Gracie Clucas > Gracie's Quotes

“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“I urge you: Come be angry at a nearer distance.”
― Holly Black

“Martin Luther King Jr. called for us to be lovestruck with each other, not colorblind toward each other. To be lovestruck is to care, to have deep compassion, and to be concerned for each and every individual, including the poor and vulnerable.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Very slowly using two fingers, Annabeth drew her dagger. Instead of dropping it, she tossed it as far as she could into the water.

Octavian made a squeaking sound. "What was that for? I didn't say toss it! That could've been evidence. Or spoils of war!"

Annabeth tried for a dumb-blonde smile, like: Oh, silly me. Nobody who knew her would have been fooled. But Octavian seemed to buy it. He huffed in exasperation.

"You other two..." He pointed his blade a Hazel and Piper. "Put your weapons on the dock. No funny bus--"

All around the Romans, Charleston Harbor erupted like a Las Vegas fountain putting on a show. When the wall of seawater subsided, the three Romans were in the bay, spluttering and frantically trying to stay afloat in their armor. Percy stood on the dock, holding Annabeth's dagger.

"You dropped this," he said, totally poker-faced.”
― rick riordan, The Mark of Athena

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“Say something spiteful.”
“Why?” she asked faintly.
“Because I’m fairly certain I'm hallucinating and in my dreams you're much nicer.”
“You're an idiot, Nikolai.”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

“I do not owe my opponents my affection, warmth, or regard. But I do owe myself a chance to live in this world without the burden of hate.”
― Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

“America needs to reconcile with itself and do the work of apology: To say to indigenous, black, and brown people, we take full ownership for what we did. To say, we owe you everything. To say, we see how harm runs through generations. To say, we own this legacy and will not harm you again. To promise the non-repetition of harm would require nothing less than transitioning the nation as a whole. It would mean retiring the old narrative about who we are—a city on a hill—and embracing a new narrative of an America longing to be born, a nation whose promise lies in the future, a nation we can only realize by doing the labor: reckoning with the past, reconciling with ourselves, restructuring our institutions, and letting those who have been most harmed be the ones to lead us through the transition.”
― Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

“Deep listening is an act of surrender. We risk being changed by what we hear.”
― Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

“They can't say her name in his presence. He's never made this a rule. But for some reason, none of them dare.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Drowning Faith

“Who is the true god?" ... She's the only divine thing he's ever believed in.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Drowning Faith

“And it may seem now like it’s someone else’s children, but there’s no such thing as someone else’s children.”
― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

“In times like these, one remarkable difference between the modern Western conservative and their liberal counterpart is that the former will gleefully sign their name on the side of the bomb while the latter will just sheepishly initial it.”
― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

“One day the killing will be over, either because the oppressed will have their liberation or because there will be so few left to kill. We will be expected to forget any of it ever happened, to acknowledge it if need be but only in harmless, perfunctory ways. Many of us will, if only as a kind of psychological self-defense. So much lives and dies by the grace of endless forgetting.”
― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

“The mothers who remind us, no matter who we are, that our first country was a woman’s body, and our first element was water, and that our first reality was darkness.”
― Meggan Watterson, Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet

“All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries when she’s a four-month-old fetus in the womb of her mother. This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother. Each of us spent five months in our grandmother’s womb.”
― Meggan Watterson, Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet

“Give to me what you cannot carry”
― Meggan Watterson, Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet

“It's not natural for women to fight."
"It's not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is tall, and yet there you stand.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“God, you’re so beautiful,” he said, his smile vanishing. “Even when you lie to me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads

“I need your help, sleepy boy. Can you do something for me?
"Anything.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads

“Cyrus," she said patiently, "you can't just ask a girl to marry you and then decline to answer a single question about yourself."

"Try me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads

“With all due offense, sire, please fuck off.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads

“You know, you ladies can let us males do things every now and then.”
― Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms

“You are my Fireheart”
― Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms

“Men often think they deserve a sticker for treating women like people.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here.”
― Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire

“I guess this is a bad time to mention I hung a dummy and painted Seneca Crane's name on it...”
― Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire

“I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite. ”
― Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire

“Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption