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December 20, 2017 - January 7, 2018
“I see you laugh. Very well, for simplicity’s sake, let us assume I am the center of creation. In doing this, let us pass over innumerable boring stories: the rise and fall of empires, sagas of heroism, ballads of tragic love. Let us hurry forward to the only tale of any real importance.” His smile broadened. “Mine.”
“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”
When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.
A poet is a musician who can’t sing. Words have to find a man’s mind before they can touch his heart, and some men’s minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens.”
A clever, thoughtless person is one of the most terrifying things there is.
If you can find someone like that, someone who you can hold and close your eyes to the world with, then you’re lucky.
“Or does your purpose simply differ from my own?”
Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly.
There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.
After a second his son joined in, and their rough voices made a simple harmony that set something inside me aching as I remembered other wagons, different songs, a half-forgotten home.
Out of love for Lyra, Lanre had sought knowledge where knowledge is better left alone, and gained it at a terrible price.
Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.
Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough.
The boy grows upward, but the girl grows up.
he didn’t realize that once a noose is tied, it will fit one neck as easily as another.
This was not a door for opening. It was a door for staying closed.
There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.
You lack the requisite spine and testicular fortitude to study under me.”
“There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend.”
I should have been more cautious. I had talked too much. I had said too little.
Wisdom precludes boldness.”
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
