“...the years have taught me not to wonder too much at the dark things men do. Strange how it is that men never act crueller than when they're fighting for the sake of an idea. We've been killing since Cain over who stands closer to god. It seems to me that cruelty is just in the way of things. You drive yourself mad if you take it all personal. Those who hurt you don't have the power over you they would like. That's why they do what they do. And I'm not going to give them the power now. But it was a cruel thing that they did, and when they had finished hurting me, a splinter of loneliness seemed to break off and stay inside me forever.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“Strange how it is that men never act crueler than when they're fighting for the sake of an idea. We've been killing since Cain over who stands closer to god. It seems to me that cruelty is just in the way of things. You drive yourself mad if you take it all personal. Those who hurt you don't have the power over you they would like. That's why they do what they do.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“He said it hit him travelling one time in the year or so before he met my mother. Whatever country of the world it was, the poor were starting to look alike, live alike, eat alike, and dress alike in the same kind of clothes all made in the same part of China. To him, it was a sign that the people had got severed from the land.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“Time has a way of evening things out, the simple ways endure, and the fancy pants with his smart new way falls by the roadside. The best way to tell how long a thing will last is ask how long it's been around for. The newest things end soonest. And things that have been around for a good long while will last awhile to come.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“Standing on the bridge, looking across at that empty city, everything in the compass of my gaze had been set there by a human hand. Somehow those pylons had been strung with wire, and those towers raised, and roofs tiled. There had been food and drink for millions of mouths. I don't cry easy, but my vision blurred as I stared on the ruins of what we had been, and I watched the small band of men in rags move toward it to pick at it like birds on the carcass of some giant.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“I had always believed that right was like north to my father: a thing as real as sunlight, a place on the map, the arrow on a compass.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“It's a kind of heresy to say so, but I think our race has made forms more beautiful than what was here before us. Sometimes god's handiwork is crude. There is no more ugly thing than a lobster. There's not much pretty about a caribou. It has an ungainly walk and its touchhole voids droppings when it strains in harness. Was there a straight line on earth before we drew one?”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“What arrogance made us think we were far enough to be safe?”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“We don't get much of a spring or fall to speak of. Up here, for ten months a year, the weather has teeth in it.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“Was there a straight line on earth before we drew one?”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“Tolya answered their questions and he puffed up those men with the notion they were doing good, embroidering their task with a lot of long words like dedication and sacrifice that reminded me of those odd telegrams from the Almighty that would burst into our silent worship at home.
I don't trust those words or the people that use them. Maybe I'm simple, but they ring in my ears with the same dull thud you get when a stone bangs against an empty coffee can...where Tolya said he saw holy men preserving the lost jewels of human knowledge, all I saw was a team of burglars getting ready to shoot their accomplices.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“I had always believed that right was like north to my father: a thing as real as sunlight, a place on the map, the arrow on a compass. It was the unalterable facts of duty, love, and conscience. But our world had gone so far north that the compass could make no sense of it, could only spin hopelessly in it binnacle. North had melted right off the map.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“What I found in a city—when I finally saw a real one—was disquieting. Nothing matched. It was a weird assemblage of things, but there was beauty in the oddness of it, and the thought that it was all man’s doing. But”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“I had the feeling of something inside me that flipped like a fish in a net. It was hope. As much as I bad-mouth people in general and think the worst of them, I'm secretly waiting for them to surprise me. Try as I might, I haven't been able to give up on them wholly. Even though they are nine and nine-tenths dirt, now and again they are capable of something angelic. I can't say that it restores my faith, because I really had none in the first place, but when it happens it does confuse you.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“As much as I bad-mouth people in general and think the worst of them, I’m secretly waiting for them to surprise me. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to give up on them wholly. Even though they are nine and nine-tenths dirt, now and again they are capable of something angelic. I can’t say that it restores my faith, because I really had none in the first place, but when it happens it does confuse you.”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
“Human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal. That’s what long observation has taught me. On the other hand, with a full belly, and a good harvest in the barn, and a fire in the hearth, there’s nothing so charming, so generous, no one more decent than a well-fed man. But”
― Marcel Theroux, quote from Far North
Marcel Theroux
Born place: in Kampala, Uganda
Born date June 13, 1968
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“You're English," he said. "And I will therefore make certain allowances for you. I realize you don't understand you shouldn't argue with me, and so I'll explain it to you. Don't argue with me."
Incredulous, she said, "That's it? 'Don't argue with me' is your explanation as to why I shouldn't argue with you?”
― Julie Garwood, quote from Ransom
“Outwardly mocking, but never quite to the point if not wanting to participate.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from The Beginning of Everything
“I was angry about injustice--about the uncaring way the world works. I knew a lot of ordinary people had died that day, not because of fire or falling masonry but because of their compassion. It was their desperate attempts to save other human being--often total strangers--that ended up costing them their own lives.”
― Terry Hayes, quote from I Am Pilgrim
“When he smiled, something strange happened to my insides. It was like they turned to liquid.”
― Meg Cabot, quote from Being Nikki
“The spine that refused to bend at all was often the most malleable once it gave way.”
― Robert Jordan, quote from A Crown of Swords
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