Athena Macmillan > Athena's Quotes

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“Now I know I’ll never be numb again. A mother is condemned to feel everything forever. And I’m finally afraid, condemned to fear everything forever. But that makes sense: feel someone else’s pain, feel someone else’s everything.
And he’s my baby, so everything’s okay.”
― Kristin Hersh, Rat Girl

“It makes me sad that grown up books don’t have pictures in them. You’re brought up with them when you’re younger, and then suddenly they’re all taken away.”
― Jen Campbell, Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

“And so, when she first heard of Hare Krishnas, she didn’t hear right. She heard “Hairless Christians”, and that is what they were to her for many years. When I corrected her, I told her that in fact she was not so wrong; that Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“The longer I live, the more I observe that carrying around anger is the most debilitating to the person who bears it.”
― Katharine Graham

“I stopped keeping an eye out for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve because, when I was five, my mother told me that Santa was a wicked pervert who would cut off my peepee with a pair of scissors...if I didn't stop chattering about him, he would be certain to put me on his list and look me up.
Christmas was never the same after that, but at least I still have my peepee.”
― Dean Koontz, Brother Odd

“Moving the kids was not a good idea, but I sure wanted to see nuns in monster trucks plowing their way through a blizzard.”
― Dean Koontz, Brother Odd

“Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton.”
― Dean Koontz

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“Here's what I think," I say and my voice is stronger and thoughts are coming, thoughts that trickle into my noise like whispers of truth. "I think maybe everybody falls," I say. "I think maybe we all do. And I don't think that's the asking."
I pull on her arms gently to make sure she's listening.
"I think the asking is whether we get back up again.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
About anything.
"Need a poo, Todd."
"Shutup, Manchee."
"Poo. Poo, Todd."
"I said shut it.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers when there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“Every good war picture is an antiwar picture”
― Tatjana Soli, The Lotus Eaters

“If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. Stories about food show a strong connection. Wistful silences demonstrate unfinished business. The more a daughter knows about the details of her mother's life - without flinching or whining - the stronger the daughter.”
― Anita Diamant, The Red Tent

“There are some battles, no matter how much you don’t want to fight them, that you just have to fight. That are worth giving your life for.”
― Paullina Simons, The Bronze Horseman

“Weeping is terrible for the complexion" said Leonie, holding Shayndel close, "but it is very good for the soul.”
― Anita Diamant, Day After Night

“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”
― Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places

“You have been in every way all that anyone could be.… If anybody could have saved me it would have been you.”
― Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places

“Good-bye, my moonsong and my breath, my white nights and golden days, my fresh water and my fire. Good-bye, and may you find a better life, find comfort again and your breathless smile, and when your beloved face lights up once more at the Western sunrise, be sure what I felt for you was not in vain. Good-bye and have faith, my Tatiana.”
― Paullina Simons, The Bronze Horseman

“Please don't die," she whispered. "I don't think I can bury
you. I already buried everyone else."

"How can I die," Alexander said, his voice breaking, "when you
have poured your immortal blood into me?”
― Paullina Simons, The Bronze Horseman

“I love you breathlessly, my amazing man.”
― Paullina Simons, The Bronze Horseman

“I could have lived through it all if only I continued to have the feeling that at the end of childhood, at the end of adolescence, there was something else in this life that would be mine, that I could make with my bare hands, and once I had made it, I could say, I did this to my life. I made my life so.”
― Paullina Simons, The Bridge to Holy Cross

“His parents had raised him to believe that sex was something you did in private not because it was embarrassing, but because it was intimate.”
― James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes

“To die, it's easy. But you have to struggle for life.”
― Art Spiegelman, Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

“Hey," said Shadow. "Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are."
The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes.
"Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow.
"Fuck you," said the raven.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

“No pervs allowed in the Oval Office,” Donald said. “I didn’t make the rules.”
― Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham

“When I am dust, sing these words over my bones: she was a voice.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Book of Longings

“There are numerous oral stories which tell
of what it means, what it feels like, to be present while your history is erased
before your eyes, dismissed as irrelevant, ignored or rendered as the lunatic
ravings of drunken old people”
― Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples

“We never thought of ourselves as witches, my mother and I. For this was a word invented by men, a word that brings power to those who speak it, not those it describes.”
― Emilia Hart, Weyward