The Fall
Quotes from the Book
The two most important phrases in the human language are "If only" and "Maybe someday". Our past mistakes and our unrequited longings. The things we regret and the things we yearn for. That's what makes us who we are.
65
Obviously, he needed to kill Bubba, but how? The man was a trained prison guard twice his size. The tax auditors had been easy. Mr. Ethics had slapped them to death with their own attaché cases. And even then, his neighbours had chipped in to help him hide the bodies. "A tax auditor, you say? No problem. Let me get my spade.
8
Human nature, at its best, had always been based on a deep heroic restlessness, on wanting something--something else, something more, whether it be true love or a glimpse just beyond the horizon. It was the promise of happiness, not the attainment of it, that had driven the entire engine, the folly and glory of who we are.
7
Hellraisers destroy only themselves, and they do it because they love life too much to fall asleep.
3
You know, kid, ethics isn't about choosing between right and wrong; it's about choosing between grey and grey. It's about choosing between two equally desirable but mutually exclusive courses of action. Freedom or security? Courage or comfort? Self-examination or blissful happiness? Column A or Column B?
2
There, stacked high on his desk, was a tower of paper. Thick slabs of manuscript. Slush. Unsolicited, unagented, unloved. This was where dreams came to die. Book proposals, cover letters, entire manuscripts – they gathered like so much detritus on the desks of publishers everywhere.
2
Fear of death and the desire to live on, somehow, if only through our children. Or our grandchildren. Quixotic quest for immortality. It's sad and heroic and doomed - all at the same time.
2
Cała nasza ekonomia opiera się na ludzkich słabostkach,na złych nawykach i lękach.Moda.Bary fast food.Elektroniczne gadżety.Erotyczne zabawki.Ośrodki dietetyczne.Ogłoszenia towarzyskie.Skrajne sekty religijne.Salony fryzjerskie.Kryzys wieku średniego u mężczyzn.Szał zakupów.Całe nasze życie zbudowane jest na wątpliwościach i braku satysfakcji.Pomyśl,co by się stało,gdyby ludzie byli naprawdę,szczerze szczęśliwi.Całkowicie zadowoleni ze swojego życia.Nastąpiłby kataklizm
1
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About Will Ferguson
About the book
When an enormous, self-help manuscript lands on Edwin de Valu's desk, it seems destined for the trash can. The trouble is this doorstopper is a unique thing--a self-help book that actually works--and before Edwin knows it, a chain of events has been started that will have enormous consequences not just for his own life, but for the world at large.
Book details
- First published
- 2001
- Author
- Will Ferguson
- Genre
- Fiction
- Goodreads rating
- 3.77 (4k ratings)
The buzz
- The New York TimesReview in The New York Timesprofessional review (via Book Marks)
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- Kirkus ReviewsReview in Kirkus Reviewsprofessional review (via Book Marks)
- LA Review of BooksReview in LA Review of Booksprofessional review (via Book Marks)
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Keep reading
The Fall
The Fall of Babel
Concrete
Arm of the Sphinx
Scythe
Point Counter Point
The Magus
Still Life with Woodpecker
The Snowman
Sea of Rust
The Story of the Lost Child
Life and Fate
The Schopenhauer Cure
The Humans
Life for Sale
The Infernals
Moravagine
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
The Tunnel
Embers
We All Looked Up
The Atlantis Gene
The Fall of Hyperion
The Eighth Life
When Nietzsche Wept
Villa Incognito
V.
Correction
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Sexus
The Tender Bar
Speaking Bones
Arch of Triumph
Toll the Hounds
The Hod King
Humboldt's Gift
The Tsar of Love and Techno
Elsewhere
Ravelstein
Miss Lonelyhearts
A Fatal Inversion
The Great Mistake
Cat's Cradle
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Oblomov
Henderson the Rain King
Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
East of Eden
Too Like the Lightning
The First Circle
A Happy Death
Maldoror and the Complete Works
Farewell Waltz
The Fireman
Night Watch
Brave New World
Still Life
The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy
Selected Stories
The Hangman's Replacement: Sprout of Disruption

