Michael Masoud > Michael's Quotes

“That kind of leader usually manages to show up whenever there’s a culture in crisis. People get scared stupid, and they listen to anybody who sounds like he has a plan to get them out of the jam they’re in.”
― N.S. Wikarski, The Mountain Mother Cipher

“They both start with a B. Do you think Baudelaire sounds like Bernhardt?" Her niece eyed her for a moment, then shook her head. "Mommy always says you say the strangest things.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“There was no guarantee of the outcome, but mastering your fear would greatly increase the odds of survival.”
― Isham Cook, The Tao of Poison

“I’ll still the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea will be hushed”
― JoDee Neathery, Wings Against The Wind

“My chest tightens, and I realize for the first time how much I love my freedom, being Chloe without Adam.”
― Maria Jane, Perfect

“When speaking to her husband, Isabella replied, Mon tresdoutz coer, (My very sweet heart) please do that and perhaps I shall be able to continue to perform official functions on your behalf!”
― Michael G. Kramer, Isabella Warrior Queen

“Learning who we truly are on the inside gives us the confidence of being ourselves regardless of the place or person.”
― Arelis Calkins, Rising Above Adversity: Healing and Nurturing your Inner Child

“الخوف الذي تتركه يسيطر على عقلك هو أخطر بكثير من الوضع القائم بالفعل.”
― Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?

“This led me very promptly to the conviction that those “feminine charms” we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity—developed to please us because they had to please us, and in no way essential to the real fulfillment of their great process. But Terry came to no such conclusion.”
― Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland and The Yellow Wallpaper: Illustrated

“Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.”
― Joseph Conrad

“Who had the courage to burn herself? Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a bad half hour standing on a roof: We’ve all had those. And somewhat more dangerous things, like putting a gun in your mouth. But you put it there, you taste it, it’s cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you’ve been planning, when you’ll pull the trigger. That world defeats you. You put the gun back in the drawer. You’ll have to find another way”
― Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted

“I take the sealed envelope from him—​the one that holds the information about my biological father. I ask him for his cigarette lighter. He hands it to me. I look at Sam and Fito and say, “Word for the day.” Sam understands and says, “Nurture.” I take the unopened envelope. I am watching myself as I take the lighter and place it over the edge of the paper. I am watching the envelope burn. I am watching the ashes floating up to the heavens. I am hearing myself as I tell my father, “I know who my father is. I have always known.” And now I am laughing. And my dad is laughing. And Fito is smiling that incredible smile of his. We are watching Sam dance around the yard as Maggie follows her and jumps up and barks. Sam is shouting out to me and the morning sky, “Your name is Salvador! Your name is Salvador! Your name is Salvador!”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

“And while to this day I cannot really tell you what took place on The Mountain of Manyone Paths, I understand still that in spite of so many climbing figures on so many paths, I was alone up there.
Far worse than the petrified shadows and the falling notes, the multiplications upon multiplication of my own solitude brought me rapidly to the edge of despair, which is where, quite sensibly really, I finally found The Man With No Arms.”
― Mark Danielewski