother." "That's right," he said angrily. "I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high." Arya was taken aback by the fury in his voice. "That's not the way I mean it." "Yes it is." He sat down on the bench, cradling a cup of wine between his hands. "Go away. I want to drink this wine in peace. Then maybe I'll go find that black-haired girl and ring her bell for her." "But . . ." "I said, go away. M'lady." Arya whirled and left him there. A stupid bullheaded bastard boy, that's all he is. He could ring all the bells he wanted, it was nothing to her. ↗

— George R.R. Martin

#gendry-waters #men

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. ↗

— Heraclitus

#ever #flowing #into #other #rivers

I've seen whales calving in the waters off Maui, and I've watched my children being born. But music is the most beautiful thing of all. ↗

— Steven Tyler

#beautiful thing #being #born #children #i

He gave us the lakes for our Northern boundary, and the rivers stretching to the seas upon whose waters floats our commerce to the nations of the world; while man has done all that can be done by science to bind us together. ↗

— John Brough

#boundary #commerce #done #floats #gave

He shook his head, just looking at me. "What?" I asked. "Nothing," he said. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Augustus half smiled. "Because you're beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence. ↗

— John Green

#hazel-grace #beauty

The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character from all other rivers in the world; there is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mississippi. ↗

— George Catlin

#character #different #enter #felt #manner

As for me, I had found love, and that was a gift worth suffering for. ↗

— Juliet Marillier

#love

You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she like hers. ↗

— John Green

#hazel-grace-lancaster #love #love

We cannot know the future. All we can do is face it bravely. We should take heed of those we love and respect. But in the end, we make every decision alone. ↗

— Juliet Marillier

#juliet-marillier #seer-of-sevenwaters #sevenwaters #love