Cory > Cory's Quotes

“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young

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

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

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

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
― Oscar Wilde

“I'd rather live with a thing done poorly than do nothing and always wonder how things could have been.”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“The days without difficulty are the days you do not improve.”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“I can't imagine a world where the man holding a sword does not have the last say over the man without one.”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“Life is nothing more than moments in time. To achieve greatness, you have to give up those moments. You have to give your life to your goal.”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“He was not the strongest, the quickest, or the most talented, not by any measure. He knew this and knew he could not control this. However, he could control his effort, the work he put in, and there he would not be beaten.”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“The wars you’ll wage aren’t decided when you fight them. They’re decided before that, by the extent of your effort and the substance of your sacrifices. They are decided by the choices you make every single day. So ask yourself: ‘how powerful do I choose to be?”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“only path to becoming what others cannot is to suffer what others will not.”
― Evan Winter, The Fires of Vengeance

“The lie isn’t that we can’t be their equals. The lie is that they were ever anything but our equals.”
― Evan Winter, The Fires of Vengeance

“Let them think me a monster,” the Dragon Queen thought. “I will be a monster, if it means we survive.”
― Evan Winter, The Rage of Dragons

“A fighter who will only go into battle when they're at their best fights for pleasure and not principle. The things worth fighting for die in darkness if we'll only defend them in the sun.”
― Evan Winter, The Fires of Vengeance

“I need to be the greatest fighter of the Omehi,” Tau said, fighting for calm, his fingernails digging into his palms. “Can you give me that?”
Jayyed grew serious. “I can’t give you anything. It might be something you can take, if you’re willing.”
“I am.”
“We’ll see. The cost for greatness is high.”
“I’ll pay anything.”
“Your life?” Jayyed asked, causing Tau to stop. “That’s the price. Life is nothing more than moments in time. To achieve greatness, you have to give up those moments. You have to give your life to your goal.”
“Easily paid,” Tau told him.”
― Evan Winter

“There are no men like me." --Tau Solarin”
― Evan Winter

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
― Oscar Wilde

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

“Oh whatever it is bitch, I promise you it won't be easy."

--Jean Tannen”
― Scott Lynch

“White people desperately want to believe that only the lonely, isolated “whites only” club members are racist. This is why the word racist offends “nice white people” so deeply. It challenges their self-identification as good people. Sadly, most white people are more worried about being called racist than about whether or not their actions are in fact racist or harmful.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“But I am not impressed with America’s progress. I am not impressed that slavery was abolished or that Jim Crow ended. I feel no need to pat America on its back for these “achievements.” This is how it always should have been. Many call it progress, but I do not consider it praiseworthy that only within the last generation did America reach the baseline for human decency. As comedian Chris Rock says, I suppose these things were progress for white people, but damn. I hope there is progress I can sincerely applaud on the horizon. Because the extrajudicial killing of Black people is still too familiar. Because the racist rhetoric that Black people are lazier, more criminal, more undeserving than white people is still too familiar. Because the locking up of a disproportionate number of Black bodies is still too familiar. Because the beating of Black people in the streets is still too familiar. History is collapsing on itself once again.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the realization of our dreams, and yet still showing up.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“I don't know what to do with what I've learned," she said. "I can't fix your pain, and I can't take it away, but I can see it. And I can work for the rest of my life to make sure your children don't have to experience the pain of racism."

And then she said nine words that I've never forgotten: "Doing nothing is no longer an option for me.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“White institutions are constantly communicating how much Blackness they want. It begins with numbers. How many scholarships are being offered? How many seats are being “saved” for “neighborhood kids”? How many Black bodies must be present for us to have “good” diversity numbers? How many people of color are needed for the website, the commercials, the pamphlets? But numbers are only the beginning. Whiteness constantly polices the expressions of Blackness allowed within its walls, attempting to accrue no more than what’s necessary to affirm itself. It wants us to sing the celebratory “We Shall Overcome” during MLK Day but doesn’t want to hear the indicting lyrics of “Strange Fruit.” It wants to see a Black person seated at the table but doesn’t want to hear a dissenting viewpoint. It wants to pat itself on the back for helping poor Black folks through missions or urban projects but has no interest in learning from Black people’s wisdom, talent, and spiritual depth. Whiteness wants enough Blackness to affirm the goodness of whiteness, the progressiveness of whiteness, the openheartedness of whiteness. Whiteness likes a trickle of Blackness, but only that which can be controlled.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“This is partly what makes the fragility of whiteness so damn dangerous. It ignores the personhood of people of color and instead makes the feelings of whiteness the most important thing.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“We like to pretend that all those white faces who carried protest signs and batons, who turned on their sprinklers and their fire hoses, who wrote against the demonstrations and preached against the changes, just disappeared. We like to pretend that they were won over, transformed, the moment King proclaimed, “I have a dream.” We don’t want to acknowledge that just as Black people who experienced Jim Crow are still alive, so are the white people who vehemently protected it—who drew red lines around Black neighborhoods and divested them of support given to average white citizens. We ignore that white people still avoid Black neighborhoods, still don’t want their kids going to predominantly Black schools, still don’t want to destroy segregation.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness