Randall Backes > Randall's Quotes

“You know what they say?” Nonna paused, “The character of the Venetian people is like the tide.”
― Jennifer Wizbowski, Poinsettia Girl: The Story of Agata della Pieta

“Well, now, Mistress No-English," Sarah spat out, "I don't suppose you've seen a new pair of silver shoes." She looked down at the svelte French woman's feet. "Just about your size, I'd judge.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“There’s nothing wrong with ambition, Sherry. Nobody wants to be average. Hell, average is easy. Going above and beyond—now that’s hard. That takes work. And guts.”
― Lotchie Burton, Dante's Revenge

“I’m not alone. I have my friends and colleagues. I love it here.”
― Maria Jane, Perfect

“She wore people down like waves wore down stone.
Consistent. Patient. Relentless. Merciless.
       ”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: The Prequel

“Remove the comma, replace the comma, remove the comma, replace the comma...”
― R.D. Ronald

“Think of your pain as nothing else but a requirement to become the best version of yourself.”
― Arelis Calkins, Rising Above Adversity: Healing and Nurturing your Inner Child

“Although enemy forces had overrun the mortar and some gun positions, they did not have everything their own way.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“She understood that Aimée’s passion for preparing fine food, her mother’s passion for literature and her father’s passion for the cosmos matched her own passion for music.”
― Marcia Breece, The Last Bottle

“He falls further into darkness. The stinging pain of daily torture and the numbing cold hardly bother him now, and he relishes the thought that soon he might disappear entirely. Then Lylitte is there in his thoughts again, and the splitting pain brings him back into this life, and again, only one thing eases the torment: winding further out of existence.”
― Joseph A. Anderson, Eden 2:b

“In language that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, a young Moroccan named Brother Rachid last year called out President Obama on YouTube for claiming that Islamic State was “not Islamic”: Mr President, I must tell you that you are wrong about ISIL. You said ISIL speaks for no religion. I am a former Muslim. My dad is an imam. I have spent more than 20 years studying Islam. . . . I can tell you with confidence that ISIL speaks for Islam. . . . ISIL’s 10,000 members are all Muslims. . . . They come from different countries and have one common denominator: Islam. They are following Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in every detail. . . . They have called for a caliphate, which is a central doctrine in Sunni Islam. I ask you, Mr. President, to stop being politically correct—to call things by their names. ISIL, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Taliban, and their sister brand names, are all made in Islam. Unless the Muslim world deals with Islam and separates religion from state, we will never end this cycle. . . . If Islam is not the problem, then why is it there are millions of Christians in the Middle East and yet none of them has ever blown up himself to become a martyr, even though they live under the same economic and political circumstances and even worse? . . . Mr. President, if you really want to fight terrorism, then fight it at the roots. How many Saudi sheikhs are preaching hatred? How many Islamic channels are indoctrinating people and teaching them violence from the Quran and the hadith? . . . How many Islamic schools are producing generations of teachers and students who believe in jihad and martyrdom and fighting the infidels?1”
― Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now

“Like a saint's vision of beatitude. Like the veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see—and seeing the secret, are the secret. For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone, lost in the fog again, and you stumble on toward nowhere, for no good reason! ”
― Eugene O'Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night

“I was slow to pick up on their hints. I knew what the Selection was, but never, not even once, had it been suggested as an option for any of us, let alone me.
"No."
Mom put up her hands, cautioning me. "Just listen-"
"A Selection?" I burst out. "That’s insane!"
"Eadlyn, you're being irrational. "
I glared at her. "You promised- you promised- you'd never force me into marrying someone for an alliance. How is this any better?"
"Hear us out," she urged.
"No!" I shouted. "I won't do it.”
― Kiera Cass, The Heir

“I would rather live my life as if there is a god and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.”
― Albert Camus

“maybe a damned good night's sleep will bring me back to a gentle sanity.
But at the moment, I look about this room and, like myself, it's all in disarray: things fallen out of place, cluttered, jumbled, lost, knocked over and I can't put it straight, don't
want to.

Perhaps living through these petty days will get us ready for the dangerous ones.”
― Charles Bukowski