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Steven Magee

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“Well it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths...," I began. "Go on," she said "The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy ending and all that. Like Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion. But the second kind, they show you life more like it is. Like in Huckleberry Finn where Huck's pa is a no-good drunk and Jim suffers so. The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up." "People like happy ending, Mattie. They don't want to be shaken up." "I guess not, ma'am. It's just that there are no Captain Wentworths, are there? But there are plenty of Pap Finns. And things go well for Anne Elliot in the end, but they don't go well for most people." My voice trembled as I spoke, as it did whenever I was angry. "I feel let down sometimes. The people in the books-the heroes- they're always so...heroic. And I try to be, but..." "...you're not," Lou said, licking deviled ham off her fingers. "...no, I'm not. People in books are good and noble and unselfish, and people aren't that way... and I feel, well... hornswoggled sometimes. By Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott. Why do writers make things sugary when life isn't that way?" I asked too loudly. "Why don't they tell the truth? Why don't they tell how a pigpen looks after the sow's eaten her children? Or how it is for a girl when her baby won't come out? Or that cancer has a smell to it? All those books, Miss Wilcox," I said, pointing at a pile of them," and I bet not one of them will tell you what cancer smells like. I can, though. It stinks. Like meat gone bad and dirty clothes and bog water all mixed together. Why doesn't anyone tell you that?" No one spoke for a few seconds. I could hear the clock ticking and the sound of my own breathing. Then Lou quietly said, "Cripes, Mattie. You oughtn't to talk like that." I realized then that Miss Wilcox had stopped smiling. Her eyes were fixed om me, and I was certain she'd decided I was morbid and dispiriting like Miss Parrish had said and that I should leave then and there. "I'm sorry, Miss Wilcox," I said, looking at the floor. "I don't mean to be coarse. I just... I don't know why I should care what happens to people in a drawing room in London or Paris or anywhere else when no one in those places cares what happens to people in Eagle Bay." Miss Wilcox's eyes were still fixed on me, only now they were shiny. Like they were the day I got my letter from Barnard. "Make them care, Mattie," she said softly. "And don't you ever be sorry.”

Inspiational
Book:A Northern Light
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“For those who are of the household of faith, even during troublesome times, they must remember what God had already said about them in His word. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Charles, you have the ability to stand against the adversary. And remember, a lie or darkness is exposed when it's confronted with the light of truth.”

InspiationalLegal Thrillers
Book:Trial of Injustice
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“आज सड़कों पर लिखे हैं सैंकड़ों नारे न देख घर अँधेरा देख तू आकाश के तारे न देख एक दरिया है यहाँ पर दूर तक फैला हुआ आज अपने बाजुओं को देख पतवारें न देख अब यक़ीनन ठोस है धरती हक़ीक़त की तरह यह हक़ीक़त देख, लेकिन ख़ौफ़ के मारे न देख वे सहारे भी नहीं अब जंग लड़नी है तुझे कट चुके जो हाथ ,उन हाथों में तलवारें न देख दिल को बहला ले इजाज़त है मगर इतना न उड़ रोज़ सपने देख, लेकिन इस क़दर प्यारे न देख ये धुँधलका है नज़र का,तू महज़ मायूस है रोज़नों को देख,दीवारों में दीवारें न देख राख, कितनी राख है चारों तरफ़ बिखरी हुई राख में चिंगारियाँ ही देख, अँगारे न देख.”

HindiInspiational
Book:साये में धूप [Saaye mein Dhoop]
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“My grief reminds me what is dear to my heart by what is no longer to be. Loss is a part of the movement of change, and the grief that accompanies loss is necessary in order to let the movement of change flow through. Tears are like a river releasing to open waters.”

Inspirational QuotesGrief And LossGrief QuotesChange QuotesInspiationalGr
Book:ChangeAbility: How artists activists and awakeners navigate change
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“To understand this new frontier, I will have to try to master one of the most difficult and counterintuitive theories ever recorded in the annals of science: quantum physics. Listen to those who have spent their lives immersed in this world and you will have a sense of the challenge we face. After making his groundbreaking discoveries in quantum physics, Werner Heisenberg recalled, "I repeated to myself again and again the question: Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments?" Einstein declared after one discovery, "If it is correct it signifies the end of science." Schrödinger was so shocked by the implications of what he'd cooked up that he admitted, "I do not like it and I am sorry I had anything to do with it." Nevertheless, quantum physics is now one of the most powerful and well-tested pieces of science on the books. Nothing has come close to pushing it off its pedestal as one of the great scientific achievements of the last century. So there is nothing to do but to dive headfirst into this uncertain world. Feynman has some good advice for me as I embark on my quest: "I am going to tell you what nature behaves like. If you will simply admit that maybe she does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain,' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.”

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Book:The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science
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