turningUred > turningUred's Quotes

“may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile”
― E.E. Cummings, E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962

“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since – on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to displace with your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“One's not half of two; two are halves of one.”
― E.E. Cummings

“Now you are in the true world, and a great deal more is required of you. Here you must befriend real wolves, and lure real birds down from the sky. Here you must endure real people around you, and we are not uniformly kind; we are damaged and impulsive, each in our own way. It is harder. It is not safe. But it is what you were born to.”
― Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels

“There is something about talking in the night, with the shreds of sleep around your ears, with the silences between one remark and another, the town dark and dreaming beyond your own walls. It draws the truth out of you, straight from its little dark pool down there, where usually you guard it so careful, and wave your hands over it and hum and haw to protect people's feelings, to protect your own . . . You can bring out the jaggedest feelings - if you are my wife and know how to state them calm - into the night quiet. They will float there for consideration, harming no one.”
― Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels

“But heart's desires? My dear, I see by your misery - by this very request you are making - that you know more of true men's and women's hearts than once you did, than your mother's world permitted you to see. Such chipped and cracked and outright broken things they are, are they not? They have their illnesses too, and their impulses. And hearts are not always connected well to minds, and even if they are, minds are not always clear and commonsensical. A heart may desire a thing powerfully indeed, but that heart's desire might be what a person least needs, for her health, for her continuing happiness.”
― Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels

“A good heart is when a girl that you loved, a girl who has pained
you and chosen another instead, places in your hands the means to her own ruin. And you could tell it to everyone. But you keep silent, because you can do that, too, and a good heart would do that, a fine man, a man who truly loved her....Let her be lucky now."- A Good Heart.”
― Margo Lanagan, Black Juice

“...the night is suddenly vaster, colder, clearer.
All the stars zing; the mountains glitter; towns and villages gather like bright mould in the valley-seams and along the coasts.
Every movement in byre and bunny-hole, of leaf against leaf, of germ in soil and stream, turns and gleams and laminates every other, the whole world monstrously fancy, laced tight together, yet slopping over and unraveling in every direction, a grand brilliant wastage of the living an the dying.”
― Margo Lanagan, Black Juice

“You may never be entirely happy; few people are. You may never achieve your heart's desire in this world, for people seldom do. Sit by enough deathbeds, Branza, and you will hear your fill of stories of missed chances, and wrong turnings, and spurned opportunities for love. It is required of you only to be here, not to be happy.”
― Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels

“If it looks a bit rough, a little worn, with little splotches - those have the swetest flavor. The ones that are perfect on the outside tend to be a bit more bland. That is true about many things in life.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Wretched of Muirwood

“There is wisdom in climbing mountains... For they teach us how truly small we are.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Wretched of Muirwood

“The world is full of fools eagerly waiting to hear what they long to be told.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Scourge of Muirwood

“Never trust another person to do your thinking for you.” That sounded a little strange to Owen, but he accepted it.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“New ideas are delicate. They can be crushed easily. New ideas can be killed by a sneer or a yawn...or even a frown.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“Because you think your language is the best language? That because you were born and your parents babbled to you in this tongue, that it is the best language to speak? How small is your mind.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Wretched of Muirwood

“What is allowed us is disagreeable, what is denied us causes intense desire.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“Most people suffer from a lack of imagination. They don't dare enough. But I do.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“We are more wicked together than separately. If you are ever forced to be in a crowd, then most of all you should withdraw into yourself. Never trust another to do your thinking.”
― Jeff Wheeler

“The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors - that which it loves, and also that which it fears.”
― Jeff Wheeler

“Beyond any gift or treasure, I desire to learn to read. (Lia ~ The Wretched of Muirwood)”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Wretched of Muirwood

“People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be—whether they will admit that or not.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Fireblood

“When enough people believe something of you, it can distort your view of yourself. We mimic the judgments of others. It would take a very strong person indeed to resist the effects of so much ill will.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time only a dream. Just as the oak sleeps in the acorn, and the bird waits in the egg, so dreams are the seedlings of realities.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Wretched of Muirwood

“Is it not strange that the more someone has, the less he feels he has? Envy can never be sated.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Scourge of Muirwood

“Power. There was power in being able to control how others reacted to you.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood

“They hate truth for the sake of whatever it is that they love in its place. When truth benefits them, they love it. When it rebukes them, they hate it. They love truth when it reveals itself and hate it when it reveals them.”
― Jeff Wheeler, Fireblood

“Too many people are frightened. They want youth to last. They complain bitterly if sickness comes. But the world is always in tumult, and fortunes rise and fall and fail. It is the ambitious who accomplish things. It takes courage to be ambitious, for never was anything great achieved without risk.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“Argentine was a hard king to serve. He had a barbed whip for a tongue and it drew blood whenever he spoke.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Queen's Poisoner

“Where weeds are sown, weeds grow.”
― Jeff Wheeler, The Blight of Muirwood