“To be sociable is a risky thing—even fatal—because it means being in contact with people, most of whom are dull, perverse and ignorant and are really with you only because they cannot bear their own company. Most people bore themselves and greet you not as a true friend but as a distraction—like a dancing dog or some half-wit actor
with a fund of amusing stories.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“Where have you come from boy?'
He looked at her again.
'From hell, to take you away in the night and eat you.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“...the older I get, the more I believe that if love is to be judged by most of its visible effects, it looks more like hatred than friendship.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“- Why you?
- (...) I’m the best.
- Modest of you.
- I am the best. Modesty has nothing to say about it.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“... If the dead can come back to this earth and move unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night—amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours—always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or if the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“Solitude is a wonderful thing in two ways. First, it allows a man to be with himself, and second, it prevents him being with others.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“How can I know for sure if it's my son speaking and not you?"
"You never can, my lord. Just as no man can ever be sure that he alone is a thinking and feeling creature and everyone else a machine that only pretends to feel and think.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“Get on your feet or die.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“You should never tell your best friend anything you wouldn´t be prepared to tell your worst enemy.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“What are those humps on her chest?”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it as it is to its victims—the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“...Again she did not seem to hear, still looking into Cale’s eyes. Then slowly, hopelessly, she dropped her gaze.
“I understand,” she said.
It was that, of course, that pierced him as if she had stabbed him through the heart. To him it was the sound of lost faith and it was unendurable. He felt he’d become a kind of god in her eyes, and it was simply impossible to give up her adoration.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“I have a message for your daughter,” said Cale. “I am bound to her with cables that not even God can break. One day, if there is a soft breeze on her cheek, it may be my breath; one night, if the cool wind plays with her hair, it may be my shadow passing by.”
And with this terrible threat he faced forward and the procession started once more. In less than a minute they were gone. In her shady room Arbell Swan-Neck stood white and cold as alabaster.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“The wicked have weakness other than their willingness to kill and maim. Even the bleakest, cruelest soul can have its tender spots. Even the harshest desert has its pools, its shady trees and gentle streams.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“Even the bleakest, cruelest soul can have its tender spots. Even the harshest desert has its pools, its shady trees and gentle streams.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“t was once famously said that it is as well that wars are so ruinously expensive, else we would never stop fighting them. However well said, it seems also to be endlessly forgotten that, while there may be just wars and unjust wars, there are never any cheap wars.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“...this refinement and delicacy were what Cale adored; but Cale had been beaten into shape, hammered in dreadful fires of fear and pain. How could she be with him for long? A secret part of Arbell had been searching for some time for a way to leave her lover—although she was unaware of this, it is only fair to record. And so as Cale waited for her to save him while he worked out a way of saving her, she had already chosen the bitter but reasonable path of the good, of the many over the one...”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“That's how the world is, and there is nothing an insignificant nobody like you, or even a significant somebody like me, can do about it.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
“...his soul (was) ringing like a well-struck bell. But it was a bell that rang with more than joy and adoration — there was the sound there too of anger and resentment. She would not look at him because she did not want to be in his presence. She hated him and he (how could he not?) hated her in return.”
― Paul Hoffman, quote from The Left Hand of God
Paul Hoffman
Born place: The United Kingdom
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“Most people simply aren’t unhappy enough with the known to trade it for the unknown”
― Joan D. Vinge, quote from The Snow Queen
“Mentre la baciavo con l’anima sulle labbra, l’anima d’improvviso mi fuggì”
― Edgar Lee Masters, quote from Spoon River Anthology
“Life is the future, not the past. The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created a new.”
― Terry Goodkind, quote from The Pillars of Creation
“What is a woman's power then?" she asked.
"I don't think we know."
"When has a woman power because she's a woman? With her children, I suppose. For a while..."
"In her house, maybe."
She looked around the kitchen. "But the doors are shut," she said, "the doors are locked."
"Because you're valuable."
"Oh yes. We're precious. So long as we're powerless.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, quote from Tehanu
“Don't give me some stupid lecture about war when the person we're talking about losing is you!" I said, surprised by the savagery in my tone. At least my voice didn't shake.
His face blurred and I tasted salt on my lips. It was warm, warm like Pritkin's hands coming up and framing my face, his thumbs brushing over my eyelids, soft as his fingers in my hair. "One person is not so important in the scheme of things", he said, and his voice was gentle, gentle when it never was, and that almost broke me.
But you are important, I thought. And yet he couldn't see that. In Pritkin's mind, he was an experiment gone wrong, a child cast out, a man valued by his peers only for his ability to kill the things they feared. Just once, I wished he could see what I did.
"Then neither is this", I said, leaning in and pressing my mouth to his, the kiss lightened by desperation and weighted down by everything he meant to me.”
― Karen Chance, quote from Curse the Dawn
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Spinster: Making a L...BookQuoters 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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