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Surface Quotes

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Surface Quotes

“It is often during the worst of times that we see the best of humanity–awakening within the most ordinary of us that which is most sublime. I do not believe that it is circumstance that produces such greatness any more than it is the canvas that makes the artist. Adversity merely presents the surface on which we render our souls’ most exacting likeness. It is in the darkest skies that stars are best seen.”

BelieveSoulArtistHumanityStarsSkyWorstGreatnessProduceCircumstancesOrdinaryAdversitySurfaceAwakeningCanvasSublime
Author:Richard Paul Evans
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“A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis.”

MenNeedsMayCitiesFeetCrimePossibilityLoversDrugLifetimeEnvironmentalLeavingSurfaceBoundariesWildernessRefugePsychoanalysisDefendersAsphalt
Book:Desert Solitaire
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“She saw herself riding in the passenger seat, Sam behind the wheel. Like two of those little peg people in a toy car. Husband peg, wife peg, side by side. Facing the road and not looking at each other; for why would they need to, really, having gone beyond the visible surface long ago. No hope of admiring gazes anymore, no chance of unremitting adoration. Nothing left to show but their plain, true, homely, interior selves, which were actually much richer anyhow.”

PeopleNeedsLittlesLongTwoSelfShowsLeftSidesChanceBehindsGoneSawsWifeCarHusbandSurfaceWheelsVisibleSeatsRidingToysLong AgoInteriorsAdorationNo HopePassengersAdmiringHomelyPegPassenger Seat
Author:Anne Tyler
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“The physical powers of the body cannot be separated from the rationale of the mind and the emotions of the heart. They are one and the same, a compilation of a singular being. It is in the harmony of these three-body, mind, and heart- that we find spirit. ... Spirit. In every language in all the Realms, surface and Underdark, in every time and every place, the word has a ring of strength and determination. It is the hero's strength, the mother's resilience, and the poor man's armor. It cannot be broken, and it cannot be taken away.”

MenMindHeartBodySpiritMotherThreeLanguagePoorEmotionTakenBrokenHeroDeterminationHarmonySurfaceResilienceRingsRealmsHeart And MindArmorPoor ManRationaleCompilationStrength And Determination
Book:Exile: The Legend of Drizzt
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“She had just realized there were two things that prevent us from achieving our dreams: believing them to be impossible or seeing those dreams made possible by some sudden turn of the wheel of fortune, when you least expected it. For at that moment, all our fears suddenly surface: the fear of setting off along a road heading who knows where, the fear of a life full of new challenges, the fear of losing forever everything that is familiar.”

KnowsLifeBelieveMadeTwoMomentsDreamTurnsChangeChallengesForeverImpossibleSeeingAchieveLosingFortuneSurfaceExpectedSettingFamiliarSettingsWheelsTwo ThingsThat MomentOur DreamsHeadingsNew ChallengesJust RealizedWheel Of Fortune
Author:Paulo Coelho
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“I am pleased enough with the surfaces - in fact they alone seem to me to be of much importance. Such things for example as the grasp of a child's hand in your own, the flavor of an apple, the embrace of a friend or lover, the silk of a girl's thigh, the sunlight on the rock and leaves, the feel of music, the bark of a tree, the abrasion of granite and sand, the plunge of clear water into a pool, the face of the wind - what else is there? What else do we need?”

NeedsFeelsChildrenEnoughFactsHandsSeemsFacesGirlWaterClearTreeRocksExampleWindLoversImportanceEmbraceSurfaceApplesSandPoolSunlightFlavorSilkBarkPlungeThighsGraniteClear Water
Book:The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader
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“Wimsey stooped for an empty sardine-tin which lay, horribly battered, at his feet, and slung it idly into the quag. It struck the surface with a noice like a wet kiss, and vanished instantly. With that instinct which prompts one, when depressed, to wallow in every circumstance of gloom, Peter leaned sadly against the hurdles and abandoned himself to a variety of shallow considerations upon (1) The vanity of human wishes; (2) Mutability; (3) First love; (4) The decay of idealism; (5) The aftermath of the Great war; (6) Birth-control; and (7) The fallacy of free-will.”

FirstsHumansWarWishFeetBirthCircumstancesKissingEmptyLaysInstinctSurfaceVarietyVanityConsiderationFree WillAbandonedPeterWetDecayFirst LoveIdealismShallowGloomFallacyBirth ControlGreat WarPromptsAftermathTinHurdleBatteredMutabilitySardines
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“Repentance can become a very, very deep phenomenon in you if you understand the responsibility. Then even a small thing, if it becomes a repentance-- not just verbal, not just on the surface; if it goes deep to the roots, if you repent from the roots; if your whole being shakes and trembles and cries, and tears come out; not only out of your eyes but out of every cell of your body, then repentance can become a transfiguration.”

IfsWholeBodyEyeSpiritualResponsibilityCryTearsRootsSurfaceYour BodyCellsShakesRepentancePhenomenonRepentSmall ThingsVery DeepTransfiguration
Author:Rajneesh
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“As the surface of the seashore rocks were pitted by by the waves and gathered limpets that further disguised what lay beneath, so time made truth of what appeared to be. The days that passed, in becoming weeks, still did not disturb the surface an assumption had created. The weather of a beautiful summer continued with neither sign nor hint that credence had been misplaced. The single sandal found among the rocks became a sodden image of death; and as the keening on the pier at Kilauran traditionally marked distres brought by the sea, so did silence at Lahardane.”

MadeStillsBeautifulFoundSilenceWeekSeaRocksBecomingSummerLaysWaveSurfaceWeatherAssumptionHintsMisplacedSandalsCredenceSeashorePiers
Book:The Story of Lucy Gault
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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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“Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future…If you are still in the process of raising children be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled, will disappear all too soon, and that you will, to your surprise, miss them, profoundly.”

IfsShouldChildrenStillsShowsTodayPastHouseProcessMemoriesMissingSurpriseSurfaceDisappearTinyPleasantToysHere And NowRaising ChildrenDwellingLaundryFingerprintsDwelling On The PastPleasant Memories
Author:Thomas S. Monson
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“Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate--for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.”

HumansBookRealityWantedHuman BeingsCitiesSurfaceRememberedRealmsBoredomGesturesPossessedUnfortunateAbsentAbsent Mindedness
Book:The fall
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“For this is the truth about our soul, he thought, who fish-like inhabits deep seas and plies among obscurities threading her way between the boles of giant weeds, over sun-flickered spaces and on and on into gloom, cold, deep, inscrutable; suddenly she shoots to the surface and sports on the wind-wrinkled waves; that is, has a positive need to brush, scrape, kindle herself, gossiping.”

WayNeedsSoulSportsSpaceSunSeaWindColdWaveFishesSurfaceGiantsWeedBrushesObscurityGloomKindlesInscrutableDeep SeaPlies
Book:Mrs Dalloway
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“When he at least reached the door the handle had cease to vibrate. Lowering himself suddenly to his knees he placed his head and the vagaries of his left eye (which was for ever trying to dash up and down the vertical surface of the door), he was able by dint of concentration to observe, within three inches of his keyholed eye, an eye which was not his, being not only of a different colour to his own iron marble, but being, which is more convincing, on the other side of the door.”

TryingDifferentEyeAbleThreeLeftSidesDoorsSurfaceCeaseHandleKneesColourConcentrationIronInchesConvincingUp And DownMarbleVibrateVerticalLeft EyeDifferent ColoursGormenghast
Author:Mervyn Peake
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“You’re like a lighthouse shining beside the sea of humanity, motionless: all you can see is your own reflection in the water. You’re alone, so you think it’s a vast, magnificent panorama. You haven’t sounded the depths. You simply believe in the beauty of God’s creation. But I have spent all this time in the water, diving deep into the howling ocean of life, deeper than anyone. While you were admiring the surface, I saw the shipwrecks, the drowned bodies, the monsters of the deep”

ThinkingBelieveBodyHumanityWaterSawsSeaHavensCreationOceanReflectionShiningDepthDeeperSurfaceMonstersMagnificentDivingAdmiringLighthouseShipwreckGod's CreationPanoramaDiving Deep
Book:Fantasio and other plays
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“It's quite simple really. Being always transcends appearance-that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simple no longer matter. That is why Elousia is such a wonderful name. God, who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things-ultimately emerging as the real-and appearances that mask that reality will fall away.”

KnowsRealMatterRealitySeemsFacesFallNamesSimpleBehindsWonderfulAll ThingsAppearanceUglyDeterminedSurfaceMaskFadesBiasEmergingFade AwayUgly Face
Author:William P. Young
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“There is no 'the truth','a truth' - truth is not one thing, or even a system. It is an increasing complexity. the pattern of the carpet is a surface. When we look closely, or when we become weavers, we learn of the tiny multiple threads unseen in the overall pattern, the knots on the underside of the carpet”

LooksOne ThingTruth IsPatternsSurfaceTinyComplexityThreadMultipleUnseenCarpetKnotsWeavers
Book:Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations
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“What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, criscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be.”

WantNeedsTwoMomentsFacesHugeHairPerspectiveWallShapesPerceptionIllusionSkinsDepthDetailsSurfaceTinyDimensionsMapsFlatsYour FaceArrangementsLive In The MomentMoleculesFutilityDiagramsForeground
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“If you listen, you can hear it. The city, it sings. If you stand quietly, at the foot of a garden, in the middle of the street, on the roof of a house. It's clearest at night, when the sound cuts more sharply across the surface of things, when the song reaches out to a place inside you. It's a wordless song, for the most, but it's a song all the same, and nobody hearing it could doubt what it sings. And the song sings the loudest when you pick out each note.”

IfsNightSongHouseSoundCitiesDoubtCuttingFeetStreetsMiddlePicksGardenNotesHearingSurfaceReach OutRoof
Book:If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
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