“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.”
―
―
“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”
―
―
“Osama, baah!" Bashir roared.
"Osama is not a product of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He is a creation of America. Thanks to America, Osama is in every home. As a military man, I know you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot at you once and then run off and hide while you have to remain eternally on guard. You have to attack the source of your enemy's strength. In America's case, that's not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. That only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever.”
― Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
"Osama is not a product of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He is a creation of America. Thanks to America, Osama is in every home. As a military man, I know you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot at you once and then run off and hide while you have to remain eternally on guard. You have to attack the source of your enemy's strength. In America's case, that's not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. That only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever.”
― Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
― The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations
― The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations
Q&A with Alexander McCall Smith
— 475 members
— last activity May 05, 2015 07:39PM
THIS Q&A HAS CONCLUDEDBest-selling author Alexander McCall Smith joined Goodreads fans for a Q&A and group chat May 10-17, 2010. The official Q&A is n ...more
Q&A with Garth Stein
— 174 members
— last activity Mar 18, 2012 05:07PM
In celebration of the re-release of his first novel, Raven Stole the Moon, Garth Stein, the author the NYT bestselling literary novel The Art of Racin ...more
Ruth’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ruth’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Book Club, Chick-lit, Children's, Christian, Classics, Cooking, Ebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, Food, Historical fiction, History, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Paranormal, Poetry, Psychology, Religion, Romance, Science, Science fiction, Self help, Spirituality, Sports, Thriller, Travel, and Young-adult
Polls voted on by Ruth
Lists liked by Ruth





























