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A Quotes

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All A Quotes

“All he wanted was enough time to consider all his options without being dragged into his household’s petty squabbles or being nagged by his wife about that damnable pilgrimage. Was that so much to ask? Apparently so, for he’d yet to find a peaceful moment at Caen, not with Marguerite sulking and Aimar lurking and Will acting put-upon and Geoff wanting to lay plans and Richard strutting around as if he were the incarnation of Roland and poor Tilda grieving over Maman’s absence and his father refusing to heed any voice but his own.”

“All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, the Real World. Look at yon butterfly. If it swallowed all Hell, Hell would not be big enough to do it any harm or to have any taste' 'It seems big enough when you're in it, Sir.' 'And yet all loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies, and itchings that it contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in Heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed even in being bad as truly as good is good. If all Hell's miseries together entered the consciousness of yon wee yellow bird on the bough there, they would be swallowed up without trace, as if one drop of ink had been dropped into that Great Ocean to which your terrestrial Pacific is only a molecule' 'I see,' said I at last. 'She couldn't fit into Hell.”

“All Hellenistic schools seem to define [wisdom] in approximately the same terms: first and foremost, as a state of perfect peace of mind. From this viewpoint, philosophy appears as a remedy for human worries, anguish, and misery brought about, for the Cynics, by social constraints and conventions; for the Epicureans, by the quest for false pleasures; for the Stoics, by the pursuit of pleasure and egoistic self-interest; and for the Skeptics, by false opinions. Whether or not they laid claim to the Socratic heritage, all Hellenistic philosophers agreed with Socrates that human beings are plunged in misery, anguish, and evil because they exist in ignorance. Evil is to be found not within things, but in the value judgments with people bring to bear upon things. People can therefore be cured of their ills only if they are persuaded to change their value judgments, and in this sense all these philosophies wanted to be therapeutic.”

“All her body went instantly cold. Inside of the pocket there was a thorny branch of gorse flower, glowing in supernatural gold as she unveiled it in the dark. She turned around and faced Duamutef – utter silence as if words could cut the air. ‘Tomorrow,’ Duamutef uttered gravely ‘you must wish for your real desires.’ He paused. ‘If you don’t, I will.”

“All her English professors say the best authors write what they know, but all Melanie knows is what has already been written. Petra is always on her case about going out into the world, experiencing things, but Melanie prefers to spend her time in her own reading chair at home. There she can sit with the quiet and not worry about filling a silence, coming up with something to add to a conversation. Petra always says Melanie is too worried about what people think, that Melanie truly believes no one will think what she has to say is worth listening to. Maybe Petra is right.”

“All her knowledge is gone now. Everything she ever learned, or heard, or saw. Her particular way of looking at Hamlet or daisies or thinking about love, all her private intricate thoughts, her inconsequential secret musings – they’re gone too. I heard this expression once: Each time someone dies, a library burns. I’m watching it burn right to the ground.”

“All her life, she'd tried to find ways to sneak out of the castle. Ironically, only last year, she'd discovered the best way to sneak out was to actually pay attention to her lessons. Her magic lessons, that was. "Rays of sunshine," she whispered, "align!" As soon as she spoke the words, a powerful ray of light shone upon Aurora, concealing her from the guards' views. It wouldn't last long, so she hastily clambered over the castle wall.”

“All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer-- suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother-- die suffering. Go-saeng-- the word made her sick. What else was there besides this? She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she'd drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the conditions of his birth. Did mothers fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come?”