Ugnebo > Ugnebo's Quotes

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Oh, but history moved in such vicious circles.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Burning God

“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn't defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“He decided in favor of life out of sheer spite and malice.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

“I think we talk about happiness all wrong. As if it’s this fixed state we’re going to reach. Like we’ll just be able to live there, forever. But that’s not my experience with happiness. For me, it comes and goes. It shows up and then disappears like a bubble.”
― Alison Espach, The Wedding People

“becoming who you want to be is just like anything else. It takes practice. It requires belief that one day, you’ll wake up and be a natural at it.”
― Alison Espach, The Wedding People

“And maybe that’s it: You do things in the moment for the person you hope you might be two years from now.”
― Alison Espach, The Wedding People

“Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“The power to protect is the highest of responsibilities, Diago. When a man is given it, his duty is not only to the people he thinks are worthy.”
― James Islington, The Will of the Many

“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel, world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

“It’s yours,” he offers. I laugh. “Oh? I can have the world?” “Mine,” he says, “yeah. You can have mine.”
― Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life

“Surely no one else lived like this - burdened by the tiniest details they assumed had enormous consequences. Surely no one else was so anchored by anxiety. Other people could stumble and shake their heads and move on. How she envied their lightness.”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis

“Moving on, as a concept, is for stupid people, because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project. I refuse to rush. The pain that is thrust upon us let no man slow or speed or fix.”
― Max Porter, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

“Empathy, I said to the police inspector, is an idiotic luxury indulged in by people who do nothing, and who are moved by the spectacle of suffering.”
― Vincent Delecroix, Small Boat

“Your Mom.”
― Matt Dinniman, Dungeon Crawler Carl

“Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.”
― Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune

“I wonder how it can be considered that science disenchants the world. The power of the spells of physics to make the empty solid — and nothing, something — seem greater than anything I have ever read in folk tales.”
― Robin Ince, The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity

“We think that something in the past is not real any more, but it is still there in general relativity. It is part of the curved spacetime in which we live. Just because an event is behind us in our timeline does not make it any less real. When someone you love dies, or when a time that you valued is over, it can never be recaptured, but it is there.”
― Robin Ince, The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity

“Poor luck is being aware of these currents, but able only to drown in them”
― James Islington, The Strength of the Few