“Ah, ah. No releas, Paul. Eres muy joven, y aquellos que releen tienden a llenarse de la sabiduría inadecuada antes de tiempo. Ahora tienes que leer, leer todo lo que puedas, lo más heterogéneo posible. Sólo cuando llegas a mis años sabes que aquello que relees no es una pérdida de tiempo.”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“La traición y el asesinato van siempre juntos, como dos diablos unidos en un yugo que por el mismo fin trabajan tan groseramente por interés natural que la imaginación no se asombra ante ellos. Pero a ti, contra todo decoro, te estaba reservado, provocar asombro, al tiempo que traición y asesinato. Sea cual fuere el diablo que ha obrado sobre ti, se ha ganado fama de excelente en el Infierno.”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“Donde el entendimiento no ve más allá de uno mismo”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“En junio de 1922, con un marco se podían comprar dos cigarrillos; con doscientos setenta y dos marcos, un dólar americano. En marzo de 1923, el mismo día en que Paul metió al descuido una patata de más en la bolsa de la señora Schmidt, hacían falta cinco mil marcos para comprar un cigarrillo, y veinte mil para entrar en un banco y salir con un reluciente billete de un dólar.”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“El día empieza a medianoche, en mitad de la oscuridad. Y luego todo es luz.”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“En el que el héroe vence cuando acepta su propia muerte”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“Éste es el apretón de manos secreto del aprendiz, y sirve para que dos hermanos masones se reconozcan como tales. Se realiza presionando el pulgar contra la parte alta del nudillo del índice del saludado, que devolverá idéntico el apretón. Su nombre secreto es BOAZ, el de la columna que representa a la luna en el Templo de Salomón. Si un masón tiene dudas sobre otro que se presenta como tal, le pedirá que deletree este nombre. Los impostores comienzan por la letra B, mientras que el auténtico iniciado comienza por la tercera letra, de este modo: A-B-O-Z.”
― Juan Gomez-Jurado, quote from The Traitor's Emblem
“I saw thee once - only once - years ago:
I must not say how many - but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared stir, unless on tiptoe -
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death -
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That smiled and died in the parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.
Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell upon the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd - alas, in sorrow!
Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight -
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footsteps stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven! - oh, G**!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused - I looked -
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind the garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All - all expired save thee - save less than thou:
Save only divine light in thine eyes -
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them - they were the world to me.
I saw but them - saw only them for hours -
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a wo! yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!
How daring an ambition! yet how deep -
How fathomless a capacity for love!
But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.
They would not go - they never yet have gone.
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since.
They follow me - they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers - yet I their slave.
Their office is to illumine and enkindle -
My duty, to be saved by their bright fire,
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope,)
And are far up in Heaven - the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still - two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!”
― Edgar Allan Poe, quote from The Raven and Other Poems
“wherever a human being goes, there is a challenge. Be the best man you can, and your gods will look with favor upon you.”
― James A. Michener, quote from Hawaii
“تخلصت من الوطن ، تخلصت من الكاهن ، تخلصت من الماء . إنني أغربل نفسي . كلما تقدم بي العمر ، غربلت نفسي أكثر . إنني أتطهر ، كيف أقول لك ؟ إنني أتحرر ، إنني أصبح إِنساناً”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek
“Umana cosa è l'aver compassione agli afflitti; e come che a ciascuna persona stea bene, a coloro è massimamente richiesto li quali già hanno di conforto avuto mestiere, e hannol trovato in alcuni: fra' quali, se alcuno mai n'ebbe bisogno, o gli fu caro, o già ne ricevette piacere, io son uno di quegli.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, quote from The Decameron
“the story is not a pretty one. there is violence in it. And cruelty. But stories that are not pretty have a certain value, too, I suppose. Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannont always be sweetness and light.”
― Kate DiCamillo, quote from The Tale of Despereaux
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