Think of a Number Quotes

“The worst pain in our lives comes from the mistakes we refuse to acknowledge--the things we've done that are so our of harmony with who we are that we can't bear to look at them.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“The person I think I am is terrified of the person I really am, terrified of what others would think of that person. What would they do to me if they knew the person I really was? Better to be safe! Better to hide the real person, starve the real person, bury the real person!”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“What he took he will give, when he gets what he gave.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“The purpose of life is to get as close as we can to other people.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“It was a curious thing about the past--how it lay in wait for you, quietly, invisibly, almost as though it weren't there. You might be tempted to think it was gone, no longer existed. Then, like a pheasant flushed from cover, it would roar up in an explosion of sound, color, motion--shockingly alive.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“For her, people in general were a plus, a source of positive stimulation (with exceptions such as the predatory Sonya Reynolds). For Gurney, people in general were a minus, a drain on his energy (with exception such as the encouraging Sonya Reynolds).”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Hardwick was showing the frustration of a man trying to hold his groceries inside a ripped bag.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“The mind is a mass of contradictions and conflicts. We lie to make others trust us. We hide our true selves in the pursuit of intimacy. We chase happiness in ways that drive happiness away. When we’re wrong we fight the hardest to prove we’re right.” Caught”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“We each seem to be wired to believe my situation causes my problems but your personality causes yours. This creates trouble.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Eis uma coisa curiosa acerca do passado: a forma como jaz à nossa espera, silencioso, invisível, quase como se ali não estivesse. Podemos ter a tentação de julgar que desapareceu, que já não existe. De repente, como um faisão espantado para fora do seu esconderijo, erguer-se-á numa explosão de som, cor e movimento: escandalosamente vivo.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“The personal collisions that upset us the most, the ones we seem powerless to let go of, are those in which we played a role that we are unwilling to acknowledge. That’s why the pain lasts—because we refuse to look at its source. We cannot detach it, because we refuse to look at the point of attachment.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“How many bright angels can dance on a pin? How many hopes drown in a bottle of gin? Did the thought ever come that your glass was a gun and one day you’d wonder, God, what have I done?”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Sherlock Holmes, "İmkansız olanı elerseniz,elimizde kalan ne kadar mümkün görünmese de doğrudur," derdi.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“But how could he stop being what he was? However much he cared for her, however much he wanted to be with her, however much he wanted her to be happy, how could he become someone he wasn't?”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“An isolated life is a wasted life.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“judgmental—”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“La atención de Sonya era agradable, gratificante para el ego, incluso quizás un poco excitante, pero conllevaba un precio excesivamente alto, era demasiado peligrosa para cosas que importaban más.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Gurney se maravillaba de que una persona tan espontánea pudiera también llevar una vida tan regida por los principios. Era lo que la hacía ser como era. Era lo que la convertía en un faro en el cenagal de su propia existencia.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“En esos sueños veía con una claridad que superaba las palabras que el pozo de tristeza era pérdida, y la mayor pérdida de todas era la pérdida de amor.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Eso es lo que tiene el alcohol: cuando te emborrachas tanto como lo hice yo, pierdes el miedo a las consecuencias. Tu percepción se deforma, tus inhibiciones desaparecen, tu memoria se apaga, y actúas por impulso: instinto sin control.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“El problema con los ojos radicaba en que éstos, más que ninguna otra de las facciones de la cara, captaban la tensión, la contradicción: la indiferencia reservada, salpicada con una pizca de crueldad, que Gurney había discernido con frecuencia en los rostros de los asesinos con los que había tenido la oportunidad de pasar a tiempo a solas.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“El conflicto más simple es el conflicto entre la forma en que nos vemos nosotros mismos y la forma en que nos ven los demás. Por ejemplo, si estamos discutiendo y tú me gritas, vería la causa en tu incapacidad de controlar tu temperamento. En cambio, si yo te grito a ti, no veré la causa en mi temperamento, sino en tu provocación, algo en ti frente a lo cual mi grito es una respuesta apropiada.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“The mind is a mass of contradictions and conflicts. We lie to make others trust us. We hide our true selves in the pursuit of intimacy. We chase happiness in ways that drive happiness away. When we’re wrong we fight the hardest to prove we’re right.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“That boulder is your image of yourself, who you think you are. The person you think you are is keeping the person you really are locked up without light or food or friends. The person you think you are has been trying to murder the person you really are for as long as you both have lived.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“No hay peor dolor que tener a dos personas viviendo en un cuerpo”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“The fact that no one was dead persuaded him that he was on the right track”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Darás lo que has quitado
al recibir lo dado.
Sé todo lo que piensas
sé cuando parpadeas
sé dónde has estado
sé adónde irán tus pasos.
Vamos a vernos solos
señor 658.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“Gurney tinha a teoria de que os homens se comportavam nas casas de banho como se estas fossem balneários ou como se fossem elevadores, ou seja, ou com uma familiaridade turbulenta ou com um desconfortável recato.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“O maxilar de Gurney endureceu. Ele trabalhara para tipos como Rodriguez, tipos que confundiam a sua obsessão pelo controlo com liderança e a sua negatividade com pragmatismo.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number

“O sol, que nessa manhã surgira como um disco frio por detrás de uma camada cinzenta de nuvens invernais, deixava-se agora obscurecer completamente por um céu grumoso e plúmbeo. Aquela luz sem sombras parecia funesta: o rosto de um universo frio, insensível como o gelo.”
― John Verdon, Think of a Number