Opal Rydell > Opal's Quotes

“Thickly forested regions of Phuoc Tuy including the Rung Sat swamps and farms considered to be controlled by the Vietcong, were regularly sprayed by defoliants including “Agent Orange” using aircraft. This was both an inhumane and unsuccessful strategy which only destroyed enough food to feed 245,000 Vietnamese people for a year resulting in a propaganda gift to the Vietcong. (Ham, 2007). Given that defoliation did not uncover the enemy, who kept on fighting from jungle, caves and tunnels, the whole defoliation programme must be considered a failure. Given also, that birth defects and other health problems associated with defoliants can be directly blamed upon “Agent Orange”, it stands to reason that the allies in the Second Indochina War who sprayed it upon villages and farms can in fact be said to be, “Guilty of War Crimes!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“He knew what he was doing – justifying an atrocity. But in war, that’s what always happened. Your red lines – those you swore to defend at all costs when you signed up – shifted, until finally none worth fighting for remained. PTSD wasn’t just about what happened to you; it was about what you did.”
― Barry Kirwan, When the children come

“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

“I’m not laughing.” I was actually crying. “And please don’t laugh at me now, but I think the reason it’s so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate. ”He probably was. Your problem is you don’t understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it. Your problem is, you just can’t let this one go. It’s over, Groceries. David’s purpose was to shake you up, drive you out of your marriage that you needed to leave, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light could get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you had to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master and beat it. That was his job, and he did great, but now it’s over. Problem is, you can’t accept that his relationship had a real short shelf life. You’re like a dog at the dump, baby – you’re just lickin’ at the empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you’re not careful, that can’s gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.“But I love him.”
“So love him.” “But I miss him.” “So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, then drop it. You’re just afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you’ll be really alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to death of what will happen if she’s really alone. But here’s what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you’re using right now to obsess about this guy, you’ll have a vacuum there, an open spot – a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with the doorway? It will rush in – God will rush in – and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love., Eat, Pray, Love

“Those who saw the famous film The Bridge on the River Kwai will remember the absurd zeal with which the English officer, prisoner of the Japanese, strives to build an audacious wooden bridge for them and is shocked when he realizes that the English sappers have mined it. So you see, love for a job well done is a deeply ambiguous virtue.”
― Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved

“Aha. The mom doesn’t know. She’s fishing. This next part has to be just right, or I’m blacklisted by the mother and hated by the daughter. The first would be an inconvenience; the second would be a tragedy.”
― Andrew Clements, Things Not Seen

“Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition.”
― Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

“الفلسفة ليست شيئا يمكن تعلمه، و إنما يمكن تعلم التفكير بطريقة فلسفية”
― جوستاين غاردر, Sophie’s World

“The rain comes through their thin cotton clothes against their muscles. Alice sweeps back her wet hair. A sudden flinging of sheet lighting and Clara sees Alice subliminal in movement almost rising up into the air, shirt removed, so her body can meet the rain, the rest of her ascent lost to darkness till the next brief flutter of light when they hold a birch tree in their clasped hands, lean back and swing within the rain.
They crawl delirious together in the blackness. There is no moon. There is the moon flower in its small power of accuracy, like a compass, pointing to where the moon is, so they can bay towards its absence.”
― Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion

“It's amazin’ what people tell you when they’re relaxed and sittin’ in a barber chair.”
― A.G. Russo, Bangtails, Grifters, and a Liar's Kiss

“Creativity became a part of daily life; not a job, not a contest, just something we all did, like breathing.”
― Fons Burger, The Only Possible Solution: How to Shape the Future for Our Next Generations

“This guy is poised to kill again, and soon. So I need you to get to Crestview pronto. The clock is ticking.”
― S.E. Stitcher, The Doomsday Butcher

“I would caution you—ambition is a deadly disease.”
― John Edgell, Seed of the Defiled

“Mr. Ludefance? This is Barnett Hooks. We’re a law firm over here in Tallahassee. I’ve been trying to reach you for over a week as I’m representing a client who is interested in hiring you.”
“I’m currently out of the country, Mr. Hooks. Why don’t you tell me about the nature of the problem? Mind you, I don’t take infidelity cases anymore.”
“No, it’s not that type of case. This is about the late Judge Russell Hastings. He was an appellate judge with the First District Court of Appeals here in Tallahassee who unfortunately was murdered about a year ago.”
― Behcet Kaya, Appellate Judge

“I do not and will not have my life dictated to me by someone else, even if the person doing it is you, my father!”
― Michael G. Kramer, Thusnelda & Armin the Younger Years Book 1

“Nismo mnogo kupovali, ali smo štošta znali. Moj otac je posjedovao zaraznu radoznalost prema tekućim događajima, povijesti, pa i našim životima. Odrastajući, shvatio sam da postoje dva tipa obitelji:
1. One kojima treba rječnik da dovrše večeru.
2. One kojima to ne treba.
Mi smo pripadali prvoj grupi. Gotovo svake večeri zbog nečega smo morali konzultirati riječnik, koji se nalazio na polici nekoliko koraka od stola. — Ako imaš kakvo pitanje - govorili su moji - onda potraži odgovor.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

“Why are history textbooks so bad? Nationalism is one of the culprits. Textbooks are often muddled by the conflicting desires to promote inquiry and to indoctrinate blind patriotism.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“One city and four afterthoughts. Yet, if the residents of Manhattan got down from their self-reverential pedestals, they’d soon realize that Manhattan was the most provincial of towns, albeit wealthier. A more than superficial look would reveal a mini Fort Wayne every three blocks. Duplicates of supermarket, pharmacy, candy store, florist, so that the vertical dwellers need journey no more than three blocks in either direction from their front door. Crossing to a fourth block would only bring repetition of services, with no advantage and a longer walk home.”
― Vincent Panettiere, Shared Sorrows

“The heart, once broken, stayed broken.”
― Justin Cronin, The City of Mirrors

“I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“She learned the intricacy of loneliness: the horror of color, the roar of soundlessness and the menace of familiar objects lying still.”
― Toni Morrison, A Mercy