Lauren Bachman > Lauren's Quotes

“The bright side of the planet moves toward darkness
And the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,
And for me, now as then, it is too much.
There is too much world.”
― Czesław Miłosz, The Separate Notebooks

“War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who remains.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“But eventually, you'll have to ask yourself precisely what you're fighting for. And you'll have to find a reason to live past vengeance.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Dragon Republic

“It's not about who you are, it's about how they see you. And once you're mud in this country, you're always mud.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Dragon Republic

“This life you've chosen, you won't get many moments like this again. But it's the nights like this that keep you alive. All you think about is who you're fighting against. But that? That's what you're fighting for.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God

“Oh, but history moved in such vicious circles.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God

“But ideological purity is a battle cry, it’s not the stable foundation for a unified country. A nation means nothing if it can’t provide for the people in it. You have to act for their sake.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God

“This week I've been reading a lot and doing little work. That's the way things ought to be. That's surely the road to success.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because inspite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will distroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if i look up into the heavans, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the mean time, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the day will come when I shall be able to carry them out." ~Anne Frank”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“But I don't think building sand castles in the air is such a terrible thing to do, as long as you don't take it too seriously.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“Because paper has more patience than people. ”
― Anne Frank

“It’s just that when you’re standing beside an open window at twilight, you can say more to each other than in bright sunshine. It’s easier to whisper your feelings than to shout them from the rooftops. I believe that trust has to come from both sides; I also think that’s the reason why we’ve never really grown close.”
― Anna Frank

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Winter in Ohio was especially rough if you had an appetite for color.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Wren saw now how passion was delicate and temporary, a visitor, a feeling that would come and go. Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will. Soulmates, like her and Lewis, were not theoretical and found. They were tangible, built.”
― Emily Habeck, Shark Heart

“As children, we were taught to be afraid of tigers and lions. Nobody taught us what I know today - the most dangerous animal in this world is a man with wounded pride.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Honor

“But you don’t love something because you’re blind to its faults, right? You love it despite its flaws.”
― Thrity Umrigar, Honor

“Time: the word tolled like the bells of a church. Fonny was doing: time. In six months time, our baby would be here. Somewhere, in time, Fonny and I had met: somewhere, in time, we had loved; somewhere, no longer in time, but, now, totally, at time’s mercy, we loved.”
― James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk

“We were a part of each other, flesh of each other's flesh-- which meant that we so took each other for granted that we never thought of the flesh. He had legs, and I had legs-- that wasn't all we knew but that was all we used. They brought us up the stairs and down the stairs and, always, to each other.”
― James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk