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Mundane Quotes

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Mundane Quotes

“The idea that you might end up in a job that doesn't allow you to be who you are, over the course of a lifetime, is still one of the most chilling nightmares to me. It's a good metaphor for fears I have about losing my soul in some accidental, mundane way. So, to me, these jobs that my characters have are very loaded. They immediately suggest a complex character to me, a woman who is, say, a secretary, but also a vigilante on behalf of her own soul.”

WayWritingStillsIdeasSoulEndsCharacterMightJobsCoursesLosingWho You AreLifetimeComplexesMetaphorMy SoulNightmareSecretaryBehalfChillMundaneLoadedBe Who You AreVigilanteComplex Characters
Author:Miranda July
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“Do any of us, except in our dreams, truly expect to be reunited with our hearts' deepest loves, even when they leave us only for minutes, and on the most mundane of errands? No, not at all. Each time they go from our sight we in our secret hearts count them as dead. Having been given so much, we reason, how could we expect not to be brought as low as Lucifer for the staggering presumption of our love?”

HeartReasonDreamGivenSecretMinutesLowsSightOur LoveOur DreamsMundanePresumptionLuciferStaggeringErrandsReunitedDeepest Love
Book:The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
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“Here's an example: someone says, "Master, please hand me the knife," and he hands them the knife, blade first. "Please give me the other end," he says. And the master replies, "What would you do with the other end?" This is answering an everyday matter in terms of the metaphysical. When the question is, "Master, what is the fundamental principle of Buddhism?" Then he replies, "There is enough breeze in this fan to keep me cool." That is answering the metaphysical in terms of the everyday, and that is, more or less, the principle zen works on. The mundane and the sacred are one and the same.”

GivingFirstsEndsMatterEnoughHandsTermPrinciplesFansExampleMastersBuddhismPleaseGive MeFundamentalsSacredEverydayKnivesMetaphysicalBreezeBladesMundaneFundamental Principles
Book:What is Zen?
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“The search for God is a reversal of the normal, mundane worldly order. In search for God, you revert from what attracts you and swim toward that which is difficult. You abandon your comforting and familiar habits with the hope (the mere hope!) that something greater will be offered you in return for what you have given up.. if we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be.. a prudent insurance policy.”

IfsSoulHumanityOrderBeliefGivenDifficultAnswersDestinyGreaterPolicyReturnHabitNormalMereFamiliarMeaning Of LifeAbandonCourageousLeapSwimWorldlyComfortingGiven UpMundanePrudentLeap Of FaithReversalInsurance Policy
Author:Elizabeth Gilbert
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“It was the kind of pure, undiffused light that can only come from a really hot blue sky, the kind that makes even a concrete highway painful to behold and turns every distant reflective surface into a little glint of flame. Do you know how sometimes on very fine days the sun will shine with a particular intensity that makes the most mundane objects in the landscape glow with an unusual radiance, so that buildings and structures you normally pass without a glance suddenly become arresting, even beautiful? Well, they seem to have that light in Australia nearly all the time.”

KnowsWellsKindLittlesSometimesLightSeemsBeautifulTurnsKnow HowSunSkyObjectsBuildingParticularFinePureHotBlueStructureShiningPainfulSurfaceLandscapeFlamesAustraliaDo You KnowIntensityUnusualConcreteGlancesHighwaysMundaneRadianceBlue SkyArrestingFine Day
Author:Bill Bryson
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“What I like about The Sims is that I don't have a normal life at all, so I play this game where these people have these really boring, mundane lives. It's fun. My Sims family is called the Cholly family. I don't know why I picked that name; it's kind of random. The teenage daughter is my favourite, because I just had her go through this Goth phase. She's really kind of nerdy and she just became a concert violinist, which is pretty huge for the family. And she got into private school. But she started wearing black lipstick and she dyed her hair purple. It's pretty huge.”

PeopleKnowsKindPlaySchoolGamesNamesFunBlackHugeHairNormalDaughterBoringConcertsFavouritePhasesTeenagePurpleMundaneLipstickNormal LifeGothNerdyPrivate SchoolViolinistMundane LifeSimsWearing BlackTeenage Daughter
Author:Gerard Way
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“If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things.”

IfsWorldImportantScienceAttitudeBeautyGreaterImaginePerspectiveHorrorApproachGloryCuriositySizeHumbleSurfaceComplexitySchemesShrinksMundanePreoccupation
Author:Daniel Dennett
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“Those around you can have their novellas, sweet, their short stories of cliché and coincidence, occasionally spiced up with tricks of the quirky, the achingly mundane, the grotesque. A few will even cook up Greek tragedy, those born into misery, destined to die in misery. But you, my bride of quietness, you will craft nothing less than epic with your life. Out of all of them, your story will be the one to last.”

StoriesLastsDiesBornSweetTragedyMiseryTricksCraftsCooksGreekShort StoryEpicCoincidenceDestinedMundaneBridesQuirkyGrotesqueQuietnessGreek Tragedy
Book:Special Topics in Calamity Physics
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“The idea was fantastically, wildly improbable. But like most fantastically, wildly improbable ideas it was at least as worthy of consideration as a more mundane one to which the facts had been strenuously bent to fit.”

IdeasFactsFitWorthyConsiderationBentMundaneImprobable
Book:Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Box Set: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
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“She would be quiet at first. Then she would say a word about something small, something she had noticed, and then another word, and another, each one flung out like a little piece of sand, one from this direction, another form behind, more and more, until his looks, his character, his soul would have eroded away . . . I was afraid that some unseen speck of truth would fly into my eye, blur what I was seeing and transform him from the divine man I thought he was into someone quite mundane, mortally wounded with tiresome habits and irritating imperfections.”

MenFirstsLooksLittlesSoulCharacterWould BeEyeFormBehindsPiecesSeeingDivineHabitQuietSandImperfectionWoundedUnseenMundaneBlurIrritatingSpecksTiresome
Author:Amy Tan
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“Once in a mental hospital, a person grows used to the freedom that exists in the world of madness and becomes addicted to it. You no longer have to take on responsibilities, to struggle to earn your daily bread, to be bothered with repetitive, mundane tasks. You could spend hours looking at a picture or making absurd doodles. Everything is torelated because, after all, the person is mentally ill.”

WorldPersonsUsedGrowsHoursResponsibilityStruggleTasksMadnessIllBreadAbsurdHospitalsBotheredMundaneRepetitiveMentally IllDaily Bread
Author:Paulo Coelho
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“I fell in love with books. Some people find beauty in music, some in painting, some in landscape, but I find it in words. By beauty, I mean the feeling you have suddenly glimpsed another world, or looked into a portal that reveals a kind of magic or romance out of which the world has been constructed, a feeling there is something more than the mundane, and a reason for our plodding.”

PeopleWorldKindMeanHas BeensBookReasonFeelingsRomanceMagicPaintingLandscapeMundaneAnother WorldPortal
Book:Father Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation
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“a man who has decided upon self-destruction is far removed from mundane affairs, and to sit down and write his will would be, at that moment, an act just as absurd as winding up one’s watch, since together with the man, the whole world is destroyed; the last letter is instantly reduced to dust and, with it, all the postmen; and like smoke, vanishes the estate bequeathed to a nonexistent progeny.”

MenWorldWritingSelfWholeMomentsWould BeTogetherLastsWatchesLettersDecidedDestructionDown AndAffairWhole WorldAbsurdDestroyedDustSmokeThat MomentEstatesMundaneSelf DestructionPostmanProgenyWinding Up
Book:THE EYE
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“To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by melancholy or activated by hysteria, two responses which were 'always and equally warranted for those of sound insight'. All others were irrational, merely symptoms of imaginations left idle, of memories out of work. And above these mundane responses, the only elevation allowable, the only valid transcendence, was a sardonic one: a bliss that annihilated the universe with jeers of dark joy, a mindful ecstasy. Anything else in the way of 'mysticism' was a sign of deviation or distraction, and a heresy to the obvious. (“The Medusa”)”

WayTwoJoyUniverseLeftSoundImaginationMemoriesDarkResponseObviousInsightBlissMysticismMelancholyEcstasyDistractionSaneIrrationalIdleSymptomsTranscendenceMundaneHeresyHysteriaElevationDeviationMedusaSardonic
Author:Thomas Ligotti
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“True love was forever lost. The prince was never coming back to kiss me awake from my enchanted sleep. I was not a princess, after all. So what was the fairy-tale protocol for other kisses? The mundane kind that didn't break any spells? Maybe it would be easy - like holding his hand or having his arms around me. Maybe it would feel nice. Maybe it wouldn't fell like a betrayal. Besides, who was I betraying, anyway? Just myself.”

FeelsKindHandsWould BeLostEasySleepBreakForeverNiceArmsKissingBetrayalTalesAwakeFairySpellsPrincessBetrayFairy TaleComing BackMundaneKiss MeEnchantedProtocol
Author:Stephenie Meyer
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“I'm not sure you're quite sensible of the honor I'm doing you," Jace said. "you'll be the first mundane who has ever been inside the Institute." "Probably the smell keeps the rest of them away." - Simon, 133”

FirstsSaidHonorSmellNot SureSensibleJaceMundaneInstituteDoing You
Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (3 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass
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“I didn't know you were bringing the mundane." His blue eyes flicked uneasily over Simon. "That's what I like about you people," said Simon. "You always make me feel so welcome.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsSaidEyeBlueWelcomeMundaneBlue Eyes
Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (4 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels
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“Meliorn looked impassive. "Mundane humans are not permitted in the Court." "I wish someone had mentioned that earlier," said Simon, to no one in particular. "I take it I'm just supposed to wait out here until vines start growing on me?" Meliorn considered. "That might offer significant amusement.”

HumansSaidMightWishWaitingGrowingParticularOffersCourtSignificantAmusementMundaneVines
Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls
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“I always thought love made you stupid. Made you weak. A bad Shadowhunter. 'To love is to destroy.'I believed that[...]I used to think being a good warrior meant not caring,[...] And then I met you. You were a mundane. Weak. Not a fighter. Never trained[...] Love didn't make you weak, it made you stronger than anyone I'd ever met. And I realized I was the one who was weak.”

ThinkingMadeUsedLove IsStupidMetsWeakStrongerCaringI RealizedFighterWarriorMundaneShadowhuntersNot CaringGood Warrior
Author:Cassandra Clare
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“Sloppy language and sloppy ways go together. Those who are truly educated have learned more than the sciences, the humanities, law, engineering, and the arts. They carry with them a certain polish that marks them as loving the better qualities of life, a culture that adds luster to the mundane world of which they are apart, a patina that puts a quiet glow on what otherwise might be base metal.”

WorldWayArtMightTogetherLawCertainHumanityCultureLanguageQualityQuietMarkAddEducatedMetalsEngineeringPolishQuality Of LifeMundaneSloppyLusterBetter Quality Of Life
Author:Gordon B. Hinckley
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“Every concert pianist knows that the surest way to ruin a performance is to be aware of what the fingers are doing. Every dancer and acrobat knows enough to let the mind go, let the body run itself. Every driver of a manual vehicle arrives at destinations with no recollection of the stops and turns and roads traveled in getting there. You are all sleepwalkers, whether climbing creative peaks or slogging through some mundane routine for the thousandth time. You are all sleepwalkers.”

KnowsWayMindEnoughBodyRunningTurnsCreativePerformancesFingersRuinsDancerDestinationDriversRoutineClimbingConcertsVehicleTraveledMundaneRecollectionManualsPianistRoads Traveled
Book:Blindsight
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“Love is tricky. It is never mundane or daily. You can never get used to it. You have to walk with it, then let it walk with you. You can never balk. It moves you like the tide. It takes you out to sea, then lays you on the beach again. Today's struggling pain is the foundation for a certain stride through the heavens. You can run from it but you can never say no. It includes everyone.”

RunningTodayPainMovingUsedCertainHeavenWalksLove IsStruggleSeaFoundationLaysBeachTidesMundaneTrickyStride
Author:Amy Tan
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“And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hands, staring down at his enemy's shell.”

TwoBodyHandsEyeFacesWhiteEnemyArmsSkillsEmptyCaughtStaringCurseTomsShellsRollingSeekersMundanePupilsRiddleScarletWandsVacantFinalitySlitsUnknowing
Author:J. K. Rowling
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“As a child, these colourful superheroes that could fly, or were horrifying like Ghost Rider and the Hulk, with this tremendous rage or these supernatural powers, provided an escape for me from my mundane existence, from my lack of friends or my inability to communicate well with people. They liberated me.”

PeopleWellsChildrenExistenceCommunicateRageGhostSuperheroInabilityMundaneLiberatedRidersColourfulSupernatural PowersInability To CommunicateGhost Rider
Author:Nicolas Cage
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“Pulvis et umbra sumus. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows'. Appropriate, don't you think?" Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body - dust to dust, in the literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all.”

ThinkingWorldLongSaidBookBodyYoungDiesLinesPagesShadowMarkKillingYour BodyDustDemonAppropriateLong LifeMundaneLiteralDie YoungDust To Dust
Book:The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess
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“You're a disaster for us, Clary! You're a mundane, you'll always be one, you'll never be a Shadowhunter! You don't know how to think like we do, think about what's best for everyone-- all you think about is yourself! But there's a war now, or there will be, and I don't have time or the inclination to follow around after you, trying to make sure you don't get us killed! Go home, Clary. Go home!”

ThinkingKnowsTryingWarHomeKnow HowDisasterJaceInclinationMundaneClary FrayShadowhuntersCity Of Glass
Author:Cassandra Clare
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“Well, there aren’t any graves in mundane wedding ceremonies,” said Tessa. “Though your ability to quote the Bible is impressive. Better than my aunt Harriet’s.” “Did you hear that, James? She just compared us to her aunt Harriet.”

WellsSaidAbilityGravesCeremonyAuntImpressiveMundaneWedding Ceremony
Book:The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess
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“He reads histories and mythologies and fairy tales, wondering why it seems that only girls are ever swept away from their mundane lives on farms by knights or princes or wolves. It strikes him as unfair to not have the same fanciful opportunity himself. And he is not in the position to do any rescuing of his own.”

SeemsGirlOpportunityWonderPositionStrikesMythologyTalesFairyFarmsFairy TaleUnfairKnightsMundaneSwept AwayMundane Life
Book:The Night Circus
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