William Faulkner · 140 pages
Rating: (26.3K votes)
“For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the
grimace of love, had cuckolded him. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.
Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-grey hair.”
― William Faulkner, quote from A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
“They held the funeral on the second day, with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers with the crayon face of her father musing profoundly above the bier and the ladies sibilant and macabre; and the very old men - some in their brushed Confederate uniforms - on the porch and the lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs, believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.”
― William Faulkner, quote from A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
“She carried her head high enough - even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson; as if it had wanted that touch of earthiness to reaffirm her imperviousness”
― William Faulkner, quote from A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
“...the very old men [...] believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps, confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.”
― William Faulkner, quote from A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
“All the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.”
― William Faulkner, quote from A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
“[...] confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever touches.”
― William Faulkner, quote from A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
William Faulkner
Born place: in New Albany, Mississippi, The United States
Born date September 25, 1897
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“In a quip that makes the rounds, Jesus preached the coming of the kingdom, but it was the church that came. All these years later, the way many of us are doing church is broken and we know it, even if we do not know what to do about it. We proclaim the priesthood of all believers while we continue with hierarchical clergy, liturgy, and architecture. We follow a Lord who challenged the religious and political institutions of his time while we fund and defend our own. We speak and sing of divine transformation while we do everything in our power to maintain our equilibrium. If redeeming things continue to happen to us in spite of these deep contradictions in our life together, then I think that is because God is faithful even when we are not.”
― Barbara Brown Taylor, quote from Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
“Ecco dove accadde. Lei è stata qui. Questi leoni di pietra, ora senza testa, l'hanno fissata. Questa fortezza, una volta inespugnabile, cumulo di pietre ora, fu l'ultima cosa che vide. Un nemico da tempo dimenticato e i secoli, sole, pioggia, vento, l'hanno spianata. Immutato il cielo, un blocco d'azzurro intenso, alto, distante. Vicine, ogg come ieri, le mura ciclopiche che orientano il cammino: verso la porta dal cui fondo non fiotta più sangue. Nelle tenebre. Nel macello. E sola.
Con questo racconto vado nella morte.
Termino qui, impotente, e niente, niente di quello che avrei potuto fare o non fare, volere o pensare, mi avrebbe condotto a una meta diversa. Più profondamente di ogni altro moto dell'animo, più profondamente persino della mia paura, mi impregna, mi corrode, mi avvelena l'indifferenza dei celesti verso noi terreni. Naufragata l'audace impresa di opporre il nostro debole calore alla loro gelidità.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays
“One less desirable aspect of democracy is that it seems to require serious demonization of the enemy if the nation and public opinion are to be galvanized sufficiently to pay a serious price in blood or treasure at war.”
― Graham E. Fuller, quote from A World Without Islam
“It was like wanting ice cream instead of meat loaf, and being told that children in refugee camps would be grateful for the meat loaf. Yes, of course she had nothing to complain about, compared to so many people, but when had that ever stopped anyone from complaining? Happiness was a balloon that always hovered just out of arm's reach.”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Landing
“You can have all the wine and dragons that my money can buy. That’s what the old woman told me, and I listened.”
― L'Poni Baldwin, quote from Dragons and Cicadas: The Society On Da Run
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