Chris Ackley > Chris's Quotes

“
How many times had she heard her father tread on the old baseball analogy, if you don't swing at the third strike, there's no chance of hitting the ball.”
― Ashby Jones, The Little Bird

“Sarah shook her head. Babysitting was a tough job. And having kids? Playing Lady Macbeth was a whole lot easier.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“I walked past Malison, up Lower Main to Main and across the road. I didn’t need to look to know he was behind me. I entered Royal Wood, went a short way along a path and waited. It was cool and dim beneath the trees. When Malison entered the Wood, I continued eastward. 
I wanted to place his body in hallowed ground. He was born a Mearan. The least I could do was send him to Loric. The distance between us closed until he was on my heels. He chose to come, I told myself, as if that lessened the crime I planned. He chose what I have to offer.
We were almost to the cemetery before he asked where we were going. I answered with another question. “Do you like living in the High Lord’s kitchens?”
He, of course, replied, “No.”
“Well, we’re going to a better place.”
When we reached the edge of the Wood, I pushed aside a branch to see the Temple of Loric and Calec’s cottage. No smoke was coming from the chimney, and I assumed the old man was yet abed. His pony was grazing in the field of graves. The sun hid behind a bank of clouds.
Malison moved beside me. “It’s a graveyard.”
“Are you afraid of ghosts?” I asked.
“My father’s a ghost,” he whispered.
I asked if he wanted to learn how to throw a knife. He said, “Yes,” as I knew he would.  He untucked his shirt, withdrew the knife he had stolen and gave it to me. It was a thick-bladed, single-edged knife, better suited for dicing celery than slitting a young throat. But it would serve my purpose. That I also knew. I’d spent all night projecting how the morning would unfold and, except for indulging in the tea, it had happened as I had imagined. 
Damut kissed her son farewell. Malison followed me of his own free will. Without fear, he placed the instrument of his death into my hand. We were at the appointed place, at the appointed time. The stolen knife was warm from the heat of his body. I had only to use it. Yet I hesitated, and again prayed for Sythene to show me a different path.
“Aren’t you going to show me?” Malison prompted, as if to echo my prayer.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Around the outside of the room other beautiful women wearing little or nothing at all flitted between the infatuated, intoxicated men, sometimes luring them away for a private dance. The men would follow obediently, weighed down by lust and credit cards.”
― R.D. Ronald, The Zombie Room

“The filigreed iron gates of the Navy Yard were open wide between two pillars that featured large spread-winged eagles on orbs. Men were standing around as women came out together in their overalls after their shifts. Before the war women didn’t work at the Navy Yard, but with men joining up or drafted and a new campaign with a poster of 'Rosie the Riveter' it did its job encouraging woman to work outside the home for the war effort.”
― A.G. Russo, The Cases Nobody Wanted

“Human language is not the only form of communication and transmission of information and in some cases, it is not the most effective.”
― Alexander Morpheigh, The Pythagorean

“I implore you. Take the train appearing in the distance: this train might be the last.”
― Dorlies von Kaphengst Meissner Rasmussen, Escaping the Russian Onslaught: A Family’s Story of Fleeing the Russian Army after Hitler’s Nazi Regime

“The wizard broke out from his mountain grave
As his red fire filled the cave
The miners ran to escape their doom
All in its path red fire would consume

The fire would destroy Sparsholt
Before cannons at the Alol melt
On Tamin Plain the flax would burn
And reveal a name… Arin

The time of the wizard is here
Destruction, death and fear
Some say the world will end
Others say a child is seeking revenge

I am a minstrel and not a seer
All I know is…
The time of the wizard is here
Destruction, death and fear
Robert Reid – The Son”
― Robert Reid, The Son

“Love is described like GOD.”
― Sara Pascoe

“I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

“Fuzzy Tally is no more.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Pretties

“Once a Woman, always a Woman" is a Decree of Nature; and the very Laws of Evolution seem suspended in her disfavour. Yet at least we can admire the wise Prearrangement which has ordained that, as they have no hopes, so they shall have no memory to recall, and no forethought to anticipate, the miseries and humiliations which are at once a necessity of their existence and the basis of the constitution of Flatland.”
― Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

“everybody,”
― Fred Gipson, Old Yeller

“Unfortunately in this world of ours, each person views things through a certain medium, which prevents his seeing them in the same light as others…”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo