Icedlake > Icedlake's Quotes

“We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.”
― Robert R. McCammon, Boy's Life

“I am always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“At that moment I knew what the plebs were, much more clearly than when, years earlier, she had asked me. The plebs were us. The plebs were that fight for food and wine, that quarrel over who should be served first and better, that dirty floor on which the waiters clattered back and forth, those increasingly vulgar toasts. The plebs were my mother, who had drunk wine and now was leaning against my father’s shoulder, while he, serious, laughed, his mouth gaping, at the sexual allusions of the metal dealer. They were all laughing, even Lila, with the expression of one who has a role and will play it to the utmost.”
― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

“To become a future-teller, one needs only to study history.”
― marjorie m. liu, Monstress, Volume 3: Haven

“God warns us not to love any earthly thing above Himself, and yet He sets in a mother's heart such a fierce passion for her babes that I do not comprehend how He can test us so.”
― Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders

“Esistere per ottant’anni eppure non vivere, si potrebbe anche chiamare tradimento verso la vita, perché ci sono altri che nascono e muoiono prima di avere il tempo di balbettare le prime parole, prendono le coliche, un brutto raffreddore e Jón il falegname deve costruire una piccola bara, una piccola cassa da morto intorno a una vita che non è mai stata, se non per qualche notte insonne, occhi disarmanti e lacrime così piccole che sembravano miracoli. Esseri che sono rimasti al mondo poco più della rugiada. Svaniti al nostro risveglio, e tutto quello che possiamo fare è sperare nel profondo di noi stessi, dove batte il cuore e si radicano i sogni, che nessuna vita sia stata invano, sia senza uno scopo.”
― Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Heaven and Hell

“Lui e Árni fanno il segno della croce su ciascuna lenza prima di metterla in acqua perché niente di malefico salga dagli abissi, e cosa potrebbe salire, del resto? Le profondità del mare sono prive di ogni vizio, sono solo vita e morte, mentre ci vorrebbero certo non uno, ma almeno diecimila segni della croce, se calassimo le lenze negli abissi dell’animo umano.”
― Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Heaven and Hell

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“Il merluzzo non ha alcun interesse per nessuna parola eppure nuota negli oceani quasi immutato da centoventi milioni di anni. E questo ci dice qualcosa sulla lingua? Forse non abbiamo bisogno di parole per sopravvivere, ne abbiamo bisogno per vivere.”
― Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Heaven and Hell

“Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure”
― Tacitus

“If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“There is only one things in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you're sixteen, and that's having a kid who bites it from cancer.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

“But no man's a hero to himself.”
― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

“Wolf! Right here and now!”
― Peter Straub, The Talisman