Quotes from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“...but we no more choose our passions than our features or complexion.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Em resumo, há nos homens, quando eles se deixam guiar pelos olhos, uma tal credulidade da qual sua majestosa sabedoria não suspeita, fazendo que os mais avisados dentre eles sejam frequentemente enganados por nós.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“(...) o conhecimento e a comunicação com os maus elementos do nosso próprio sexo é muitas vezes tão fatal para a inocência quanto todas as seduções do outro.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“(...) rapidamente cheguei à resolução de me lançar no vasto mundo, dirigindo-me a Londres para ir em busca de minha fortuna, uma frase que, parece, tem arruinado mais aventureiros de ambos os sexos saídos do campo do que levado a sua realização.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Isto é, creio, demasiado elogio próprio; mas não seria eu ingrata com a natureza, e para com uma figura a que devo as bênçãos ímpares do prazer e da fortuna, se suprimisse, presa de uma modéstia afetada, a descrição de dons tão valiosos.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Não!, nem o passar dos anos, nem as voltas do destino poderiam apagar a impressão fulminante que ele causou em mim... Sim! querido objeto de minha primeira paixão, guardarei para sempre a lembrança de tua primeira aparição diante de meus olhos embevecidos... ela te traz de volta ao presente, e eu te vejo diante de mim!”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Sobre a mesa ainda se viam a poncheira e as taças, espalhadas na desordem costumeira após a debandada dos ébrios.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Tudo isso formava o mais interessante quadro vivo da natureza, certamente muito superior aos nus criados pelos pintores, escultores ou quaisquer artistas, e que se compram a preços altíssimos; no entanto, tais visões são apreciadas soberanamente apenas por algumas pessoas que a natureza dotou do fogo da imaginação, e que são calorosamente dirigidas por um julgamento verdadeiro para as fontes, os originais da beleza, as criações inigualáveis da natureza, que estão bem acima das imitações da arte ou das possibilidades da riqueza de pagar-lhes o preço.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“(...) os infelizes jamais morrem, quando a morte seria o melhor remédio para seus males, e a vida das mulheres é proverbialmente dura.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Aqui, minha senhora, devo talvez desculpar-me pela descrição minuciosa de coisas que persistem com tanta força em minha memória, pela impressão que causaram; mas, além de esse fato ter provocado uma revolução em minha vida, a verdade histórica exige que eu não vos esconda que um prazer tão exaltante não pode ser ingratamente esquecido ou suprimido sob o pretexto de que eu o tenha encontrado num ser de condição inferior; pelo contrário, é aí que encontramos mais pureza, maior ausência de sofisticação, e não em meio aos refinamentos falsos e ridículos graças aos quais os grandes aceitam ser grosseiramente enganados por seu orgulho. Os grandes! Existem, entre os que eles chamam de vulgares, pessoas mais ignorantes e que cultivem menos a arte de viver do que eles próprios? Ao contrário, os simples ignoram sempre as coisas estranhas à natureza do prazer; seu objetivo principal é gozar a beleza onde se possa encontrar esse dom inestimável, sem distinção de berço ou posição.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Os homens, de modo geral, não sabem o quanto destroem seu próprio prazer quando esquecem o respeito e o carinho devidos a nosso sexo, mesmo aquelas que vivem apenas para agradar-lhes.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“Era um desses instrumentos de bom tamanho, que seus proprietários governam melhor do que aqueles pesadões e excessivos.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“(...) pois nas mulheres, e em particular nas do nosso tipo, por melhor que seja a disposição dos nossos corações, há sempre uma parte rainha que se autogoverna e que tem suas próprias razões de Estado, e dentre estas a mais forte é a que manda jamais se confundir a vontade com o ato.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“O vencedor logo estaria à mercê, pois, com a luta cada vez mais ardente, chegava para ele o instante de pagar sua dívida ao prazer.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“O amor, presidindo a ação, insinuava o prazer e o gozo. E confesso, de bom grado, que me persuadi sem dificuldade de que, sem amor, o prazer, por maior e mais perfeito que seja, fica vulgar, sejamos rei ou vagabundo.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“I had now totally taken in love's true arrow from the point up to the feather . . . .”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

“and measured me very rightly in her manner of whistling to me, so as to make me pleased with my cage, and blind to the wires.”
― John Cleland, quote from Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

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“Omri refused to get involved in an argument. He was somehow scared that if he talked about the Indian, something bad would happen. In fact, as the day went on and he longed more and more to get home, he began to feel certain that the whole incredible happening—well, not that it hadn’t happened, but that something would go wrong. All his thoughts, all his dreams were centered on the miraculous, endless possibilities opened up by a real, live, miniature Indian of his very own. It would be too terrible if the whole thing turned out to be some sort of mistake.”
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“What’s Albert going to do?” a boy named Jim demanded. “Where’s Albert?”
Albert stepped from an inconspicuous position off to one side. He mounted the steps, moving carefully still, not entirely well even now.
He carefully chose a position equidistant between Caine and Sam.
“What should we do, Albert?” a voice asked plaintively.
Albert didn’t look out at the crowd except for a quick glance up, like he was just making sure he was pointed in the right direction. He spoke in a quiet, reasonable monotone. Kids edged closer to hear.
“I’m a businessman.”
“True.” Toto.
“My job is organizing kids to work, taking the things they harvest or catch, and redistributing them through a market.”
“And getting the best stuff for yourself,” someone yelled to general laughter.
“Yes,” Albert acknowledged. “I reward myself for the work I do.”
This blunt admission left the crowd nonplussed.
“Caine has promised that if I stay here he won’t interfere. But I don’t trust Caine.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Toto agreed.
“I do trust Sam. But . . .”
And now you could hear a pin drop.
“But . . . Sam is a weak leader.” He kept his eyes down. “Sam is the best fighter ever. He’s defended us many times. And he’s the best at figuring out how to survive. But Sam”— Albert now turned to him—“You are too humble. Too willing to step aside. When Astrid and the council sidelined you, you put up with it. I was part of that myself. But you let us push you aside and the council turned out to be useless.”
Sam stood stock-still, stone-faced.
“Let’s face it, you’re not really the reason things are better here, I am,” Albert said. “You’re way, way braver than me, Sam. And if it’s a battle, you rule. But you can’t organize or plan ahead and you won’t just put your foot down and make things happen.”
Sam nodded slightly. It was hard to hear. But far harder was seeing the way the crowd was nodding, agreeing. It was the truth. The fact was he’d let the council run things, stepped aside, and then sat around feeling sorry for himself. He’d jumped at the chance to go off on an adventure and he hadn’t been here to save the town when they needed it.
“So,” Albert concluded, “I’m keeping my things here, in Perdido Beach. But there will be free trading of stuff between Perdido Beach and the lake. And Lana has to be allowed to move freely.”
Caine bristled at that. He didn’t like Albert laying down conditions.
Albert wasn’t intimidated. “I feed these kids,” he said to Caine. “I do it my way.”
Caine hesitated, then made a tight little bow of the head.
“I want you to say it,” Albert said with a nod toward Toto.
Sam saw panic in Caine’s eyes. If he lied now the jig would be up for him. Toto would call him out, Albert would support Sam, and the kids would follow Albert’s lead.
Sam wondered if Caine was just starting to realize what Sam had known for some time: if anyone was king, it was neither Sam nor Caine, it was Albert.”
― Michael Grant, quote from Plague

“Animal minds are simple, and therefore sharp. Animals never spend time dividing experience into little bits and speculating about all the bits they've missed. The whole panoply of the universe has been neatly expressed to them as things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. This frees the mind from unnecessary thoughts and gives it a cutting edge where it matters. Your normal animal, in fact, never tries to walk and chew gum at the same time.

The average human, on the other hand, thinks about all sorts of things around the clock, on all sorts of levels, with interruptions from dozens of biological calendars and timepieces. There's thoughts about to be said, and private thoughts, and real thoughts, and thoughts about thoughts, and a whole gamut of subconscious thoughts. To a telepath the human head is a din. It is a railway terminus with all the Tannoys talking at once. It is a complete FM waveband- and some of those stations aren't reputable, they're outlawed pirates on forbidden seas who play late-night records with limbic lyrics.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Equal Rites

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