Karl Steeley > Karl's Quotes

“Your own setbacks aren’t what they first appear to be; rather than viewing them as failures, view them as learning opportunities that are the building blocks for future preparation.”
― Steve Pemberton, The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World

“But it’s not your world. I was fingerpainting and flicking through my dad’s art books while you slurped back cornflakes with a silver spoon.”
I shook my head. “That’s bullshit.”
“Oh?” She grinned.
“I hate cornflakes. And I don’t slurp.”
― J.J. Sorel, A Taste of Peace

“I hardly think so. If I was ashamed, I wouldn’t have testified on your behalf, admitting the truth that I was your father in front of the United States Naval Court. But, I don’t think now is the time to discuss these matters.”
― Behcet Kaya, Murder on the Naval Base

“But let me ask you this: what do you think would have happened that night in the woods had I not come? You claim to want to save her now when I was the one that has saved her…from you.”
― Marie Montine, Mourning Grey: Part Two

“Mr. Park’s home, which doubled as his office, was small, dark, and stank of old man. Although Mr. Park was not that old, he was cheap and unmarried. And that smell, and the smell of old man, are easily confused.”
― J.K. Franko

“He was sure people detested accountants; they were boring. In fact, he had put down his profession as an airline pilot on the form he had filled in for a dating agency. As an airline pilot you could be away just the right amount of time, when you needed a break from your love life, without facing awkward questions from her when you got back.”
― Max Nowaz, Get Rich or Get Lucky

“Eleanor was an orphan at the age of 10. She went to live with her maternal Grandma Hall, a bitter and biblically strict woman who nonetheless struggled to control her children. Eleanor had to endure some uncles who drank to excess and possibly abused her. For protection, her grandmother or an aunt installed three heavy locks on Eleanor’s bedroom door. A girlfriend who slept over asked Eleanor about the locks. She said they were “to keep my uncles out.”
― Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives

“1954. Smog prevents airplanes from landing and ships from docking for three days.”
― James Frey, Bright Shiny Morning

“OUr teachers at LT&C had their A levels and the odd teaching certificate. It is astonishing how a black crepe robe worn over a coat or blouse gives a Cockney punter or a Covent Garden flower girl the gravitas of an Oxford don. Accent be damned in Africa, as long as it's foreign and you have the right skin colour.”
― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

“I've since discovered that many human beings need no supernatural mentoring to commit acts of savagery; some people are devils in their own right, their telltale horns having grown inward to facilitate their disguise.”
― Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

“From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own. As”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“This demonstrated to me that those who regard universal suffrage as a guarantee for good choices are under a complete illusion. Universal suffrage has other advantages, but not that one.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: Volume 1

“Beware how you give your heart.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light.”
― Jack London, White Fang

“The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth seemingly instantaneously. An untrained mind can also create extreme poverty that can crush a family for generations.”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

“I like it better here where I can sit just quietly and smell the flowers.”
― Munro Leaf, The Story of Ferdinand

“Тем временем McDonald's без устали преследует мелких владельцев магазинов и рестораторов шотландского происхождения за недопустимую в честной конкуренции склонность этой нации иметь приставку «Мак» в своих фамилиях. Компания подала в суд на сосисочный киоск MсAllan в Дании; на бутербродную в шотландском стиле McMunchies в Букингемшире; преследовала принадлежащую Элизабет Маккофи (Elizabeth McCaughey) кофейню McCoffee в прибрежном районе Сан-Франциско; двадцать лет ведет войну с человеком по имени Роналд Макдоналд, чей семейный ресторан (McDonald's Family Restaurant) в крохотном городишке штата Иллинойс существует с 1956 года.”
― Naomi Klein, No Logo

“I will never, ever regret the things I’ve done. Because most days, if you’re stuck in one of these, all you have are the places in your memory that you can go to.”
― Jojo Moyes, Me Before You

“Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear. If the writing is good, then the result seems effortless and inevitable. But when you want to say something life-changing or ineffable in a single sentence, you face both the limitations of the sentence itself and the extent of your own talent.”
― Pat Conroy, My Reading Life