He was welcome everywhere he went, and was well-aware of his inability to tolerate solitude. He felt no inclination to be alone and avoided it as far as possible; he didn't really want to become any better acquainted with himself. He knew that if he wanted to show his talents to best advantage, he needed to strike sparks off other people to fan the flames of warmth and exuberance in his heart. On his own he was frosty, no use to himself at all, like a match left lying in its box. ~Stefan Zweig
#quotes #stefan-zweig #solitude #people
quotistA woman is essentially a vessel made to be filled. ~Jose Saramago
#quotes #jose-saramago #women
proverbiosHe knew he should have counted. It was the rule to count to ten in his head before he opened his mouth. It was the rule to count to ten if he wanted to smash a man in the face for saying something he didn't like. It was the rule to count to ten if instinct wasn't needed, but common sense was. ~Melina Marchetta
#quotes #melina-marchetta #men #common-sense #speaking
Every parent has gone through a period when their child was not so happy with them. ~Elizabeth Edwards
#quotes #elizabeth-edwards #family #children #parenting
I really believed that the priests were acquainted with my thoughts; and often stood in great awe of them. They often told me they had power to strike me dead at any moment. ~Maria Monk
#quotes #maria-monk #christianity #power
"Perfect justice rules the world" for the Powers that are superior to us know the whole life of the Soul and all its' former lives. ~Iamblichus
#quotes #iamblichus #justice
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#quotes #johann-wolfgang-von-goethe #work
The struggle to maintain peace is immeasurably more difficult than any military operation. ~Anne O'Hare McCormick
#quotes #anne-o-hare-mccormick #peace #military
Authors are far closer to the truths enfolded in mystery than ordinary people, because of that very audacity of imagination which irritates their plodding critics. As only those who dare to make mistakes succeed greatly, only those who shake free the wings of their imagination brush, once in a way, the secrets of the great pale world. If such writers go wrong, it is not for the mere brains to tell them so ~Gertrude Atherton
#quotes #gertrude-atherton #writing #reality
There is no right to deny freedom to any object with a mind advanced enough to grasp the concept and desire the state. ~Isaac Asimov
#quotes #isaac-asimov #the-bicentennial-man #freedom #mind
I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment; that is not the Islamic way. ~Naguib Mahfouz
#quotes #naguib-mahfouz #knomeini #power
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space. ~Pema Chodron
#quotes #pema-chodron #love #inspiration
If Americans knew how to deal with other people, they could bring peace to the world. Alas, they have not learned enough yet. The true American feels that he is 100 percent welcome anywhere he goes. ~Nguyen Cao Ky
#quotes #nguyen-cao-ky #peace #united-states
The wide world was changing, and she wanted a different place in it. Not just wanted, but felt she deserved. If the world didn't owe her a living, as her mother repeatedly warned her, it owed her a break. She had a strong sense that a better, more exciting, more rewarding life than that which had been the lot of her parents and grandparents was hers by right. In this she was guilty of nothing more serious than the arrogance of youth, from which every generation suffers and by which it distinguishes itself from the preceding one. ~James Robertson
#quotes #james-robertson #world #struggle
Truly, there are terrible primal arcana of earth which had better be left unknown and unevoked; dread secrets which have nothing to do with man, and which man may learn only in exchange for peace and sanity; cryptic truths which make the knower evermore an alien among his kind, and cause him to walk alone on earth. ~H. P. Lovecraft
#quotes #h-p-lovecraft #earth #life #pessimism
To devastate by language, to blow up the word and with it the world. ~Emile M. Cioran
#quotes #emile-m-cioran #language
Nothing is more certain of destroying any good feeling that may be cherished towards us than to show distrust. To be suspected as an enemy is often enough to make a man become so; the whole matter is over, there is no farther use of guarding against it. On the contrary, confidence leads us naturally to act kindly, we are affected by the good opinion which others entertain of us, and we are not easily induced to lose it. ~Marie de Rabutin Chantal
#quotes #marquise-de-sevigne #marie-de-rabutin-chantal #feelings
Friends, near or far, are important to us. All of ours have an awareness of other persons' feelings, a courtesy that's inevitable. When I find that consideration in a fan, I'm immediately impressed. ~Kent McCord
#quotes #kent-mccord #friendship #feelings #fans
One who asks questions is a fool for five minutes, one who does not ask questions remains a fool forever. ~Chinese Proverb
#proverbs #chinese-proverbs #ignorance
You have to take strength from the people that love you and the people that love Barbara and the huge number of expressions of sympathy and compassion and support. That has been extremely moving. ~Ted Olson
#quotes #ted-olson #love #sympathy
Something will be there when the flood recedes. We know that. It will be those people now standing in the water, and on those rooftops, many black, many poor. Homeless. Overlooked. And it will be New Orleans, though its memory may be shortened, its self-gaze and eccentricity scoured out so that what's left is a city more like other cities, less insular, less self-regarding, but possibly more self-knowing after today. A city on firmer ground. ~Richard Ford
#quotes #richard-ford #poverty #floods #new-orleans
For him and his brother, he now knew, that music was real. Because all you had to do, really, was be willing to use your imagination. And listen. ~Holly Goldberg Sloan
#quotes #holly-goldberg-sloan #imagination #music
I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones. And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing. I therefore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair. ~Viktor E. Frankl
#quotes #viktor-e-frankl #life #books #writing
There have been a couple of jobs I have done without thinking, without being engaged, and they just stink. ~Clancy Brown
#quotes #clancy-brown #thinking #work