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Shells Quotes

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Shells Quotes

“I told her, Don't touch me that way. Don't come at me with that sour-cream smile. Come at me as if I were worth your life - the life we make together. Take me like a turtle whose shell must be cracked, whose heart is ice, who needs your heat. Love me like a warrior, sweat up to your earlobes and all your hope between your teeth. Love me so I know I am at least as important as anything you have ever wanted.”

IfsKnowsWayNeedsHeartImportantWantedTogetherTeethIceWarriorHeatTake MeSweatShellsCreamCrackedSourTurtlesTouch Me
Author:Dorothy Allison
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“I am an obscure and patient pearl-fisherman who dives into the deepest waters and comes up with empty hands and a blue face. Some fatal attraction draws me down into the abysses of thought, down into those innermost recesses which never cease to fascinate the strong. I shall spend my life gazing at the ocean of art, where others voyage or fight; and from time to time I’ll entertain myself by diving for those green and yellow shells that nobody will want. So I shall keep them for myself and cover the walls of my hut with them.”

WantArtHandsFacesFightingStrongWaterWallOceanDrawsEmptyBlueGreenPatientCome UpAttractionCeaseYellowShellsObscurePearlsAbyssVoyagesFishermanDivingGazingHutsRecessEmpty HandsFatal Attraction
Author:Gustave Flaubert
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“I am very fond of the oyster shell. It is humble and awkward and ugly. It is slate-colored and unsymmetrical. Its form is not primarily beautiful but functional. I make fun of its knobbiness. Sometimes I resent its burdens and excrescences. But its tireless adaptability and tenacity draw my astonished admiration and sometimes even my tears. And it is comfortable in its familiarity, its homeliness, like old garden gloves when have molded themselves perfectly to the shape of the hand. I do not like to put it down. I will not want to leave it.”

WantSometimesHandsBeautifulFormFunTearsShapesComfortableDrawsGardenBurdenHumbleUglyAdmirationAwkwardShellsFamiliarityTenacityResentGlovesAdaptabilityOystersSlate
Book:GIFT FROM THE SEA
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“It is God's earth out of which man is taken. From it he has his body. His body belongs to his essential being. Man's body is not his prison, his shell his exterior, but man himself. Man does not "have" a body; he does not "have" a soul; rather he "is" body and soul. Man in the beginning is really his body. He is one. He is his body, as Christ is completely his body, as the Church is the body of Christ”

MenDoeSoulBodyEarthChristChurchTakenEssentialsPrisonShellsExteriorBody Of ChristSoul Man
Book:The martyred Christian: 160 readings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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“Nothing happened. And everything did. Your whole life you can be told something is wrong and so you believe it. Why should you question it? But then slowly seeds are planted inside of you, one by one, by a touch or a look or a day skateboarding in a park, and they start to burst out of old hulls shells and they start to sprout. And pretty soon there are so many of them. They are named Love and Trust and Kindness and Joy and Desire and Wonder and Spirit and Soulmate. They grow into a garden so dense and thick that it starts to invade your brain where the old things you were once told are dying.”

ShouldBelieveLooksWholeJoySpiritDesireGrowsBrainWonderKindnessHappenedDyingGardenSeedsWhole LifeParksThickShellsSoulmateDenseSproutsOld ThingsSkateboardingLove And TrustHull
Author:Francesca Lia Block
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“Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats 5 Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question … 10 Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.”

NightCertainAsksRoomsHalfTalkingSkyStreetsArgumentTablesPatientSpreadEveningRestaurantsHotelOverwhelmingShellsRetreatRestlessComes And GoesOne NightTediousOystersDesertedInsidiousMutteringSawdustRestless Nights
Author:T. S. Eliot
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“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.”

ThinkingStillsRunningPoetryFallFriendshipSunTreeSweetFlowerSummerSeasonsFruitRoundsWarmCoreCeaseCellsApplesAutumnMatureBlessLoadBeesShellsMistBosomsOctoberVinesMossCottagesMellowKernelFall AutumnFall SeasonAutumn SeasonFruitfulnessFruit TreesConspiringAutumn DaysOctober And FallNovember PoemsRipenessSummer To FallAutumn EquinoxAutumnal EquinoxGourdsBosom Friends
Book:Poetry Manuscripts at Harvard
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“The solitary and thoughtful stroller finds a singular intoxication in this universal communion. The man who loves to lose himself in a crowd enjoys feverish delights that the egoist locked up in himself as in a box, and the slothful man like a mollusk in his shell, will be eternally deprived of. He adopts as his own all the occupations, all the joys and all the sorrows that chance offers.”

MenJoyEnjoyLosesChanceSorrowOffersUniversalCrowdsBoxesDelightThoughtfulOccupationLockedSolitaryShellsCommunionIntrovertDeprivedIntoxicationLocked UpStrollersMollusks
Author:Charles Baudelaire
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“But all three of them had had to lose things in order to gain other things. Will had lost his shell and his cool and his distance, and he felt scared and vulnerable, but he got to be with Rachel; and Fiona had lost a big chunk of Marcus, and she got to stay away from the casualty ward; and Marcus had lost himself, and got to walk home from school with his shoes on.”

HomeBigsSchoolOrderThreeLostFeltLosesWalksGainsDistanceShoesScaredVulnerableShellsCasualtiesChunks
Book:About a Boy
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“In their choice of lovers both the male and the female reveal their essential nature. The type of human being we prefer reveals the contours of our heart. Love is an impulse which springs from the most profound depths of our beings, and upon reaching the visible surface of life carries with it an alluvium of shells and seaweed from the inner abyss. A skilled naturalist, by filing these materials, can reconstruct the oceanic depths from which they have been uprooted.”

HumansHeartHas BeensChoicesHuman BeingsLove IsMaterialsTypeLoversEssentialsSpringFemaleProfoundDepthMalesSurfaceImpulseVisibleReachingCarrieShellsAbyssHeart LoveNaturalistFilingSeaweed
Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
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“We could see the children's toys here and there, and we saw a game that the children had made themselves out of dirt, deer antlers and abalone shells, but the game was so strange that only children could tell what it was. Perhaps it wasn't a game at all, only the grave of a game.”

ChildrenMadeGamesSawsStrangeGravesToysShellsDirtHere And ThereDeerOnly ChildAntlers
Book:Richard Brautigan's A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and The Hawkline Monster: Three Books in the Manner of Their Original Editions
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“Children are living beings - more living than grown-up people who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love.”

PeopleWorldShouldChildrenSchoolSpiritDevelopmentHabitLessonsBuiltMental HealthMereShellsPersonal Love
Book:The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore: A miscellany
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“You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no . . . anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just — exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever . . . lost.”

KnowsHeartLongStillsSoulSelfLostMemoriesChanceBrainGoneForeverEmptyRecoveryYour SoulShellsSense Of SelfNo MemoryHeart And BrainRemus LupinDementorsEmpty Shell
Author:J. K. Rowling
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“If love makes you sad, you acquire a little depth, a little compassion. If it makes you happy, you learn how to be joyous. Every relationship should color your soul to a certain degree, don't you think? Every friendship, every love affair - each one should build up the chambers of your heart the way a sea creature builds the chamber of his shell.”

IfsThinkingWayShouldHeartLittlesSoulCertainCompassionSeaColorCreaturesDegreesDepthAffairYour SoulAcquireShellsChamberJoyousMake You HappyLove Affair
Book:Jovah's Angel
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“A man is born into this world with only a tiny spark of goodness in him. The spark is God, it is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell. The spark must be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned into flame. It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate the shell. Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference, laziness, brutality, and genius. Yes, even a great mind can be a shell and choke the spark.”

MenWorldMindSoulEvilBornThis WorldGeniusGoodnessTinyTreasureFlamesIndifferenceSparksLazinessShellsUglinessBrutalityChokeGuardedGreat Minds
Author:Chaim Potok
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“The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret.”

HumansWellsLooksDoeSaidRealEvilSidesSecretBreakSawsFiguresEternalShadowVicesDisasterDragonsWitchShellsInquiryReal ThingsVice VersaDoorwaysNature Of Evil
Author:Gregory Maguire
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“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”

MenTryingMayBookWarFacesGenerationsFrontsAdventureDestroyedConfessionShellsFace To FaceAccusation
Book:Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
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“It is precisely through the onset of old age, through loss or personal tragedy, that the spiritual dimension would traditionally come into people's lives. This is to say, their inner purpose would emerge only as their outer purpose collapsed and the shell of the ego would begin to crack open. The emphasis shifts from doing to Being, and our civilization, which is lost in doing, knows nothing of Being. It asks: being? What do you do with it?”

PeopleKnowsAgeSpiritualPurposeAsksLostLossCivilizationEgoTragedyOld AgeDimensionsCracksShellsEmphasisSpiritual DimensionsPersonal Tragedy
Author:Eckhart Tolle
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“There was something about Jace, though, that made her want to push him, crack that shell of cynicism and make him admit her believed something, felt something, cared about anythinng at all.”

WantMadeFeltCracksCynicismShellsJace
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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“Beauty is a form of Genius--is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in the dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.”

WorldNeedsFactsFormWaterDarkDivineGeniusHigherMoonReflectionExplanationSilverSunlightShellsSovereigntySpringtimeDivine RightDark Water
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“Once there was a gypsy queen who wore on her wrist a chain of six lucky charms - a golden crown, a silver horse, a butterfly caught in amber, a cat's eye shell, a bolt of lightning forged from the heart of a falling star, and the flower of the rue plant, herb of grace. The queen gave each of her six children one of the charms as their lucky talisman, but ever since the chain of charms was broken, the gypsies had been dogged with misfortune.”

HeartChildrenEyeFallStarsGraceFlowerBrokenLuckySixCatHorsePlantCaughtGoldenChainsQueensCharmSilverMisfortunesButterflyCrownsLightningShellsHerbsWristsBoltsGypsyAmberForgedRueTalismansLucky Charms
Book:The Gypsy Crown: Chain of Charms 1
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“Hickory dickory dock my daddy’s nuts from shell shock. Humpty dumpty thought he was wise till gas came along and burned out his eyes. A dillar a dollar a ten o clock scholar blow off his legs and then watch him holler. Rockaby baby in the tree top don’t stop a bomb or you’ll probably flop. Now I lay me down to sleep my bombproof cellars good and deep but if I’m killed before I wake remember god its for your sake amen.”

IfsEyeRememberSleepWatchesWiseTreeBabyTenLaysDollarsSakeBlowLegsClockHis EyesBombsShockGasNutsScholarBurnedShellsDaddyAmenCellarsDocksBurned OutHumpty DumptyTree Tops
Book:Johnny Got His Gun
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“Is there some lesson on how to be friends? I think what it means is that central to living a life that is good is a life that's forgiving. We're creatures of contact regardless of whether we kiss or we wound. Still, we must come together. Though it may spell destruction, we still ask for more-- since it beats staying dry but so lonely on shore. So we make ourselves open while knowing full well it's essentially saying "please, come pierce my shell.”

ThinkingWellsMayMeanStillsTogetherAsksKnowingPleaseLessonsCreaturesKissingBeatsLonelyDestructionForgivingWoundsContactDryStayingShoreSpellsShellsPierceSo LonelySaying Please
Author:David Rakoff
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“She is a mortal danger without meaning to be one; she's exquisite without giving ita thought; shes a trap set by nature, a rose in which love lies in ambush! Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She creates grace without movement and makes all divinity fit into her slightest gesture. And neither Venus in her shell, nor Diana striding in the great, blossoming forest, can compare to her when she goes through the streets of paris in her sedan chair.”

GivingLyingKnownGraceStreetsDangerMovementFitPerfectionRoseForestsMortalsCompareParisDivinityChairsGesturesShellsTrapsExquisiteVenusDianaBlossomingHer SmileAmbushLove LiesStreets Of Paris
Author:Edmond Rostand
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“I like the way the morning can be stormy and the afternoon clear and sparkly as a jewel in the water. Put your hand in the water to reach for a sea urchin or a sea shell, and the thing desired never quite lies where you had lined it up to be. The same is true of love. In prospect or contemplation, love is where it seems to be. Reach in to lift it out and your hand misses”

WayHandsSeemsLyingWaterLove IsMorningClearSeaMissingLiftsContemplationAfternoonShellsJewelsStormySea Shell
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“I was an empty shell. Like a vacant house―condemned―for months I'd been utterly uninhabitable. Now I was a little improved. The front room was in better repair. But that was all―just the one small piece. He deserved better than that―better than a one-room, falling-down fixer-upper. No amount of investment on his part could put me back in working order.”

LittlesOrderFallHouseRoomsPiecesFrontsMonthsAmountEmptyInvestmentShellsFalling DownVacantSmall PiecesEmpty ShellFixers
Author:Stephenie Meyer
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“...the first thing you do at the end is reflect on the beginning. Maybe it's some form of reverse closure, or just the basic human impulse toward sentimentality, or masochism, but as you stand there shell-shocked in the charred ruins of your life, your mind will invariably go back to the time when it all started. And even if you didn't fall in love in the eighties, in your mind it will fee like the eighties, all innocent and airbrushed, with bright colors and shoulder pads and Pat Benatar or The Cure on the soundtrack.”

IfsMindFirstsHumansEndsFormFallColorFalling In LoveShouldersInnocentCuresRuinsImpulseReverseShellsShockedEightyFeesSentimentalityClosurePadsSoundtracksMasochismBright Colors
Author:Jonathan Tropper
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“And often the worst thing wasn't the victims--they were dead, after all, and beyond any more pain. The worst thing was those who loved them and survived them. Often the walking dead from now on, shell-shocked, hearts ruptured, stumbling through the remainder of their lives without anything left inside of them but blood and organs, impervious to pain, having learned nothing except that the worst things did, in fact, sometimes happen. (Mystic River)”

HeartSometimesFactsHappensPainLeftBloodWorstWalkingRiversVictimOrgansShellsSurvivedWorst ThingsShockedMysticStumblingImperviousWalking Dead
Author:Dennis Lehane
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