“For where shall a man turn who has no money? Where can he go? Wide, wide world, but as narrow as the coins in your hand. Like a tethered goat, so far and no farther. Only money can make the rope stretch, only money.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“To those who live by the land there must always come times of hardship, of fear and of hunger, even as there are years of plenty. This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land know: that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labours fromone harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the weak surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“Well, and what if we give in to our troubles at every step! We would be pitiable creatures indeed to be so weak, for is not a man's spirit given to him to rise above his misfortunes? As for our wants, they are many and unfilled, for who is so rich or compassionate as to supply them? Want is our companion from birth to death, familiar as the seasons or the earth, varying only in degree. What profit to bewail that which has always been and cannot change?”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“Sometimes at night I think that my husband is with me again, coming gently through the mists, and we are tranquil together. Then the morning comes, the wavering grey turns to gold, there is stirring within me as the sleepers awake, and he softly departs.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“We live by our labors from one harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the weak surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“You must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life?”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“That is all you can think of: what people will say! One goes from one end of the world to the other to hear the same story. Does it matter what people say?”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“He sighed impatently. 'You simplify everything, being without understanding. Your views are so limited it is impossible to explain to you.' 'Limited, yes,' I agreed. Yet not wholly without understanding. Our ways are not your ways.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“There is a rare gentleness in you, the sweeter for its brief appearances.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“Troubles,' he said. 'We all have them.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“She was no longer a child, to be cowed or forced into submission, but a grown woman with a definite purpose and an invincible determination.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
“We had for so long accepted her obedience to our will that when it ceased to be given naturally, it came as a considerable chock; yet there was no option but to accept the change, strange and bewildering as it was, for obedience cannot be extorted.”
― Kamala Markandaya, quote from Nectar in a Sieve
Kamala Markandaya
Born place: in Chimakurti, India
Born date January 1, 1924
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“ROMEO: Fastest way to not hear what someone has to say? Hang up on them.
Did it make me an *sshole? Sure did. Did I give a rat’s *ss? H*lls no.”
― Cambria Hebert, quote from #Bae
“The books we need are of the kind that act upon us like a misfortune,that makes us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide,lost in a forest remote from all human habitation”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Proces
“I'm keeping my promise, I'm coming home. To her.”
― Sarah Diemer, quote from The Dark Wife
“I would run to rejoin the children. Especially when it was time for the kite-flying contests- where the boys would skilfully try to cut down their competitors' kite strings. It plunges. It was beautiful, and also a bit melancholy for me to see the pretty kites sputter to the ground.
Maybe it was because I could see a future that would be cut down just like those kites- simply because I was a girl.”
― Malala Yousafzai, quote from I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
“I put my hands on my hips. “What’s wrong with the way I look?”
“Come on, Vi,” he says, keeping his voice low. “You just need to add your boots and you’re like the forest version of Lara Croft.”
“Excuse me? Lara who?”
“I mean, it’s really sexy and everything.” He pulls me closer and slips his arms around my waist. “But it’s not exactly the way I’d want you to meet my mom.”
― Rachel Morgan, quote from The Faerie Guardian
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The Bone CollectorBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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