“If truth is not acceptable, it becomes the imagination of others.”
“To understand the stars would spoil their appearance.”
“The map? I will first make it.”
“She would have liked to sit upon a rock and listen to words, not of any man, but detached, mysterious, poetic words that she alone would interpret through some sense inherited from sleep.”
“To make yourself, it is also necessary to destroy yourself.”
“Human relationships are vast as deserts: they demand all daring, she seemed to suggest. ”
“I am compelled into this country.”
“His legend will be written down, eventually, by those who are troubled by it.”
“At times his arrogance did resolve itself into simplicity, though it was difficult, especially for strangers, to distinguish these occasions.”
“He himself, he realized, had always been most abominably frightened, even at the height of his divine power, a frail god upon a rickety throne, afraid of opening letters, of making decisions, afraid of the instinctive knowledge in the eyes of mules, of the innocent eyes of good men, of the elastic nature of the passions, even of the devotion he had received from some men, and one woman, and dogs.”
“To kiss and to kill are similar words to eyes that focus with difficulty.”
“Such was the texture of her marble.
[In a description of Laura Trevelyan.]”
“In general,' Voss replied, 'it is necessary to communicate without knowledge of the language.”
“—Los ateos, por lo general, lo son por razones mezquinas —aseveró Voss—. La más mezquina de todas ellas estriba en su propia falta de grandeza espiritual, que les impide concebir la idea de un Poder Divino. Al”
“You have taken the important, essential core of the apple, including (one must not forget) the nasty pips, and scales (I do not know what you call those little things) which must be spat out.”
“But the purpose and nature are never clearly revealed. Human behaviour is a series of lunges, of which, it is sometimes sensed, the direction is inevitable.”
“Voss could always, if necessary, fail to understand. But wounds will wince, especially in the salt air. He was smiling and screwing up his eyes at the great theatre of light and water. Some pitied him. Some despised him for his funny appearance of a foreigner. None, he realized with a tremor of anger, was conscious of his strength. Mediocre, animal men never do guess at the power of rock or fire, until the last moment before those elements reduce them to - nothing. This, the palest, the most transparent of words, yet comes closest to being complete.”
“Thank you Liv… Thank you for being the only woman ever brave enough to love me.”
“I’m a believer in the single-bullet theory. You can fall in love and make love many times but there is only one bullet with your name etched on the side. And if you are lucky enough to be shot with that bullet then the wound never heals.”
“We are all interludes in history, a drawn breath to make pause in the rush, and when we are gone, those breaths join the chorus of the wind. But who listens to the wind?”
“I was deeply interested in the little family history which he detailed to me with all that candor which a Frenchman indulges whenever mere self is the theme.”
“Here are three separate but similar things: shyness, introversion and social anxiety. You can have one, two or all three of these things simultaneously. A lot of the time people thing they're all the same thing, but that's just not true. Extroverts can be shy, introverts can be bold, and a condition like anxiety can strike whatever kind of social animal you are.”
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