“You see, years ago I was just an ordinary bee minding my own business, smelling flowers all day, and occasionally picking up part-time work in people's bonnets. Then one day I realized that I'd never amount to anything without an education and, being naturally adept at spelling, I decided that—” PeopleYearsMy OwnFlowerAmountOne DayOrdinaryYears AgoDecidedI RealizedBeesOwn BusinessSpellingPart TimeAdeptBonnetsMinding My Own Business Book:The phantom tollbooth Source: The phantom tollbooth
“There is no need for historical research. The war didn't take place a thousand years ago. Over a million Iranians served at one time or another in the war fronts and most of them are living ordinary lives today and are available for interviews. These stories are largely unknown in Iran and when I tell them to my friends or students they usually laugh.” NeedsYearsWarStoriesTodayMillionsLaughingFrontsStudentsThousandResearchOrdinaryMy FriendsYears AgoHistoricalAvailableInterviewsIranOne TimeThousand YearsLive For TodayOrdinary LifeHistorical Research Author:Mohammad Marandi
“Wine lovers have known for centuries that decanting wine before serving it often improves its flavor. Whatever the dominant process, the traditional decanter is a rather pathetic tool to accomplish it. A few years ago, I found I could get much better results by using an ordinary kitchen blender.” YearsFoundProcessResultsKnownCenturyLoversOrdinaryYears AgoToolsWineAccomplishTraditionalKitchenServingDominantFlavorPatheticWine LoversBlenders Author:Nathan Myhrvold
“The ordinary American - as far as I can tell - knows so much less than he did fifty years ago and has such poor work habits compared with fifty years ago that the average multiplicand of knowledge/capabilities is a much smaller number than it was in 1961.” KnowsYearsI CanPoorNumbersHabitOrdinaryYears AgoAverageFiftyCapabilityWork Habits Author:Ben Stein
“Little bits of things make me do it; — perhaps a word that I said and ought not to have said ten years ago; — the most ordinary little mistakes, even my own past thoughts to myself about the merest trifles. They are always making me shiver.” YearsLittlesSaidPastBitsMy OwnMistakeOughtTenLittle BitOrdinaryYears AgoTriflesShiver Book:Can You Forgive Her? Source: Can You Forgive Her?
“In the ordinary jumble of my literary drawer, I sometimes find texts I wrote ten, fifteen, or even more years ago. And many of them seem to me written by a stranger: I simply do not recognize myself in them. There was a person who wrote them, and it was I. I experienced them, but it was in another life, from which I just woke up, as if from someone else's dream.” IfsWritingYearsPersonsSometimesDreamSeemsWrittenTenOrdinaryYears AgoStrangerFifteenDrawersAnother Life Author:Fernando Pessoa
“It happened in New York, April 10th, nineteen years ago. Even my hand balks at the date. I had to push to write it down, just to keep the pen moving on the paper. It used to be a perfectly ordinary day, but now it sticks up on the calendar like a rusty nail.” WritingYearsHandsMovingUsedHappenedNew YorkPaperOrdinaryYears AgoSticksUsed To BePensNailsAprilCalendarsNineteenOrdinary Days Author:Donna Tartt
“Suicidal thinking, if serious, can be a kind of death scare, comparable to suffering a heart attack or undergoing a cancer operation. One survives such a phase both warier and chastened. When-ten years ago-I emerged from a bad dip into suicidal speculation, I felt utterly exhausted and yet quite fearless of ordinary dangers, vastly afraid of myself but much less scared of extraneous eventualities.” IfsThinkingYearsHeartKindSufferingFeltDangerSeriousTenOrdinaryYears AgoCancerScaredFearlessOperationsScarePhasesExhaustedSuicidalSpeculationDipHeart Attack Book:Tigers & Ice: Reflections on Nature and Life Source: Tigers & Ice: Reflections on Nature and Life