Harmke > Harmke's Quotes

“If one has the will and persistance, one CAN do things.”
― Annejet van der Zijl

“If only life were like a Jules Verne novel, thinks Marie-Laure, and you could page ahead when you most needed to, and learn what would happen.”
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“Wer nie den Himmel eines fremden Erdteils gesehen hatte, der konnte doch gar nicht ahnen, wie grenzenlos das Leben war. Wer nie Menschen erlebt hatte, die nach den Sternen griffen, der konnte wohl auch nie spüren, dass er Flügel besaß.”
― Charlotte Roth, Als der Himmel uns gehörte

“Praten is net als fietsen: als je erover na gaat denken, val je om.”
― Paulien Cornelisse, Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”
― Michelle Obama, Becoming

“Memory is like patches of sunlight in an overcast valley, shifting with the movement of the clouds. Now and then the light will fall on a particular point in time, illuminating it for a moment before the wind seals up the gap, and the world is in shadows again.”
― Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists

“Are all of us the same, I wonder, navigating our lives by interpreting the silences between words spoken, analysing the returning echoes of our memory in order to chart the terrain, in order to make sense of the world around us?”
― Twan Eng Tan, The Garden of Evening Mists

“Je kunt de seizoenen zien als stukjes van de mooiste, transparantste zijde in verschillende kleuren. Los van elkaar zijn ze mooi, maar leg de een boven op de ander, al zijn het alleen maar de randen, en er komt iets speciaals tot stand. Dat geldt ook voor de smalle strook tijd waarin het begin van het ene seizoen het eind van een ander overlapt.”
― Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists

“In Germany, for a long time, the purpose of history was to ensure it could never happen again.” —MICHAEL STÜRMER”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“That is the real story of my lift, and that is why I wrote this book. I want people to know what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it. I want people to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children. I want people to understand the American Dream as my family and I encountered it. I want people to understand how upward mobility really feels. And I want people to understand something I learned only recently: that for those of us lucky enough to live the American Dream, the demons of the life we left behind continue to chase us.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“Kleur heb je nooit zelf, kleur krijg je door anderen.”
― Arthur Japin, De zwarte met het witte hart

“Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all the way, and at the end handed over, sealed.”
― Paulette Jiles, News of the World

“Hoe bedoel je, een heldin? Ze is geen heldin,’ zegt Gita licht geïrriteerd. ‘Ze wil gewoon blijven leven.’
‘Ja, daarom is ze een heldin. Jij bent ook een heldin, mijn liefste. Dat jullie hebben gekozen om dit te overleven, is een vorm van verzet tegen die klotenazi’s. Ervoor kiezen om te leven is een heldhaftige daad, een daad van openlijke ongehoorzaamheid.”
― Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz

“But the love of sisters needs no words. It does not depend on memories, or mementos, or proof. It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as ever present as a pulse.”
― Lisa Wingate, Before We Were Yours

“Life is not unlike cinema. Each scene has its own music, and the music is created for the scene, woven to it in ways we do not understand. No matter how much we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one, we must dance within the music of today, or we will always be out of step, stumbling around in something that doesn’t suit the moment.”
― Lisa Wingate, Before We Were Yours

“It is better described as simple-mindedness: people are often attracted to authoritarian ideas because they are bothered by complexity. They dislike divisiveness. They prefer unity. A sudden onslaught of diversity—diversity of opinions, diversity of experiences—therefore makes them angry. They seek solutions in new political language that makes them feel safer and more secure.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

“Olga Tokarczuk, 2019: We horen niet langer de harmonie van de wereld, maar de kakofonie van geluiden, een ondraaglijke ruis waarin we wanhoping een een rustiger melodie proberen te ontdekken, al is het maar de zwakste maatslag.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism