“...she had begun to learn that success was sometimes simply a matter of having the courage to proceed in the direction of one's dreams.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child but when I grew up I put away childish things; for now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face!”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“Strange that one man's actions could touch so many other people, like a single, thoughtless breath of wind coming in an open window and blowing the playing cards every which way.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“Nature gives you the face you possess at twenty . . . Life the face you possess at thirty. But the face you have at fifty is the face you deserve.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“There is no weakness in crying. If we do not sorrow over what hurts us, how do we ever go past it? I have shed many a tear myself, Barbara Devane, over what life has brought me. Compassion can come from great pain, if you allow it. But compassion takes courage. Bitterness is easier.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“Change is an easy thing to decide and a difficult thing to do. It is the day-to-day struggle of it that defeats people. Do not despair if old ways look good to you. Despair only if you fall into them too often.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“In this life, many things happen in which we play a shameful part. Those of us who are strong forgive ourselves and go on. The weak wallow in their shame and allow it to devour them. There is no one of us without sin, child. There ought to be some comfort in that.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“Nature gives you the face you possess at twenty, she always quoted to her daughter Fanny. Life the face you possess at thirty. But the face you have at fifty is the face you deserve.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“What do you know of love? It comes from being with someone, from facing life together! Life in its awfulness as well as its joy! You love a handsome face. Nothing more!”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“She did not know yet know it, but her voice made her immediately sensual. Roger looked stunned, and Diana saw it. As inexperienced as she was, so did Barbara. The sudden admiration in his eyes was different from that of a few moments ago, when it had been man to child. His look was now man to woman, acknowledging a part of herself she did not yet know she possessed. And she smiled tenderly at him, her love on her face, because he was the first man to look at her so, and because he had been kind to her when she came in, and because she loved him, as she always had. And this time it was he who caught his breath, for when Barbara smiled, eyes were dazzled.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“The night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee…”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“The first is about forgiveness. It is never done well in little bits and dabs. Do it all at once and never look back, or do not do it at all.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
“And the second is about change. Change is an easy thing to decide and a difficult thing to do. It is the day–to–day struggle of it that defeats people. Do not despair if old ways look good to you. Despair only if you fall into them too often.”
― Karleen Koen, quote from Through a Glass Darkly
Karleen Koen
Born place: New York City, The United States
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“I’ll stare the bastard in the face as he screams to God, and I’ll laugh harder when he whimpers like a baby. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like heaven after what I’ve done to him.”
― Frank Miller, quote from Sin City, Vol. 1: The Hard Goodbye
“Uniqueness is the commodity of glut.”
― Matt Ridley, quote from Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
“All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined those dead, those living, those generations yet to come that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands. Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength to the very survival of the human tapestry. Every hour in every life contains such often unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous day.”
― Dean Koontz, quote from From the Corner of His Eye
“Every day, people engaged in the clever defiance of their own intuition become, in mid-thought, victims of violence and accidents. So when we wonder why we are victims so often, the answer is clear: It is because we are so good at it. A woman could offer no greater cooperation to her soon-to-be attacker than to spend her time telling herself, “But he seems like such a nice man.” Yet this is exactly what many people do. A woman is waiting for an elevator, and when the doors open she sees a man inside who causes her apprehension. Since she is not usually afraid, it may be the late hour, his size, the way he looks at her, the rate of attacks in the neighborhood, an article she read a year ago—it doesn’t matter why. The point is, she gets a feeling of fear. How does she respond to nature’s strongest survival signal? She suppresses it, telling herself: “I’m not going to live like that, I’m not going to insult this guy by letting the door close in his face.” When the fear doesn’t go away, she tells herself not to be so silly, and she gets into the elevator. Now, which is sillier: waiting a moment for the next elevator, or getting into a soundproofed steel chamber with a stranger she is afraid of? The inner voice is wise, and part of my purpose in writing this book is to give people permission to listen to it.”
― Gavin de Becker, quote from The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
“Anyway, that's what life is, just one learning experience after another, and when you're through with all the learning experiences you graduate and what you get for a diploma is, you die.”
― Frederik Pohl, quote from Gateway
The Dangerous Lives...
Mistakes Were Made (...
The Goal: A Process...
On the Other Side
A Long Way Gone
The Girl In BetweenBookQuoters 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.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
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