Davida Chazan > Davida's Quotes

“I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did it, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.
It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics at the time.
I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe, the entire government gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“The trickle-down theory of economics has it that it's good for rich people to get even richer because some of their wealth will trickle own, through their no doubt lavish spending, upon those who stand below them on the economic ladder. Notice that the metaphor is not that of a gushing waterfall but of a leaking tap: even the most optimistic endorsers of this concept do not picture very much real flow, as their language reveals" pg. 102.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“Nature is an expert in cost-benefit analysis,' she says. 'Although she does her accounting a little differently. As for debts, she always collects in the long run...”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“As Charles Darwin said,'The economy shown by Nature in her resources is striking,'' says the Spirit. 'All wealth comes from Nature. Without it, there wouldn't be any economics. The primary wealth is food, not money. Therefore anything that concerns the handling of the land also concerns me.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“Another friend of mine used to maintain that airplanes stayed up in the air only because people believed—against reason—that they could fly: without that collective delusion sustaining them, they would instantly plummet to earth.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“In Heaven, there are no debts - all have been paid, one way or another - but in Hell there's nothing but debts, and a great deal of payment is exacted, though you can't ever get all paid up. You have to pay, and pay, and keep on paying. So Hell is like an infernal maxed-out credit card that multiplies the charges endlessly.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“Within each of these categories, the principle was the same: rarity and beauty increased value.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“Money isn't the only thing that must flow and circulate in order to have good value: good turns and gifts must flow and circulate . . . for any social system to remain in balance.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“Debt . . . . that peculiar nexus where money, narrative or story, and religious belief intersect, often with explosive force.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“She was an infallible prophetess, and these powers came from her ability to look into the patterns of the universe.”
― Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.”
― James Branch Cabell, The Silver Stallion

“Nobody is so weird others can't identify with them.”
― Rebecca Miller

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
― Emma Lazarus

“The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time.”
― Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

“I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.”
― Anne Tyler

“He had heard her say, so many times, that a society that approved of making abortion illegal was a society that approved of violence against women; that making abortion illegal was simply a sanctimonious, self-righteous form of violence against women- it was just another way of legalizing violence against women, Nurse Caroline would say.”
― John Irving, The Cider House Rules

“It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr. Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It's like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting "Cathy" and banging your head against a tree.”
― Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary

“Were you born this infuriating?"
"It's taken me years of practice.”
― Misty Massey, Mad Kestrel

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“... not all monsters look like monsters. There are some that carry their monstrosity inside.”
― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

“later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?

it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
― Warsan Shire

“... we never know, and never would know, what it would be like to understand another person fully. It seems a simple thought, but as I get older I see more and more that she had to tell us that.”
― Elizabeth Strout

“To survive, you must tell stories.”
― Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before

“Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

“[T]he time your friends need you is when they’re wrong, Jean Louise. They don’t need you when they’re right”
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

“A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.”
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

“As sure as time, history is repeating itself, and as sure as man is man, history is the last place he’ll look for his lessons.”
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

“Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit!”
― Erick S. Gray

“Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale