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Quote by Anthony Marra

Work

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

This novel delves into the lives of individuals in a war-torn region, illustrating the profound impact of conflict on ordinary people. The story is woven around the lives of several characters, highlighting themes of survival, resilience, and the enduring bonds of human connection. more

Author

Anthony Marra
Anthony Marra

Anthony Marra is an American writer born in 1984. His works are known for their delicate emotions and profound themes, particularly for his skill in depicting the conflicts and complexities of human emotions in the Middle East. more

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“Springtime brings the consolation of hope. It gives the assurance that death has lost its sting. There is beauty in this hope and this assurance. There is beauty in the woman whose chemo-induced baldness, unswaddled, shines like a pearl, in the man whose palsy makes him shimmy like a Spanish dancer. There is beauty in their defiance and their acceptance. There is beauty in their standing in the hope that death can't steal or destroy.”

“The emotions, I have observed, are but slightly influenced by arithmetical considerations: the mother, when her sweet lisping little ones have all been taken from her one after another, and she is hanging over her last dead babe, finds small consolation in the fact that the tiny dimpled corpse is but one of a necessary average, and that a thousand other babes brought into the world at the same time are doing well, and are likely to live; and if you stood beside that mother—if you knew her pang and shared it—it is probable you would be equally unable to see a ground of complacency in statistics. Doubtless a complacency resting on that basis is highly rational; but emotion, I fear, is obstinately irrational: it insists on caring for individuals; it absolutely refuses to adopt the quantitative view of human anguish, and to admit that thirteen happy lives are a set-off against twelve miserable lives, which leaves a clear balance on the side of satisfaction.”