Quotes from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“If there was one life skill everyone on the planet needed, it was the ability to think with critical objectivity”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“I’m not going to let go of you. I’m going to hold you all night. So go ahead and feel whatever you feel. If you’re still craving cocaine, go ahead. You’re safe. You can crave it all you want, but I won’t let go, and if you still feel like you can’t trust yourself in the morning, and it’s what you want, I’ll drive you to rehab myself. Okay?" ~ Max”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Max's scarred brow crinkled. He reached for the coffee mug on his desk. “Motive is tricky. See, what might be a good reason for me to kill someone might not be a good enough reason for you to kill someone."

Swift stared at his hands loosely clasped around his ankle. “I wouldn't. Deliberately hurt anyone."

"And my impulse is to hurt anyone who hurts you.” When Swift's gaze lifted to his, Max said, “See how that works?"

He did, and while it wasn't intended as a compliment, it did warm his heart in a funny way. He managed to joke, “Why, I think that's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“To calm himself he mentally recited Wilfred J.Funk's 1932 list of "most beautiful words." It was his mantra on restless nights like these. Ten words that generally knocked him unconscious if he concentrated on them hard enough.
Melody.
Golden.
Chimes.
Luminous.
Mist.
Tranquil.
Murmuring.
Lullaby.
Hush.
Dawn...”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“They kissed, but it was a gentle kiss and there was no urgency. They were tired and they were...healing. They had time. And time was the most beautiful word of all.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Why do you think they don’t like me? They hired me for God’s sake. It’s not like there was any mystery about my history.”
“I heard you used iambic pentameter once when you should have used a catalexis.”
“Huh?”
“Believe me, whatever the reason is, it will make as much sense.”
Swift thought this over. Max was probably right, but it was still a weird, unhappy feeling. His mouth curved. “Do you really know what catalexis is?”
“Not a clue. I heard you mention it once. It stuck in my memory because it sounds like a cross between a Cadillac and a Lexus.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“People did terrible things to each other- and half the time they did it by accident.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Time and tide. Love had its own circadian rhythms, and it was beginning to look like he and Max had missed their chance, that they'd slipped into a comfortable somnolence. Perhaps they would continue on indefinitely, but it was all too likely one of these days they were simply going to drift gently, quietly apart.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“He woke with Max's arms wrapped around his torso and Max's genitals soft against his ass. And for the first time in days he wasn't aware of wanting anything but breakfast. Breakfast and Max. Not necessarily in that order.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“A lot of kids are shocked at the idea of people over thirty having sex." (Max)”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Do you really know what catalexis is?"
"Not a clue. I heard you mention it once. It stuck in my memory because it sounds like a cross between a Cadillac and a Lexus.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“There are few things in this life more bamboo-under-fingernails than good poetry read aloud badly-unless it is bad poetry read aloud badly.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Just close your eyes and relax."
Gratefully, Swift closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on nothing more than the feel of Max's hand rubbing his back. Such a simple, uncomplicated pleasure, that of touch. Max smoothed the thin skin between Swift's shoulder blades.
"This is where your wings used to be."
Swift expelled a half laugh, most of his attention fixed on the slow deliberate slide of Max's hand down his spine. Max's fingers brushed the final links of bone and cartilage."And that's where my tail used to be," Swift murmured.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Swift opened his eyes. "Your fingers are shaking."
Max nodded. "Adrenaline. It's pretty exciting seeing your friend's car get shot full of holes. Especially with your friend sitting inside."
Swift nodded too. "From my side too.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“He had firsthand knowledge of getting punched in the face, and it was an experience he didn't want to repeat.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

“Well, Hodge, wasn't the brightest candle on the birthday cake.”
― Josh Lanyon, quote from Come Unto These Yellow Sands

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Popular quotes

“This law is even more significant when we put it in the context of other laws in the Mosaic covenant. In other cases in the Mosaic law where someone accidentally caused the death of another person, there was no requirement to give “life for life,” no capital punishment. Rather, the person who accidentally caused someone else’s death was required to flee to one of the “cities of refuge” until the death of the high priest (see Num. 35:9–15, 22–29). This was a kind of “house arrest,” although the person had to stay within a city rather than within a house for a limited period of time. It was a far lesser punishment than “life for life.” This means that God established for Israel a law code that placed a higher value on protecting the life of a pregnant woman and her preborn child than the life of anyone else in Israelite society. Far from treating the death of a preborn child as less significant than the death of others in society, this law treats the death of a preborn child or its mother as more significant and worthy of more severe punishment. And the law does not place any restriction on the number of months the woman was pregnant. Presumably it would apply from a very early stage in pregnancy, whenever it could be known that a miscarriage had occurred and her child or children had died as a result. Moreover, this law applies to a case of accidental killing of a preborn child. But if accidental killing of a preborn child is so serious in God’s eyes, then surely intentional killing of a preborn child must be an even worse crime. The conclusion from all of these verses is that the Bible teaches that we should think of the preborn child as a person from the moment of conception, and we should give to the preborn child legal protection at least equal to that of others in the society. Additional note: It is likely that many people reading this evidence from the Bible, perhaps for the first time, will already have had an abortion. Others reading this will have encouraged someone else to have an abortion. I cannot minimize or deny the moral wrong involved in this action, but I can point to the repeated offer of the Bible that God will give forgiveness of sins to those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Although such sin, like all other sin, deserves God’s wrath, Jesus Christ took that wrath on himself as a substitute for all who would believe in him: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). b. Scientific”
― Wayne A. Grudem, quote from Politics - According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture

“There is one final bad-news punch line to my life. This bad news is complicated, difficult to explain. In a nutshell, it’s that I am pretty sure that my dad is planning to kill me. The good news is that he’d be doing this out of his love for me. The bad news is that whatever the wonderfulness of his motives, I’ll be dead.”
― Terry Trueman, quote from Stuck in Neutral

“Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.”
― Max Ehrmann, quote from Desiderata: Words For Life

“Trains in these parts went from East to West, and from West to East . . .
On either side of the railway lines lay the great wide spaces of the desert - Sary-Ozeki, the Middle lands of the yellow steppes.
In these parts any distance was measured in relation to the railway, as if from the Greenwich meridian . . .
And the trains went from East to West, and from West to East . . .”
― Chingiz Aitmatov, quote from The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years

“That dark, dingy, cobwebbed basement had taken all my life from me. That place was where I gave myself up, destroyed my own will for him, and now it was gone. My will was dead, so I might as well be dead.”
― Margaux Fragoso, quote from Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir

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