Mike > Mike's Quotes

“I’m a sailor, and we’re both British,” Lewrie said with a grin. “Of course, we need a dab of mustard.”
― Dewey Lambdin, The King's Marauder

“For the first time in my life, I was reading things which had not been approved by the Prophet's censors, and the impact on my mind was devastating. Sometimes I would glance over my shoulder to see who was watching me, frightened in spite of myself. I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy...censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked, contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything---you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“I often say that we should only be judged on two things: if we’re kind, and if we read books.”
― Paige Shelton, The Cracked Spine

“so?”
― John Ball Jr., The First Team

“The thing about having a mental breakdown is that no matter how obvious it is that you're having one, it is somehow not obvious to you. I'm fine, you think. So what if I watched TV for twenty-four straight hours yesterday. I'm not falling apart. I'm just lazy. Why it's better to think yourself lazy than think yourself in distress, I'm not sure. But it was better. More than better: it was vital.”
― Tara Westover, Educated

“Replacing the divot is “an exercise for the public good.” It is also a reminder that “we are all one golfer.” There would simply be no game if every golfer turned his back on the damage he did.”
― Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom

“Bunter came with me in the role of a friend. A role he has always played to perfection."
"It does not require dissimulation, my lord," said Bunter.
"Thank you," said Peter.”
― Jill Paton Walsh, The Attenbury Emeralds

“Harriet said, "You shouldn't have reminded me to sign that book, Peter."
"Why ever not? Have you suddenly become bashful about your hard-earned glories?"
"Because it watn's hers," said Harriet. "It was a library copy."
"Stroke of luck for the ratepaers of the City of Westminster," he said, grinning.”
― Jill Paton Walsh

“When you've got your health you've got everything, except a good story.”
― J.P. Mac

“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,” she says now. “You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.”
― Tara Westover, Educated

“They do not comprehend where they are going," Kaz said, whispering his words to the wind.
I knew he didn't mean a particular place. There were no map coordinates to mark the location. He meant that point in time and space where bullet meets bone, where grown men cry rivers of tears; the point you can never return from, even if you live to be ninety.”
― James R. Benn

“AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. The End.”
― Rhianna Pratchett

“Physics and detective fiction have much in common: immutable laws of nature apply to both!”
― Ryszard Stone

“Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler did not solve an old problem, they asked a new question, and in doing so they changed the whole basis on which the old questions had been framed.”
― Ken Robinson

“We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect.”
― Ambrose Bierce

“When you forgive, you lose your anger, and when you lose your anger, you get weak.
And when you're weak, you can get hurt all over again.”
― Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Bob

“Read books by people you disagree with. Listen to others who think differently from you. Watch programming you wouldn't normally watch. Expand your mind and views of the world. As right as you think you are about your own beliefs and experiences, others feel the same way about their own. You'll learn more than you ever imagined if you see the world through beliefs rather than right and wrong.”
― Emily Maroutian

“Just because I don’t believe in Bigfoot doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist”
― Neal Wooten

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“These people—the Williamses—were not to be taken lightly. Least of all, Greta Williams.”
― E.M. Kaplan, The Bride Wore Dead

“I always find it odd when people say that of the dead. They had their whole life ahead of them. Clearly, they didn't because they're dead. We may not like the method of disposal but when it's your time to go, then it's your time to go.”
― Nadine Matheson, The Jigsaw Man

“There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”
― Jill Churchill

“The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”
― Jill Churchill

“You'll never be sorry that you did - only that you didn't”
― Ella Burakowski

“Nothing says “I’m back and you’ll be glad I am” better than a complementary Krispy Kreme donut.”
― McMillian Moody, Some Things Never Change

“​‘There was – will be – an outbreak of flu. There's one nearly every year, I know, but this one was a killer. And cruel. It took the old and the young. Anyone from twenty to fifty only seemed to get it mildly. Other people, the ones outside that age group, just dropped and died. It was that quick.”
― Jodi Taylor, Just One Damned Thing After Another

“Failure is not the worst that can happen. Regret is much worse than failure, and it doesn’t ever go away.”
― Dash Hoffman, Mrs. Perivale and the Blue Fire Crystal

“We all serve a purpose in our lives in different ways. We all have value, though we are all very different.”
― Dash Hoffman, Mrs. Perivale and the Blue Fire Crystal

“The light of God surrounds me.
The love of God enfolds me.
The power of God protects me.
The presence of God watches o'er me.
Wherever I am, God is.
All is well.”
― Alexia Gordon, Murder in G Major

“In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go fuck yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.”
― Josh Bazell, Wild Thing