“- I'm so busy doing what I must do that I don't have time for what I ought to do... and I never get a chance to do what I want to do!
- Son, that's universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow.”
“The way to find justice is to deal fairly with other people and not worry about how they deal with you.”
“Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them.”
“Once a man gets a reputation as a liar, he might as well be struck dumb, for people do not listen to the wind.”
“He was finding it ruinously expensive to be rich.”
“Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them. From an anthropologist's view, 'justice' is a search for workable customs.”
“I’m so busy doing what I must do that I don’t have time for what I ought to do . . . and I never get a chance to do what I want to do!” “Son, that’s universal. The way to keep that recipe from killing you is occasionally to do what you want to do anyhow. Which is right now.”
“...most things are right or wrong only in their backgrounds; few things are good or evil in themselves.”
“Freedom is a hard habit to break.”
“What are our options? If I have the choice of being doubtful or being hopeful, I’m going to choose hopeful. It takes less work to be positive.”
“Her carriage bespoke an exquisite misery, a wretchedness so perfect and so absolute that it manifested as dignity, as calm. More than a dark horse, she was darkness itself, the cloak of it.”
“When you belong to someone . . . you don’t kiss anyone else. You don’t kiss his enemy. You don’t lie to him. Betray him.”
“There is an old French curse: may your fondest wish come true. If this treatment is cheap and available to everyone, it will destroy the earth through overpopulation. If it is dear and available only to the very rich, it will cause riots, wars, a breakdown of the social contract. Either way, it will lead directly to human misery. What is the value of a long life, when it is lived in squalor and unhappiness?”
“Mikeru was still puzzling over Horace's last remark. He frowned. 'Kurokuma, these shenanigans... What are they?'
'Shenanigans are what Rangers do. They usually involve doing things that risk breaking your neck or your leg.'
Mikeru nodded, filing the word away. 'I will remember this word,' he said. 'Shenanigans. It is a good word.”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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