Tod Walinski

“Slavery is damnable!”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Silently she stared at the splintered pieces and felt the flame in her soul gutter.  The flame she had nurtured since she was a child. The flame that had in it what little sparks of happiness she had ever known as well as all her hopes and dreams for the future.  She had tended it so carefully and for so long, and in one, horrendous, agonizing second, felt it simply... go out.”
― Barbara Sontheimer, Victor's Blessing

“Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions. Don't say that as a boy your grandmother used to read to you, unless at that stage of her life she really was a boy, in which case you have probably thrown away a better intro. If something is worth hearing or listening to, it's very probably worth reading. So, this above all: Find your own voice.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Mortality

“Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future?
The most important pursuit is making the person standing at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.”
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living