“Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“The night was a magnificent confirmation of "women and children first," yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third Class children than First Class men.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the "unsinkable ship" -- perhaps man's greatest engineering achievement -- going down the first time it sailed.
But it went beyond that. If this supreme achievement was so terribly fragile, what about everything else? If wealth mean so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“The clock in the wireless shack said 12:45 A.M. when the Titanic sent the first SOS call in history.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“This was the era when gentlemen formally offered their services to "unprotected ladies" at the start of an Atlantic voyage.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterward all was tumult. That is why, to anybody who lived at the time, the Titanic more than any other single event marks the end of the old days, and the beginning of a new, uneasy era.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Robertson called his ship the Titan; the White Star Line called its ship the Titanic. This is the story of her last night.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Suddenly he was amazed to see a lifeboat floating near the starboard side. He phoned the bridge—did they know there was a boat afloat? An incredulous voice asked who he was. Rowe explained, and the bridge then realized he had been overlooked. They told him to come to the bridge right away and bring some rockets with him.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Try and get off with Major Butt”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Mrs. George Widener was met not by automobile but by a special train—consisting of a private Pullman, another car for ballast, and a locomotive.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“It is a rash man indeed who would set himself up as final arbiter on all that happened the incredible night the Titanic went down.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“If wealth meant so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year?”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Possession of the ice didn’t remain a Third Class monopoly for long.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“But legends are part of great events, and if they help keep alive the memory of gallant self-sacrifice, they serve their purpose.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Seen and unseen, the great and the unknown tumbled together in a writhing heap as the bow plunged deeper and the stern rose higher.”
― Walter Lord, quote from A Night to Remember
“Yet instead of drowning in the darkness that had threatened to suck her under, Brenna had said “fuck you” to the monster who’d hurt her, and she’d chosen to live. She’d not only wrenched back control of her own life, she’d taken on an Arrow and claimed him as her mate.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Allegiance of Honor
“A sentence is but a cheverel glove to a good wit,” quips the clown Feste in Twelfth Night,”
― Stephen Greenblatt, quote from Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
“So? If I die, then I die! The loss to the world won’t be great. Yes, and I’m fairly bored with myself already. I am like a man who is yawning at a ball, whose reason for not going home to bed is only that his carriage hasn’t arrived yet. But the carriage is ready . . . farewell!
I run through the memory of my past in its entirety and can’t help asking myself: Why have I lived? For what purpose was I born? . . .
There probably was one once, and I probably did have a lofty calling, because I feel a boundless strength in my soul . . .
But I didn’t divine this calling. I was carried away with the baits of passion, empty and unrewarding. I came out of their crucible as hard and cold as iron, but I had lost forever the ardor for noble aspirations, the best flower of life.
Since then, how many times have I played the role of the ax in the hands of fate! Like an instrument of execution, I fell on the head of doomed martyrs, often without malice, always without regret . . .
My love never brought anyone happiness, because I never sacrificed anything for those I loved: I loved for myself, for my personal pleasure.
I was simply satisfying a strange need of the heart, with greediness, swallowing their feelings, their joys, their suffering—and was never sated. Just as a man, tormented by hunger, goes to sleep in exhaustion and dreams of sumptuous dishes and sparkling wine before him. He devours the airy gifts of his imagination with rapture, and he feels easier. But as soon as he wakes: the dream disappears . . . and all that remains is hunger and despair redoubled!
And, maybe, I will die tomorrow! . . . And not one being on this earth will have ever understood me totally. Some thought of me as worse, some as better, than I actually am . . . Some will say “he was a good fellow,” others will say I was a swine. Both one and the other would be wrong.
Given this, does it seem worth the effort to live? And yet, you live, out of curiosity, always wanting something new . . . Amusing and vexing!”
― Mikhail Lermontov, quote from Der Held unserer Zeit: Kaukasische Lebensbilder
“Well, you're not [fat]. You have, like, the ideal balance of fat and muscle. ...If I were a cannibal, I'd eat you.”
― Natasha Friend, quote from My Life in Black and White
“Knowing why we are married and should stay married is crucial. This will lead us into a discussion brilliantly argued by Maryland pastor C.J. Mahaney in an audiotape series on marriage titled According to Plan. The key question is this: Will we approach marriage from a God-centered view or a man-centered view?3 In a man-centered view, we will maintain our marriage as long as our earthly comforts, desires, and expectations are met. In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful world to a reconciling Creator.”
― Gary L. Thomas, quote from Sacred Marriage: Celebrating Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline
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