Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[covingtoncat73]

Two from my current read:

"Children are the undoing of us." ~The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemison

"YOU THINK, MAYBE, YOU NEED to be someone else. You’re not sure who. Previous yous have been stronger and colder, or warmer and weaker; either set of qualities is better suited to getting you through the mess you’re in. Right now you’re cold and weak, and that helps no one."
― from "The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1)"

[covingtoncat73]

And one more, because...

“End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, January 3, 1892 - September 2, 1973

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

And one more, because...

“End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, January 3, 1892 - September 2, 1973

[BenG]

“I had as yet no notion that life every now and then becomes literature — not for long, of course, but long enough to be what we best remember, and often enough so that what we eventually come to mean by life are those moments when life, instead of going sideways, backwards, forward, or nowhere at all, lines out straight, tense and inevitable, with a complication, climax, and, given some luck, a purgation, as if life had been made and not happened.”

― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

and, of course:

"Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”

Really, I cannot believe this. With Ayumu, as you saw, we discovered that chimpanzees are better than humans at one type of memory test. It is something a chimpanzee can do immediately, and it is one thing—one thing—that they are better at than humans. I know this has upset people. And now there are researchers who have practiced to become as good as a chimpanzee. I really don’t understand this need for us to always be superior in all domains.
- Tetsuro Matsuzawa, the Japanese scientist who led the Ayumu project.

[kennyc]

Each species has its own special skills.....unfortunately for humans, it appears to be killing things.
- Me

[astrangerhere]

The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight.

Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

[covingtoncat73]

"Then people began to do horrible things to Father Earth. They poisoned waters beyond even his ability to cleanse, and killed much of the other life that lived on his surface. They drilled through the crust of his skin, past the blood of his mantle, to get at the sweet marrow of his bones."
― from "The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1)" by N.K. Jemison

[covingtoncat73]

"I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that."

~Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5

[AlexBell]

"We have a proverb," said Hadji Murad to the interpreter, "'The dog gave meat to the ass and the ass gave hay to the dog, and both went hungry,'" and he smiled. "Its own customs seem good to each nation."

from Leo Tolstoy's last novella, Hadji Murad, published after his death.

[BenG]

“You don't know who your friends are ... until you're not like them anymore.”
― Jack Womack, Random Acts of Senseless Violence

[covingtoncat73]

“'William Blake used to faint sometimes,' said Mina. 'He said the soul was able to leap out of the body for a while, and then leap back again. He said it could be caused by great fear or enormous pain. Sometimes it was because of too much joy. It was possible to be overwhelmed by the presence of so much beauty in the world.'" ~Skellig, David Almond

[Apache]

"The reason I don't worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I'll take those odds every f*** day." Jon Stewart

Apache

[WT Sharpe]

Jules Verne (Jules Gabriel Verne 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905); French novelist, poet, playwright, and science fiction pioneer.

"Enough, my boy. When science has sent forth her fiat — it is only to hear and obey."
— Verne's character Professor Otto Lidenbrock in Journey to the center of the Earth (1864).

[covingtoncat73]

"So it goes." Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five