Emerson > Emerson's Quotes

“What do you want?"
Peter chuckled, "Right now, to eat my lunch, just like you. Am I missing something here?"
"I don't understand American boys, sometimes. I've learned English, but you people can use subtle meanings that elude me in what you say and do."
"We're just sharing a table, eating lunch. There's nothing subtle about that." ”
― Dennis K. Hausker, Anya

“when your predictions are accurate enough—something happens. You cross a threshold where you should actually rethink your whole business model and product based on machine learning.…”
― Ajay Agrawal, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

“That was followed by Sharp saying, “Mick, it is Sharp here. I have an urgent fire mission for you. This is greatly bigger than I thought, and I just know that the Noggies will attack us soon! Request fire upon grid reference which will be given to you by Sunray Delta Six”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“It takes backbone to lead the life you want.”
― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
― Mark Twain

“But the Earth holds ghosts, even of entire nations.”
― Alan Weisman, The World Without Us

“சிறிய மாற்றங்கள் நிகழத் துவங்கும்போது நீங்கள் அவற்றைக் கவனித்து வந்தால், எதிர்காலத்தில் வரக்கூடிய பெரிய மாற்றத்திற்கு நீங்கள் உங்களைத் தயார் செய்து கொள்ளலாம்.”
― Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese? (Tamil)

“Everyone has a price,” she said.
“But clearly not everyone has a soul,”
― Ruta sepetys, Salt to the Sea

“For dinner they ate the stewed pumpkin with their bread. They made it into pretty shapes on their plates. It was a beautiful color, and smoothed and molded so prettily with their knives. Ma never allowed them to play with their food at table; they must always eat nicely everything that was set before them, leaving nothing on their plates. But she did let them make the rich, brown, stewed pumpkin into pretty shapes before they ate it.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

“The Three Laws of Robotics:

1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;

2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;

3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law;

The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”
― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

“The sign outside this tent is accompanied by a small box full of smooth black stones. The text instructs you to take one with you as you enter. Inside, the tent is dark, the ceiling covered with open black umbrellas, the curving handles hanging down like icicles. In the center of the room there is a pool. A pond enclosed within a black stone wall that is surrounded by white gravel. The air carries the salty tinge of the ocean. You walk over to the edge to look inside. The gravel crunches beneath your feet. It is shallow, but it is glowing. A shimmering, shifting light cascades up through the surface of the water. A soft radiance, enough to illuminate the pool and the stones that sit at the bottom. Hundreds of stones, each identical to the one you hold in your hand. The light beneath filters through the spaces between the stones. Reflections ripple around the room, making it appear as though the entire tent is underwater. You sit on the wall, turning your black stone over and over in your fingers. The stillness of the tent becomes a quiet melancholy. Memories begin to creep forward from hidden corners of your mind. Passing disappointments. Lost chances and lost causes. Heartbreaks and pain and desolate, horrible loneliness. Sorrows you thought long forgotten mingle with still-fresh wounds. The stone feels heavier in your hand. When you drop it in the pool to join the rest of the stones, you feel lighter. As though you have released something more than a smooth polished piece of rock.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“You can't expect everybody to think of you all the time. Nobody knows you. And you never talk to anyone!”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

“We were developing a machine that used egg white, heat and sugar to synthesize methanol when a power surge caused an implosion. Owens was meringued. By the time we chipped him out the poor chap had expired.”
― Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair

“Kids need to know their parents love them. Their parents don’t need to be alive for that to happen.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

“If the Agency could become a container for something neither Anna nor Mary had known before: a family. Now, without Caroline depending on her, Anna was alone. It did not taste good. There were voices inside: I am risking everything; I could lose everything.”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

“Audun, there is something I must now explain to you. You are the illegitimate son of Alberon, who now calls himself Emperor of the North.”
― Robert Reid, The Emperor

“A scream pierced the sky, a child’s, so loud he dropped his cup, his right hand ready to reach for a weapon that wasn’t there. A survival reflex from another city, another part of the world. He tried to relax, but the scream had been real. Not like the whining wail he loathed, not even the shocked cry of a kid who’d just hurt himself. This scream had mortal fear in it. After three tours in Afghanistan, he knew the difference.”
― Barry Kirwan, When the children come

“Ah! You speak Levitan,” the man smiled. “But you’re not from Levita I think.” Like
most Levitians he was a good looking man, if perhaps a bit effete for Brown’s tastes. 
“No, I lived there for a while.” 
“Did you enjoy your stay?”
“Up to a point. The Levitian women are very beautiful.”
“Yes of course. So are the men in Levita,” the man smiled. “We used to have a
cleansing programme to ensure a healthy population.”
“You mean a culling policy, where you killed all the weakest members of the
population.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“If you are a future donor recipient, remember: your family should be a part of your transformative journey. Both parties will experience growth as they find balance in your new life stage.”
― Gregory S. Works, Triumph: Life on the Other Side of Trials, Transplants, Transition and Transformation

“I was able to shake off the near-death experience, and whether it was true or not, I was able to use it as some sort of moral validation as to the importance of my existence, or at least the importance of me completing this job, because clearly God, the universe or whoever understood that there was no other human being alive on this earth stupid enough to take this job.”
― DEAN MAFAKO, M.D., Burned Out

“Now I’m not blaming anything on her—I take full responsibility for my own actions— but it was Annette’s betrayal that began my slow spin downward to insanity.  ”
― Steven Decker, Addicted to Time

“By all appearances, Hillary made a deal with herself over Bill’s philandering. She’s a private person who hates campaigning, so her marriage to a charismatic “people person” in Bill created a dynamic partnership.”
― Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Nine Political Wives

“From the start, I told you! We should’a just handled this ourselves. You should’ve handled it the way my daddy would’ve.” She paused, looking at Tom, and lowered her voice, “Just like Crockett.”
― J.K. Franko, The Trial of Joe Harlan Junior

“I will tell you one final thing. You have your father’s temper. It
was his weakness as well as his strength. When you are on your own
you must remember this. Understand your passion and how to curb
it. If you don’t it will kill you.”
― Brian Van Norman, Against the Machine: Evolution

“Mize knew that the outcome of today’s hearing was all about politics. Lady Justice wasn’t blind. She was wearing see-no-evil lenses and had been cursed with a more troubling disability—muteness. There existed no doubt in his mind that political machinations had suffocated legal precedent on this day.”
― Chad Boudreaux, Scavenger Hunt

“I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.”
― Mark Twain

“we both smile and we are conspirators.”
― Audrey Niffenegger

“He will be eighteen in January, but he looks younger than that, and vulnerable; yet older at the same time. Tired. His face is drawn. He has an urge to shield him, but how? There is no way. No way at all.”
― Judith Guest, Ordinary People

“Anything can happen, and anything does;”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek