“(pg.31)
"As it was, my first days on Earth were somewhat anticlimactic. Mother and Father seemed so happy tempting and corrupting that I didn't want to interrupt them. But the fact was that I hadn't the slightest clue what to do with myself. I tried to convince cows to take over the world, to rampage across the fields slaughtering all in their wake, to start a new religion of udder worship, to build cities devoted to the consumption of grass, their aqueducts running with fresh milk. I even prepared a pictorial presentation of cows traveling into outer space aboard butter-powered space churns, but the cows seemed unconvinced, and soon returned to wondering how many stomachs they had. The current belief was seventeen. Cows:Unambitious.”
― quote from Death: A Life
“Why, hello, Death. Long time no see. As you can see, I just couldn't stay away. The creeping things called out to Me. Anyway, what brings you here?- God”
― quote from Death: A Life
“It can safely be said that no one has touched more lives, more deeply, than Death. Through this devastating memoir, it is hoped he will touch many, many more.”
― quote from Death: A Life
“Similarly the animal psychologist, Aristophanes, accidentally discovered the world's first joke while inquiring into the hitherto mysterious motivations of pathway-traversing fowl.”
― quote from Death: A Life
“إن ما يسمى الرأي المشترك هو -بالنظر إليه جيداً- رأي شخصين أو ثلاثة أشخاص، وقد يمكننا أن نقتنع به إذا نحن لاحظنا كيف تولد فكرة كهذه. سنلاحظ إذن أنهما في البداية شخصان أو ثلاثة أشخاص هم الذين سلموا به أو أوردوه وأكدوه، وإنه من باب الرفق بهم الاعتقاد أنهم فحصوه تماماً. والبعض الآخر طفق بالمثل، مستعجلاً الحكم بالكفاءة الكاملة لهم في تبني هذا الرأي. بدوره عدد كبير من الأشخاص يركنون إلى هؤلاء. يحملهم كسلهم على تصديق الأمور دفعة واحدة عوض عناء فحصها. هكذا ازداد يوماً بعد يوم عدد هؤلاء الأتباع الكسالى والسّذج، لأنه بمجرد أن يحوز الرأي عدداً لا بأس به من الأصوات يظن اللاحقون أنه ما كان له -أي الرأي- أن يشدّهم إلّا بفضل صحة أسسه. والآخرون مجبرون إذن على الاعتراف بما كان مقبولاً عامةً لكيلا يتمَّ اعتبارهم أرواحاً قلقة ثائرة ضد آراء مقبولة عالمياً ووقحين يحسبون أنفسهم أشد مكراً من جميع الناس. إن التأييد إذن أصبح واجباً. من الآن فصاعداً، العدد القليل من أولئك الذين هم قادرون على الحكم مجبر على الصمت، وأولئك الذين لهم الحق في الكلام هو أولئك العاجزون تماماً عن أن يختلقوا لأنفسهم رأياً وحكماً، والذين ليسوا إذن إلّا صدى لآراء الغير. إنهم مع ذلك مدافعون عنها، شديدون ومتعصبون. لأن ما يمقتونه عند ذلك الذي يفكر على نحو مغاير؛ ليس كثيراً الرأي المخالف الذي يعظمه أكثر من التعجرف الموجود لدي في إرادته الحكم بنفسه، الشيء الذي لا يفعلونه أنفسهم بطبيعة الحال أبداً، والذي هم واعون به في سرّهم. باختصار، القليل من الناس يحسنون التفكير، لكن الجميع يريد أن يمتلك آراءً.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, quote from The Art of Always Being Right
“They are the eyes of a poet, or painter—an artist, a tortured soul.”
― Morgan Rice, quote from Arena One: Slaverunners
“I suspect the most we can hope for, and it's no small hope, is that we never give up, that we never stop giving ourselves permission to try to love and receive love.”
― Elizabeth Strout, quote from Abide with Me
“He dropped his pants and went at it looking like Winnie-the-Pooh in his red polo shirt.”
― Jodie Beau, quote from The Good Life
“Why do we drag around like life is so awful?' Why did they forget that there was so much to love?”
― Sara Zarr, quote from The Lucy Variations
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