“Check out that one at the end. He's taken the form of a footstool. Weird...but somehow I like his style."
"That is a footstool.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Hey, we've all got problems, chum. I'm overly talkative. You look like a field of buttercups in a suit.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“I warn you," the boy went on. "I am a magician of great power. I control many terrifying entities. This being you see before you" - here I rolled my shoulders back and puffed my chest up menacingly - "is but the meanest and least impressive of my slaves." (Here I slumped my shoulders and stuck my stomach out.)”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Despite his crimped shirts and flowing mane (or perhaps because of them) I had seen no evidence as yet that Nathaniel even knew what a girl was. If he'd ever met one, chances are they'd both have run screaming in opposite directions.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“I wanted to wake you straightaway, but I knew I had to wait several hours to ensure you were safely recovered."
"What! How long has it been?"
"Five minutes. I got bored.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“The afrit batted his eyelashes with a ostentatious lack of concern. "Indeed? Have you a name?"
"A name?" I cried. "I have MANY names! I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni! I am N'gorso the Mighty and the Serpent of Silver Plumes!"
I paused dramatically. The young man looked blank. "Nope never heard of you. Now if you'll just-”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Julius Tallow was a fool. He appeared complacent, but like a weak swimmer out of his depth, his legs were kicking frantically under the surface, trying to keep him afloat. Whatever happened, Nathaniel did not intend to sink with him.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Stanley went on, "highly dangerous, fanatical and additictied to violence'- Blimey Fred, is it your mother writing this? They seem to know you so well”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“In my youth, I was always one for the dramatic entrance. Now, in keeping with my character, I gravitate more toward the subtle and refined. Okay, with the occasional feathered serpent thrown in.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“I—though forced through lack of space to assume the form of a stoic guinea pig crouched between the girl's shoe and the glove compartment—was my usual dignified self.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Ia bukan demon, bukan penyihir. Ia lebih baik dari mereka. Keserakahan dan sikap mementingkan diri sendiri bukanlah sifatnya.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Die Katastrophe war so verheerend, dass jede normale Reaktion unangemessen war.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“The boy was silent as we went. Unsurprising, this—he had seldom left London in his life before. I guessed him to be gazing about in dumbstruck admiration.
"What an appalling place," he [Nathaniel] said. - Bartimaeus”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Wrong again. I'll tell you, shall I?" The djinni fixed him with its black-eyed stare. "You knocked yourself out, like the idiot you are. The golem was approaching, doubtless planning to take the Staff and crush your head like a melon. It was foiled—"
"By your prompt action?" Nathaniel said. "If so, I'm grateful, Bartimaeus."
"Me? Save you? Please—someone I know might be listening. No. My magic is canceled out by the golem's, remember? I sat back to watch the show. In fact... it was the girl and her friend. They saved you. Wait—don't mock! I do not lie. The boy distracted it while the girl climbed on the golem's back, tore the manuscript from its mouth, and threw it to the ground. Even as she did so, the golem seized her and the boy—incinerated them in seconds. Then its life force ebbed and it finally froze, inches from your sorry neck.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Those statues were exquisitely carved, without exception; that was what the Egyptians were really good at, along with organized religion and civil engineering.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Golem's Eye
“Take that chance with me,
I'll let you down, I know,
But I'll fix it too, because everything is you,
Everything is you.”
― Samantha Towle, quote from Wethering the Storm
“Love like this wasn't what he'd planned or wanted or expected, surely it was indeed a trap, for even when you tried to run away, it followed you through the grass and lay down beside you, it overtook common sense and willpower.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Museum of Extraordinary Things
“As this book will show, objectively defined races simply do not exist. Even Arthur Mourant realized that fact nearly fifty years ago, when he wrote: 'Rather does a study of blood groups show a heterogeneity in the proudest nation and support the view that the races of the present day are but temporary integrations in the constant process of . . . mixing that marks the history of every living species.' The temptation to classify the human species into categories which have no objective basis is an inevitable but regrettable consequence of the gene frequency system when it is taken too far. For several years the study of human genetics got firmly bogged down in the intellectually pointless (and morally dangerous) morass of constructing ever more detailed classifications of human population groups.”
― Bryan Sykes, quote from The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry
“Lần đầu tiên tôi thoáng nhìn thấy thế giới mới, tôi khiếp hãi. Tôi đã hiểu ra thế nào là cô đơn, là không chỗ gối đầu, thế nào là để cho thiên hạ và để cho chính mình được tự do, thế nào là yêu thương tất cả chứ không sủng ái riêng ai - bởi tình yêu là thế. Trời chiếu nắng trên cả kẻ tốt và người xấu, trời đổ mưa trên tội nhân cũng như thánh nhân.
Làm sao hoa hồng có thể nói: “tôi sẽ tỏa hương cho người lành chứ không tỏa hương cho kẻ dữ ngửi tôi”? Hoặc có thể nào ngọn đèn lại nói: “tôi sẽ tỏa ánh sáng cho những người tốt trong phòng này, chứ không cho những kẻ xấu”? Hay một bóng cây, làm sao có thể chỉ che mát cho người tốt và từ chối đối với người xấu? Tình yêu cũng như vậy đó.
Tình yêu ấy vẫn luôn có mặt và trực diện chúng ta nơi Thánh Kinh, dù chúng ta chưa bao giờ chú ý ngắm nhìn nó - bởi chúng ta quá đắm chìm trong những thứ mà văn hóa của chúng ta gọi là tình yêu, với những khúc tình ca, những bài thơ tình... nhưng kỳ thực đó không phải là tình yêu mà là đối nghịch với tình yêu. Đó là sự khát khao, sự kiểm soát và chiếm hữu. Đó là sự tính toán đòn phép, và sợ hãi, và lo âu - không phải tình yêu. Người ta bảo chúng ta rằng hạnh phúc là một làn da trắng mịn, là một khu nghỉ mát. Hạnh phúc đâu phải thế, song chúng ta lại có những phương cách khôn khéo để bắt hạnh phúc của chúng ta tùy thuộc vào những thứ khác - cả bên trong lẫn ở ngoài chúng ta. Chúng ta nói: - “Tôi không hạnh phúc được khi còn mang trong người chứng loạn thần kinh”. Tôi báo tin vui cho bạn đây: Bạn có thể hạnh phúc ngay bây giờ đấy, với chứng loạn thần kinh của bạn. Bạn còn đòi gì nữa không? Chỉ có một lý do giải thích vì sao chúng ta không cảm nghiệm được cái mà tiếng Ấn Độ gọi là “anand” - hạnh phúc hoàn toàn trọn vẹn. Chỉ có một lý do vì sao chúng ta không nếm cảm được hạnh phúc trọn vẹn đó ngay trong giây phút hiện tại này - đó là vì ta mải lo nghĩ hoặc bận tâm đến những cái ta không có. Giá bạn đừng lo nghĩ như thế thì hẳn bạn đã có được hạnh phúc trọn vẹn. Bạn bận tâm đến những gì mình không có. Thế mà, ngay chính lúc này bạn đang có mọi sự cần thiết để được hạnh phúc trọn vẹn.”
― Anthony de Mello, quote from Awareness: Conversations with the Masters
“(D.L. Moody, who said in his dying days)In a little while you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Do not believe a word of it, for I will be more alive than ever before.”
― Karen Kingsbury, quote from A Time to Dance
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