Alba > Alba's Quotes

“Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“For a human being, nothing comes naturally,' said Grumman. 'We have to learn everything we do.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“I know whom we must fight...it is the Church. For all its history, it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse.That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“Lee saw the fireball and head through the roar in his ears Hester saying, "That's the last of 'em Lee."

He said, or thought, "Those poor men didn't have to come to this, nor did we."

She said, "We held 'em off. We held out. We're a-helping Lyra."

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“From what we are, spirit; from what we do, matter. Matter and spirit are one.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“Her last conscious thought was disgust at life; her senses had lied to her. The world was not made of energy and delight but of foulness, betrayal, and lassitude. Living was hateful, and death was no better, and from end to end of the universe this was the first and last and only truth.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“The fact was that where Will is concerned, she was developing a new kind of sense, as if he were simply more in focus than anyone she'd known before. Everything about him was clear and close and immediate.”
― Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife

“We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.”
― Douglas Preston, The Monster of Florence

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
― C.S. Lewis

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I'll do so very carefully and slowly so that even you will understand it. If I was the sheriff, I would not have arrested him. If I was on the grand jury, I would not have indicted him. If I was the judge, I would not try him. If I was the D.A., I would not prosecute him. If I was on the trial jury, I would vote to give him a key to the city, a plaque to hang on his wall, and I would send him home to his family. And, Mr. Buckley, if my daughter is ever raped, I hope I have the guts to do what he did.”
― John Grisham, A Time to Kill

“Sometimes you can't be what you ought to be, you can't have what you ought to have.”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“The human creature is so astonishing, but count on it before anything else to be just that-a creature. A laughing animal, a dangerous one, a clever one, a scared one, but always acting for a reason-a motive that will move the beast towards its desires.”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows”
― Stephen King

“People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.”
― Stephen King, The Stand

“Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

“I needed somebody without any preconceived ideas. But I also needed somebody with a mind of her own.” The contradictory qualities we seek in that elusive perfect lover. Strength and vulnerability, in equal measures.”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“This only is denied the Gods: the power to remake the past. —ARISTOTLE”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“But then someday the truth would come out. It always did. Repress what you will, someday the truth comes out.”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“Criminalistics doesn't exist in a vacuum. The more you know about your environment, the better you can apply- (This quote was never completed in the book because Rhyme stopped abruptly at the end of it. I really wish he had finished his thought.)”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“We have years to converse with someone, to blurt and rant, to explain our desires and anger and regrets - and oh how we squander those moments.”
― Jeffery Deaver, The Bone Collector

“She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

“All I ever wanted was a world without maps.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

“I believe this. When we meet those we fall in love with, there is an aspect of our spirit that is historian, a bit of a pedant who reminisces or remembers a meeting when the other has passed by innocently…but all parts of the body must be ready for the other, all atoms must jump in one direction for desire to occur.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

“I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Stories and Poems