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Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; while loving someone deeply gives you courage. —LAO TZU
I think you’re scared to die, but I don’t know if you have the guts to go on living.”
One of the greatest sorrows of human existence is that some people aren’t happy merely to be alive but find their happiness only in the misery of others. ”
She now knew that life was frighteningly subject to tragedy and change, blue and warm one moment, cold and stormy the next, so you never knew when a bolt of lightning might strike someone you cared about. Nothing lasts forever. Life is a candle in the wind.
If the world was hard and cruel and unpredictable, then it did not seem wise to show the slightest weakness.
Understanding wasn’t always necessary, as long as you believed.
Life is serious and a joke at the same time.”
The only emotions she stirred in him, however, were love and pity and a profound respect.
Fighting doesn’t preclude enduring. I can fight, and if fighting fails, I can still endure.”
“Adversity breeds toughness, and the tough succeed. And survive.”
hunches were just messages from the subconscious, which was thinking furiously all the time and processing information she had not consciously noted.
“Some pacifists are cowards in disguise, but some really believe it’s right to permit the murder of an innocent person rather than kill to stop it. They’re wrong because by not fighting evil, they’ve become part of it. They’re as bad as the guy who pulls the trigger. Maybe this is above your head right now, and maybe you’ll have to do a lot of thinking before you understand, but it’s important you realize there’s a way to live that’s in the middle, between killers and pacifists. You try to avoid violence. You never start it. But if someone else starts it, you defend yourself, friends, family,
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That was the splendid thing about life: Though it was cruel, it was also mysterious, filled with wonder and surprise; sometimes the surprises were so amazing that they qualified as miraculous, and by witnessing those miracles, a despondent person could discover a reason to live, a cynic could obtain unexpected relief from ennui, and a profoundly wounded boy could find the will to heal himself and medicine for melancholy.
“I’ve made a lifetime habit of not lying,” he said. “It’s gotten me in trouble a few times, but telling the truth generally makes life simpler.
“A fanatic is a nut who has something to believe in.”
A woman like Laura can’t be won. She decides when she wants to give herself, and that’s that.”
Thelma, what’s wrong with him?” “He’s a man,” Thelma said. “I guess that explains it.”
