Julia Prokopets > Julia's Quotes

“Life is stronger than you are, even when you deny it, even when you neglect it, even when you refuse to admit it.”
― Anna Gavalda, Someone I Loved

“She was sound asleep when he came to curl up next to her. She grunted.
"Don't worry. I'm too drunk, I won't do anything," he murmered.

As she had her back to him, he placed his nose on her neck and slid his arm underneath her to be as close to her as possible. Short strands of her hair tickled his nostrils.
"Camille?"
Was she asleep? Was she pretending? No answer either way.
"I like being with you."
A little smile.
Was she dreaming? Was she asleep? Who knows...”
― Anna Gavalda, Hunting and Gathering

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
― Steve Jobs

“It is because of its emptiness that the cup is useful.”
― Carole Wilkinson, Dragon Keeper

“They say dragons never truly die. No matter how many times you kill them.”
― S.G. Rogers, Jon Hansen and the Dragon Clan of Yden

“How should we be able to forget those myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
― Rainer Maria Rilka

“But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.”
― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

“Here is a story that’s stranger than strange.
Before we begin you may want to arrange:
a blanket, a cushion, a comfortable seat,
and maybe some cocoa and something to eat.

I’ll warn you, of course, before we commence,
my story is eerie and full of suspense,
brimming with danger and narrow escapes,
and creatures of many remarkable shapes.

Dragons and ogres and gorgons and more,
and creatures you’ve not even heard of before.
And faraway places? There’s plenty of those!
(And menacing villains to tingle your toes.)

So ready your mettle and steady your heart.
It’s time for my story’s mysterious start...”
― Robert Paul Weston, Zorgamazoo

“I have not yet spoken my last word about women. I believe that if a woman succeeds in withdrawing from the mass, or rather raising herself from above the mass, she grows ceaselessly and more than a man.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy

“The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.”
― Carlos Castaneda

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong.”
― Sydney J. Harris, PIECES OF EIGHT

“Sometimes in life we take a leap of faith. Remember, the leap is not about getting from one side to the other. It's simply about taking the leap....and trusting the air, the universal breath, will support your wings so that you may soar.”
― Kristi Bowman

“Elegance is a glowing inner peace. Grace is an ability to give as well as to receive and be thankful. Mystery is a hidden laugh always ready to surface! Glamour only radiates if there is a sublime courage & bravery within: glamour is like the moon; it only shines because the sun is there.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters

“Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.”
― J.K. Rowling

“Freedom is often the first casualty of war.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, The General in His Labyrinth

“Time is not duration but intensity; time is the beat and the interval [...]”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“L'amour, c'est la victoire de l'imagination sur l'intelligence.”
― Bernard Werber, L'ultime secret

“Le monde se divise en deux catégories de gens : ceux qui lisent des livres et ceux qui écoutent ceux qui ont lu des livres.”
― Bernard Werber, Les Thanatonautes

“Радость. Долг каждого человека - взращивать свою внутреннюю радость. Но многие религии забыли это правило. Большинство храмов темны и холодны. Литургическая музыка помпезна и грустна. Священники одеваются в черное. Ритуалы прославляют пытки мучеников и соперничают в изображении жестокостей. Как если бы мучения, которые претерпели их пророки, были свидетельствами их истинности.
Не является ли радость жизни лучшим способом отблагодарить Бога за его существование, если он существует? А если Бог существует, почему он должен быть мрачным существом?”
― Bernard Werber, L'Empire des anges

“Рецепт души: вначале человеческая душа определяется тремя факторами —
наследственность, карма, свободный выбор. Как правило, сперва они представлены в следующей
пропорции: 25% наследственность; 25% карма; 50% свободный выбор.
Наследственность: в начале пути душа на четверть определяется качеством генов,
образованием, местом жизни и окружением, зависящими от родителей.
Карма: в начале пути душа на четверть определяется элементами, оставшимися от
предыдущей жизни, неосознанными желаниями, ошибками, ранами и т.д., которые все еще
тревожат ее подсознание.
Свободный выбор: в начале пути душа выбирает наполовину свободно то, что она делает,
без какого-либо влияния извне.
25%, 25%, 50% — таково соотношение в начале. С 50% свободного выбора человек может
впоследствии изменить этот рецепт. Он может освободиться от влияния наследственности,
избавившись в молодом возрасте от власти родителей. Или освободиться от своей кармы,
отказавшись обращать внимание на подсознательные пульсации. Наоборот, он может отказаться
от свободного выбора и стать игрушкой в руках родителей или своего подсознания.
Таким образом, круг замыкается. Высший парадокс: человек со свободным выбором может
отказаться от... свободного выбора.”
― Bernard Werber, L'Empire des anges

“Dans le regard des autres, nous recherchons d'abord notre propre reflet. Nous nous mettons en quête d'un unique miroir de référence. Cela signifie se mettre en quête de l'amour mais, en fait, il s'agit plutôt de la quête de sa propre identité. Un coup de foudre s'avère souvent la trouvaille d'un "bon miroir", nous renvoyant un reflet satisfaisant de nous-même. On cherche alors à s'aimer dans le regard de l'autre.”
― Bernard Werber, Nous les dieux

“L'humanité a connu trois vexations.
La première c'est Nicolas Copernic qui a déduit de ses observations du ciel que la Terre n'était pas au centre de l'univers.
La deuxième c'est Charles Darwin qui a conclu que l'homme descendait d'un primate et était donc un animal comme les autres.
La troisième c'est Sigmund Freud qui a signalé que la motivation réelle de la plupart de nos actes politiques ou artistiques était la sexualité.”
― Bernard Werber

“Even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

“Ginger: You know what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world?... It's all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they're really good at. It's all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It's all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become bad plowmen instead. It's all the people with talents who never even find out. Maybe they are never even born in a time when it's even possible to find out. It's all the people who never get to know what it is that they can really be. It's all the wasted chances.”
― Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

“What's a philosopher?' said Brutha.
Someone who's bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,' said a voice in his head.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

“People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch