Belle Vandermark > Belle's Quotes

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#1

“Once Pastor Keith hit a crescendo, Sister Gertrude would rise and jump, scream, kick, dance, and pass the hell out. Obviously, she required physical restraints to minimize damage to other parishioners and a cleanup crew for the broken pews, discarded clothing,mangled jewelry, and loose items strewn about. Yes, it took an army of ushers to physically restrain her. She was twice as big as a man. No one smaller than Shaquille O’Neal could take her down. Well, I became her parasite and First Responder. Whenever I saw aglare in her eyes, twitch in her neck, or frown on her face, I knew to move into position. But for me, getting injured was a badge of honor. I just had to be a part of her fiascos. Yet, on one Easter Sunday, I got more than I bargained for. When our youth choir created a stir, Sister Gertrude went haywire. First, she reverse dunked her grandbaby into my breadbasket. Once again, she knew I would be there for the airborne toddler. Second, a whole orchard of mixed fruits flew over my head. Third, a scarf, blouse, wig, and shoe were diverted my way. Finally, a bevy of oversized Ushers and Deacons twisted, pulled, and sacrificed themselves before Sister Gertrude went lax. It was the most outrageous display Zion Gate Union had ever seen. Mind you, she was never a disappointment for a would-be reverend like me.”
― Harold Phifer, My Bully, My Aunt, & Her Final Gift

tags: bible, death, dying, family, greatness, honor, hope, knowledge, sacrifice

65 likes

#2

“Whether you are on day one of being a Christian or day fifteen thousand, you should always have a teachable heart before God.”
― Kathryn Krick, The Secret of the Anointing: Accessing the Power of God to Walk in Miracles

275 likes

#3

“The early women rise before I do. Their lamps splinter the gloom of the kitchens. They chatter in whispers as they brew tea for the cooks. Windows are open to counter the heat of the ovens. Outside, the sky is as black as my soul.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

tags: adventure, drama, engaging, fantasy-fiction, fiction, historical-fantasy, literary-fiction, literature, sorcery

859 likes

#4

“To whomever swapped my tattoo cream for toothpaste........ well played.”
― R.D. Ronald

tags: humour, humourous-situations, tattoo, tattoos

233 likes

#5

“Like water around rocks, people streamed around them as though this sort of interaction, noisy and involving foreigners, was nothing unusual.”
― Sara Pascoe, Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For

tags: adventure, engaging, fiction, literature, new-adult, romance, ya, ya-litterature

429 likes

#6

“Edward sat down on the bench and looked at the horses grazing behind the pasture fence. Even though horses weren’t needed at the vineyard anymore, he’d insisted that a team be kept here and work as they had done when he was the foreman of the vineyard. This affected the productivity of the farm, but he didn’t care. The horses had been a source of comfort for him, and he’d kept them here for this very moment.”
― Steven Decker, One More Life to Live

tags: adventure, crushed, fulfilment, intrigue, joy, lonely, romance, time-travel, traumatic-childhood, underrated

27 likes

#7

“Out of the bedroom window, Tara watches the silver moon in the night sky cast a faint glow on the pine trees. Ian was right. It’s time to move on. Not to forget, but to forge ahead.”
― Dawn Chalker

tags: accepting, connection, destiny, feelings, finding-yourself, future, love, motivation, moving-on, uplifting

225 likes

#8

“ “I am running back my tent to get my sub-machinegun. There are too many Noggies to kill using a pistol!” He then ran to where his scrape was and returned with the weapon.”
― Michael G. Kramer

tags: documented, fiction, historical, recount-of-war, truth, unity, unrest, war, warring, world

580 likes

#9

“The first impressions with the ashram people are these sparkling interior experiences. The eyeballs can be peepholes into the Milky Way and beyond. You may mumble under your breath that the ashram people could be on something.”
― Tom Hillman, Digging for God

tags: contemplating, deep, descriptive, enteratining-read, humorous, informative, insightful, love, spiritual-journey, unforgettable

231 likes

#10

“Everybody has scars, and every scar has a story. Especially the ones you don’t see. Those go deeper. And cause more damage.”
― Lotchie Burton, Gabriel's Fire

tags: conspiracies, conspire, domination, finding, heated, heroes, plots, secrets, suspense, thrilling

177 likes

#11

“Sylva was unmoved. “I want the threat of this child permanently removed, and I will ensure my brother carries out my instructions. I need details of the family, their names and where they live in Tamin.”
― Robert Reid, The Emperor

tags: action, adventure, conflict, drama, fast-paced, freedom, freedom-fighters, imagination, suspensful, weapons

47 likes

#12

“And don’t miss Frank Otto, the world’s most tattooed man! Held hostage in the darkest jungles of Borneo and tried for a crime he didn’t commit, and his punishment? Well, folks, his punishment is written all over his body in permanent ink!”
― Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants

8 likes

#13

“You have a peace about you. You have a wisdom. You have a way of living life that kicks my butt and pushes me around, and it beats me out of my idiocy and narrow-mindness. You, Addy, you, have shown me what life is all about”
― Heath Sommer

tags: the-manufactured-identity

590 likes

#14

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”
― Clement Clarke Moore, Twas the Night Before Christmas

tags: christmas-quotes

513 likes

#15

“Christmas and Easter Christian.”
― John Patrick Kennedy, I Am Titanium

32 likes

#16

“If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.”
― Toni Morrison

tags: oppression

104 likes

#17

“She couldn't think of what to make for dinner that would include Ensure, lettuce and
chocolate cake. She called Mr. Wong's. Again.”
― Vincent Panettiere, Shared Sorrows

tags: drama, fiction, fiction-novel, guilt, love, mystery-novel, redemption, romance, sorrow, suffering

31 likes

#18

“If the onset of wrinkles in middle age were referred to as laughter lines, then to look at him, Scott thought, Twinkle's life must have been hilarious. He had sharp eyes that often seemed to visually contradict the lack of intelligence that could be derived from listening to him talk. There might not be a lot to respect in Twinkle, but Scott liked him. He just didn't want to end up like him.”
― R.D. Ronald, The Elephant Tree

tags: descriptive-prose, empathetic

231 likes

#19

“The other two muleteers, addicted to opium, were invariably in a dazed state of mind. They had to smoke the drug every morning in order to rouse themselves sufficiently to tie up the packs. It was evident this morning that we would not be able to start marching before 8 a.m. whereas the stream of refugees invariably got under way at dawn. Captain Gribble”
― Elizabeth Tebby Germaine, EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORIES OF SURVIVAL IN BURMA WW2: tens of thousands fled to India from the Japanese Invasion in 1942

tags: difficulty, experience, fighting, inspiring, military, opium-addiction, ptsd, real-life, true-story, uncertainty

38 likes

#20

“The fire on the mountain.” That was Anna. “Alchemy,” she said. “I feel it singing in my bones.”
“Singing?” Mary would never understand Anna. The young woman turned away.
Wiseman’s reply was tinged with respect.
“That great pair of alchemists, Francis Ransome and Roberta Le More, believed the work they did affected the world’s spirit, the anima mundi. The Native Americans they met believed they too could and should interact with the Great Spirit. They lived with reverence for the land and all its peoples, the ancestors, the animals, the rocks, the trees, mountains.”
Mary’s jaw dropped; Caroline glowed; Anna pretended not to listen. Wiseman nodded, then continued.
“You mean…?” began Mary.
“Yes, it could have been so different, a meeting of like-minded earth-based spiritualities. Just imagine, what could have been?”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

tags: action, danger, fear, fiction, fiction-novel, insight, thriller, trauma, unpredictable

456 likes

#21

“Socialism is not a competition; it is not a monopoly, either. Socialism is not a private property; it is not a state one, either. Socialism is a completely different thing. What is socialism in such case?”
― Todor Bombov, Socialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism!: The Marx Code-Socialism with a Human Face

tags: abolition, capitalism, freedom, humanity, keynes, nationalization, planned-capitalism, political-ideology, socialism, state

203 likes

#22

“Her growing possessiveness felt both good and bad.”
― Gabriel F.W. Koch, Death Leaves a Shadow

tags: action-novel, adventure-story, crime, detective-novel, historical-crime-story, intrigue, murder-mystery-novel, mystery-thriller, private-investigator, thriller-novel

402 likes

#23

“It wasn’t going to be hard…it was going to be impossible. It wouldn’t deter me. I'd done impossible things several times in the past, and the prospect didn’t scare me as much as it used to.”
― Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book

tags: thursday-next

17 likes

#24

“We have five senses in which we glory and which we recognise and celebrate, senses that constitute the sensible world for us. But there are other senses -- secret senses, sixth senses, if you will -- equally vital, but unrecognised, and unlauded. These senses, unconscious, automatic, had to be discovered.”
― Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

tags: senses, sixth-sense

15 likes

#25

“follow Nietzsche, who warned us that what we can find words for is already dead in our hearts, so that there is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking.”
― Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages

3 likes

#26

“Like my father I've always been a daydreamer, and sometimes I'd imagine that on the way home a terrorist might jump out and shoot me on those steps. I wondered what I would do. Maybe I'd take off my shoes and hit him, but then I'd think if I did that there would be no difference between me and a terrorist. It would be better to plead, "OK, shoot me, but first listen to me. What you are doing is wrong. I'm not against you personally, I just want every girl to go to school.”
― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

14 likes