Machteld > Machteld's Quotes

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan

“Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don't lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“The permanence of death will always feel like a betrayal”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“Curse this world for what it does to the mothers, for what it does to the daughters. Curse it for making us strong through loss and pain, our hearts torn from our chests again and again. Curse it for forcing us to endure.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“You are young to stand so deeply in the shadow.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“There is success,” I say. “And there is failure. The land in between is for those too weak to live. Duty first, unto death.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“We are, all of us, just visitors in each other's lives.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“Life is a road... a wild and wearying road... and I've reached the end. Death is like an old friend, waiting at the end, to wrap me in his arms.”
― Terry Deary, The Fire Thief Fights Back

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“It had flaws, but what does that matter when it comes to matters of the heart? We love what we love. Reason does not enter into it. In many ways, unwise love is the truest love. Anyone can love a thing because. That's as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“Words cannot always do the work we need them to. Music is there for when words fail us.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow.”
― Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

“Thank you for nothing, you stupid reptile.”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
― John A. Shedd

“Imagining something is better than remembering something.”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic.”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“Between men and women," as Jenny Fields once said, "only death is shared equally.”
― John Irving, The World According to Garp

“Ferocity gave her a beauty that nature had denied her.”
― Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King

“Not knowing is okay, he had once said, but pretending to know is not.”
― Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End

“Sadness is a helpless garrison against the blindness of tragedy.”
― Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End

“Adjectives are my guitly pleasure.”
― Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End