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Elaine > Elaine's Quotes

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  • #1
    Ernest Hemingway
    “The first draft of anything is shit.”
    ― Ernest Hemingway
    tags: attributed-no-source, writing
    4221 likes

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  • #2
    Freya Stark
    “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure.”
    ― Freya Stark
    68 likes

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  • #3
    Freya Stark
    “One life is an absurdly small allowance.”
    ― Freya Stark
    tags: adventuresome-women
    23 likes

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  • #4
    Freya Stark
    “Solitude, I reflected, is the one deep necessity of the human spirit to which adequate recognition is never given in our codes. It is looked upon as a discipline or penance, but hardly ever as the indispensable, pleasant ingredient it is to ordinary life, and from this want of recognition come half our domestic troubles.”
    ― Freya Stark, The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels
    22 likes

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  • #5
    Freya Stark
    “I have no reason to go, except that I have never been, and knowledge is better than ignorance. What better reason could there be for travelling?”
    ― Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia
    18 likes

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  • #7
    David Mitchell
    “A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.”
    ― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
    tags: books, love, reading
    3318 likes

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  • #8
    Mark Mazower
    “Democracy suits Europeans today partly because it is associated with the triumph of capitalism and partly because it involves less commitment or intrusion into their lives than any of the alternatives. Europeans accept democracy because they no longer believe in politics. It is for this reason that we find both high levels of support for democracy in cross-national opinion polls and high rates of political apathy.”
    ― Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century
    tags: democracy, europe
    10 likes

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  • #9
    Neal Stephenson
    “Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.”
    ― Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
    tags: argument, trolls
    512 likes

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  • #10
    Gertrude Stein
    “It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
    ― Gertrude Stein
    tags: genius, humor
    2183 likes

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  • #11
    Jane Austen
    “There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”
    ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
    tags: elizabeth-bennet, jane-austen
    7948 likes

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  • #12
    Isaac Asimov
    “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
    ― Isaac Asimov
    tags: democracy, elite, elitism, elitist, voter, voting
    2717 likes

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  • #13
    Iris Murdoch
    “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.”
    ― Iris Murdoch
    tags: humor, writing
    257 likes

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  • #14
    Mark Twain
    “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
    ― Mark Twain
    tags: individuality, majority, minority, pause, reflect, wisdom
    43951 likes

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  • #15
    J.K. Rowling
    “Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.”
    ― J.K. Rowling
    tags: inspirational, j-k-rowling, writers, writing, writing-inspiration
    227 likes

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  • #16
    Flannery O'Connor
    “To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility . . .”
    ― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
    109 likes

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  • #17
    John W. Campbell Jr.
    “History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.”
    ― John W. Campbell Jr.
    2462 likes

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  • #18
    C.S. Lewis
    “Hence the uneasiness which they arouse in those who, for whatever reason, wish to keep us wholly imprisoned in the immediate conflict. That perhaps is why people are so ready with the charge of "escape." I never fully understood it till my friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, "What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and hostile to, the idea of escape?" and gave the obvious answer: jailers.”
    ― C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature
    tags: escapism, fantasy, jailers, science-fiction
    51 likes

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  • #19
    Bill Watterson
    “It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.”
    ― Bill Watterson
    5430 likes

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  • #20
    Margaret Atwood
    “I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.”
    ― Margaret Atwood
    tags: love, obsession, sleep
    4186 likes

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  • #21
    Arthur Koestler
    “Creative activity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”
    ― Arthur Koestler, Drinkers of Infinity: Essays 1955-1967
    tags: creativity
    96 likes

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  • #22
    Joseph Conrad
    “It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
    ― Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands
    2474 likes

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  • #23
    Eduardo Galeano
    “I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people.”
    ― Eduardo Galeano
    524 likes

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  • #24
    José Emilio Pacheco
    “We are all hypocrites. We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others.”
    ― José Emilio Pacheco, Battles in the Desert & Other Stories
    tags: hypocrisy, judgement
    961 likes

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  • #25
    Primo Levi
    “Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live.”
    ― Primo Levi, The Periodic Table
    tags: perfection
    599 likes

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  • #26
    Marie Curie
    “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
    ― Marie Curie
    tags: fear, understanding
    819 likes

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  • #27
    Voltaire
    “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
    ― Voltaire
    tags: double-standards, ethics, governments, humor, irony, killing, law, mankind, morality, murder, nationalism, nations, war
    4108 likes

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  • #28
    Terry Pratchett
    “Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.”
    ― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
    tags: books, humor
    2612 likes

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  • #29
    Terry Pratchett
    “Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward?
    How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive?”
    ― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
    tags: darkness, death, despair, life
    56 likes

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  • #30
    Terry Pratchett
    “People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.”
    ― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
    356 likes

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  • #31
    Terry Pratchett
    “The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays.”
    ― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad
    tags: humor
    163 likes



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Tags From Elaine’s Quotes

attributed-no-source
writing
adventuresome-women
books
love
reading
democracy
europe
argument
trolls
genius
humor
elizabeth-bennet
jane-austen
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elitism
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voting
individuality
majority
minority
pause
reflect
wisdom
inspirational
j-k-rowling
writers
writing-inspiration
escapism
fantasy
jailers
science-fiction
obsession
sleep
creativity
hypocrisy
judgement
perfection
fear
understanding
double-standards
ethics
governments
irony
killing
law
mankind
morality
murder
nationalism
nations
war
darkness
death
despair
life