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Borders Quotes

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Borders Quotes

“By the time I make my way to the border of Mauritania, to the edge of the Sahara, I see no end to being lost. You can spend your entire life simply falling in that direction. It isn't a station you reach but just the general state of going down. Once you make it back, if you make it back, you will stand before your long-lost friends but in some essential way they will no longer know you.”

IfsKnowsWayLongEndsStatesFallLostEssentialsEdgesMy WayBordersStationsLost FriendLost YouSahara
Author:Nick Flynn
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“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”

WayFeelsFirstsDoeEarthSoundDarknessSeaTasteDepthSmellGravesBitterBordersAutumnTouchingInferiorsRipeContainingFall AutumnFall SeasonAutumn Days
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“I really beleive that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let's say 100,000 miles, their outlook wouls be fundamentally changed . The all-important border would be invisible, that noisy arguement suddenly silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified facade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or communist; blue and white,not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.”

IfsWorldImportantWould BeEarthPoliticalTurnsUnderstandingWhitePoorLeaderRichCryChangedPlanetsBlueDistanceTinyMilesInvisibleBordersTreatmentCommunistCapitalistGlobesOutlookPresentingEnviousNoisyUnifiedPolitical LeadersEnviedFacadeRich Or PoorHomogeneousBlue And White
Author:Michael Collins
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“Politics deals with externals: borders, wealth, crimes. Authentic forgiveness deals with the evil in a persons heart, something for which politics has no cure. Virulent evil (racism, ethnic hatred) spreads through society like an airborne disease, one cough infects a whole busload. When moments of grace do occur, the world must pause, fall silent, and acknowledge that indeed forgiveness offers a kind of cure. There will be no escape from wars, from hunger, from misery, from rancid discrimination, from denial of human rights, if our hearts aren't changed.”

IfsWorldHumansHeartKindPersonsWarWholeMomentsFallEvilWealthDealsGraceRightsCrimeChangedOffersDiseaseRacismHatredMiserySilentHungerHuman RightsSpreadDiscriminationCuresDenialAcknowledgeBordersPausesAirborne
Author:Philip Yancey
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“Because European countries now resolve differences through negotiation and consensus, there's sometimes an assumption that the entire world functions in the same way. But let us never forget ... beyond Europe's borders, in a world where oppression and violence are very real, liberation is still a moral goal, and freedom and security still need defenders.”

WorldWayNeedsStillsRealCountrySometimesGoalDifferencesForgetMoralViolenceSecurityEuropeFunctionOppressionLiberationBordersAssumptionResolveNever ForgetNegotiationConsensusDefendersEuropean Countries
Author:George W. Bush
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“There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants my violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected.”

IfsTryingPersonsLawOrderDifferencesMoralCrimeDeserveDignityCrossesTablesCriminalsSignificantViolentCommitBordersEntryMigrantsViolent Crimes
Author:Madeleine Albright
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“For a long time I believed the opposite of passion was death. I was wrong. Passion and death are implicit, one in the other. Past the border of a fiery life lies the netherworld. I can trace this road, which took me through places so hot the very air burned the lungs. I did not turn back. I pressed on, and eventually passed over the border, beyond which lies a place that is wordless and cold, so cold that it, like mercury, burns a freezing blue flame.”

LongI CanPastLyingTurnsPassionAirColdLong TimeOppositesHotBlueBordersFlamesBurnedLungsFieryMercuryImplicitFreezing
Author:Marya Hornbacher
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“These short stories are vast structures existing mostly in the subconscious of our cultural history. They will live with the reader long after the words have been translated into ideas and dreams. That's because a good short story crosses the borders of our nations and our prejudices and our beliefs. A good short story asks a question that can't be answered in simple terms. And even if we come up with some understanding, years later, while glancing out of a window, the story still has the potential to return, to alter right there in our mind and change everything.”

IfsYearsMindLongHas BeensStillsIdeasStoriesDreamAsksBeliefNationsUnderstandingTermSimpleReturnReaderCrossesWindowPrejudiceStructureCome UpBordersShort StorySubconsciousIdeas And Dreams
Book:The Best American Short Stories 2003
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“And wasn't my mind also like another crib in the depths of which I felt I remained ensconced, even in order to watch what was happening outside? When I saw an external object, my awareness that I was seeing it would remain between me and it, lining it with a thin spiritual border that prevented me from ever directly touching its substance; it would volatize in some way before I could make contact with it, just as an incandescent body brought near a wet object never touches its moisture because it is always preceded by a zone of evaporation.”

WayMindBodySpiritualOrderFeltWatchesSawsSeeingAwarenessObjectsHappeningsDepthContactSubstanceBordersZoneTouchingWetMoistureEvaporation
Book:Swann's Way
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“It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life -- and herein lies its secret -- takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it; it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch.”

HumansLittlesPersonsLyingLosesSecretCrossesDirectConvictionMilesContactHuman LifeBordersInchesFractionsMiles AwayProximity
Author:Milan Kundera
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“...there was another, gorier parturition, when two nations incarnated out of one. A foreigner drew a magic line on a map and called it the new border; it became a river of blood upon the earth. And the orchards, fields, factories, businesses, all on the wrong side of that line, vanished with a wave of the pale conjuror's wand.”

TwoEarthNationsSidesLinesMagicBloodFieldsRiversWaveBordersMapsFactoriesPaleForeignersWandsOrchardTwo Nations
Book:A Fine Balance
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“I am SHADOW, and my dwelling is near to the Catacombs of Ptolemais, and hard by those dim plains of Helusion which border upon the foul Charonian canal." And then did we, the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling, and shuddering, and aghast, for the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one being, but of a multitude of beings, and, varying in their cadences from syllable to syllable fell duskly upon our ears in the well-remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed friends.”

WellsHardVoiceHorrorThousandShadowEarsSevenFamiliarRememberedBordersToneSeatsAccentsMultitudesDwellingFoulTremblingSyllablesDepartedCanalsCadenceShudderingAghastDeparted Friends
Book:The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and tales. Eureka, an essay on the material and spiritual universe
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“Eiffel saw his Tower in the form of a serious object, rational, useful; men return it to him in the form of a great baroque dream which quite naturally touches on the borders of the irrational ... architecture is always dream and function, expression of a utopia and instrument of a convenience.”

MenDreamFormSawsObjectsSeriousExpressionReturnFunctionInstrumentsArchitectureRationalBordersTowersIrrationalConvenienceUtopiaBaroqueEiffel
Book:The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies
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“Anyway, now she thinks of Estha and Rahel as Them, because, separately, the two of them are no longer what They were or ever thought They would be. Ever. Their lives have a size and a shape now. Estha has his and Rahel hers. Edges, Borders, Boundaries, Brinks and Limits have appeared like a team of trolls on their separate horizons. Short creatures with long shadows, patrolling the Blurry End. Gentle half-moons have gathered under their eyes and they are as old as Ammu was when she died.”

ThinkingLongTwoEndsWould BeEyeHalfTeamShapesMoonCreaturesLimitsShadowDiedSizeEdgesBoundariesGentleBordersHorizonTrollBlurryLong ShadowsHalf MoonPatrolling
Book:The God of Small Things
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“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”

LoveHumansMarriageLove YouAcceptanceMarriedBordersLive ByPregnancyOfferingMiraculousBeing MarriedGetting MarriedLove And MarriageMarriage LoveBest MarriageWeddings And LoveLove And AcceptanceLove Acceptance
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
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“Sadly, at a time when so much sophisticated cultural criticism by hip intellectuals from diverse locations extols a vision of cultural hybridity, border crossing, subjectivity constructed out of plurality, the vast majority of folks in this society still believe in a notion of identity that is rooted in a sense of essential traits and characteristics that are fixed and static.”

BelieveStillsVisionIdentityEssentialsCriticismMajorityNotionFolksHipsBordersFixedCharacteristicsTraitsRootedDiverseSophisticatedLocationCrossingsStaticSubjectivityThis SocietyHybridity
Author:Bell Hooks
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“We could have made it to the Arizona border in a few more hours if we hadn't been distracting each other with stupid little arguments. Don't get me wrong; I liked J.Lo fine. I've made that bed. But I'm not sure there's a person in the world I could be with twenty-four hours a day for three weeks without getting a little snippy. If I ever meet such a person, I'm marrying them.”

IfsWorldLittlesPersonsMadeThreeHoursFourWeekStupidFineBedArgumentTwentiesMade ItBordersNot SureMarryingArizonaBickering
Book:The True Meaning of Smekday
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“There is one thing you know for sure, one fact that never fails to comfort you: the worst day of your life wasn't in there, in that mess. And it will do you good to remember the best day of your life wasn't in there, either. But another person brought you closer to those borders than you had been, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.”

KnowsPersonsFactsRememberFailingOne ThingWorstComfortMessBordersBad ThingsWorst Day
Book:How Did You Get This Number
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“It was anyway all a long time ago; the world, we know now, is as it is and not different; if there was ever a time when there were passages, doors, the borders open and many crossing, that time is not now. The world is older than it was. Even the weather isn’t as we remember it clearly once being; never lately does there come a summer day such as we remember, never clouds as white as that, never grass as odorous or shade as deep and full of promise as we remember they can be, as once upon a time they were.”

IfsKnowsWorldLongDoeDifferentRememberWhiteDoorsPromiseSummerLong TimeCloudsWeatherGrassBordersShadePassagesLong Time AgoCrossingsOnce Upon A TimeSummer Days
Author:John Crowley
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“Society can give its young men almost any job and they'll figure how to do it. They'll suffer for it and die for it and watch their friends die for it, but in the end, it will get done. That only means that society should be careful about what it asks for. ... Soldiers themselves are reluctant to evaluate the costs of war, but someone must. That evaluation, ongoing and unadulterated by politics, may be the one thing a country absolutely owes the soldiers who defend its borders.”

MenGivingShouldMayMeanWarEndsCountryDoneJobsYoungSufferingDiesAsksWatchesOne ThingFiguresCostSoldierCarefulBordersYoung ManBe CarefulOngoingEvaluateReluctantEvaluationCost Of War
Author:Sebastian Junger
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“I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”

ThinkingMenFeelsLongHas BeensStillsI CanDreamHandsJourneyMy FriendsBlueExcitedConclusionRedemptionBordersExcitementShakesUncertainPacificFree ManLong Journey
Author:Stephen King
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“But the law is an odd thing. For instance, one country in Europe has a law that requires all its bakers to sell bread at the exact same price. A certain island has a law that forbids anyone from removing its fruit. And a town not too far from where you live has a law that bars me from coming within five miles of its borders.”

CountryLawCertainFiveEuropeTownsSellsFruitLawyerMilesBarsBreadInstanceOddBordersIslandsBakersWhere You LiveOdd Things
Author:Daniel Handler
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“I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know. Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven't said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.”

KnowsWaySaidStillsImportantBeautifulNightSeaLandHavensMonthsSummerImportant ThingsLongingBordersFallenAutumnShoreTwilightAugustDay And Night
Author:Tove Jansson
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“The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?”

LovePersonsAgeAmericaLawHumanityThreeNationsJusticeLibertyChristianityMillionsLandInstitutionsDemocraticSlavePrivilegePopulationBordersPurityDeniedBoast
Author:Frederick Douglass
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