#we

There are no dirty words in this book, except for 'hell' and 'God', in case someone is fearing that an innocent child might see 1...Perhaps the only precept taught me by Grandfather Wills that I have honoured all my adult life is that profanity and obsceny entitle people who don't want unpleasant information to close their eyes and ears to you. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#oversight #profaniy #swearing #life

ماجدوى العقل إذا يارتشارد باركر , ؟ أوظيفته الوحيدة تدبير الأمور العملية فحسب ؟ تأمين الطعام والثياب والمأوى لماذا لا يقدم العقل أجوبة أكبر ؟ ولماذا الأسئلة التي نطرحها تفوق الأجوبة دائماً لماذا الشبكة كبيرة إذا كانت الأسماك قليلة إلى هذا الحد ؟ ↗

— Yann Martel

#mind-power #life

I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another. ↗

— Samuel Johnson

#boswell #corrupt #corruption #freedom #johnson

لو أنني حاولت أن أقرأ فقط لأرد على ما وجه إلي من نقد، لشغل هذا وقتي كله ولعطلني عن أعمالي !! لكنني أبذل جهدي في أداء واجبي، فإذا أثمرت جهودي فلا شيء من النقد الذي وجه إليّ يهمني بعد ذلك، إنه سيختفي من تلقاء نفسه. أما إذا خاب مسعاي فلو أقسمت الملائكة على حسن نيتي ما أجداني هذا فتيلاً، حَسبي فيما يتصل بآراء الناس أني أديت واجبي وأرضيت ضميري. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#lessons #life #power #wise #life

In today's newspaper there was a story about a married clergyman with three children who is calling for all sex to be declared un-Christian. He says lifelong virginity is the ideal for Christians. I wonder, has he told his wife and children this? ↗

— Wendy Buonaventura

#wendy-buonaventura #life

It seemed in life, whenever you were wanted, it was for some discussion or explanation. Silence was just something to be filled. ↗

— Jessie Atkin

#life

Sometimes great power brings out the worst in us, and unfortunately, it isn't until people are given it that we see the true shades of their character. ↗

— Barbara Kloss

#malevolence #power #too-little-too-late #life

There has fallen a splendid tear From the passion-flower at the gate. She is coming, my dove, my dear; She is coming, my life, my fate. The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;" And the white rose weeps, "She is late;" The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;" And the lily whispers, "I wait." She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead, Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red. ↗

— Alfred Tennyson

#love #poetry #life

Delphine witnessed awful things occurring to other humans. Worse than that, she was powerless to alter their fate. It would be that way all her life--disasters, falling like chairs all around her, falling so close they disarranged her hair, but not touching her. ↗

— Louise Erdrich

#powerlessness #witnessing #life

Ranulf had spent much of his life watching those he loved wrestle with the seductive, lethal lure of kingship. It had proved the ruination of his cousin Stephen, a good man who had not made a good king. For his sister Maude, it had been an unrequited love affair, a passion she could neither capture nor renounce. For Hywel, it had been an illusion, a golden glow ever shimmering along the horizon. He believed that his nephew had come the closest to mastery of it, but at what cost? ↗

— Sharon Kay Penman

#life