Tabitha Ritchie > Tabitha's Quotes

“When writing, there are some scenes that are emotionally overwhelming. They completely overcome the author, and only when they do this can they cause a similar reaction in the reader.

Through this, the author gets to experience multiple lives. If a character's life flashes before their eyes, it flashes before the author's eyes too, and he or she remembers it as his or her own.

With reading, we get to live other lives vicariously, and this is doubly so with writing. It is like a lucid dream, where we guide the outcome. In this, we don't merely write *about* a character -- we momentarily *become* them, and walk as they walk, think as they think, and do as they do. When we return to our own life, we might return a little shaken, likely a little stronger, hopefully a little wiser.

What is certain is that we return better, because experiencing the lives of others makes us understand their aims and dreams, their fears and foils, the challenges and difficulties, and joys and triumphs, that they face. It helps us grow and empathise, and see all the little pictures that make up the bigger one we see from the omniscience of the narrator.”
― Dean F. Wilson

“Dynamite is loyal to the one who lights the fuse.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Skyshaker

“That was the trouble with explaining with words. If you explained with gunpowder, people listened.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Dustrunner

“Nox didn’t say a word. He waited, counting the seconds in his mind. Sometimes you counted bullets and sometimes you counted time. Either one could kill you.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Rustkiller

“The silence just allowed the echoes of the question to play out in Nox’s mind, reminding him of his own unwinnable war against the never-ending tide of conmen and criminals. He was trying to clean up these parts, but every time he rubbed away a stain, he found another layer of dirt beneath. So, you could give up—or you could keep on scrubbing.”
― Dean F. Wilson, Coilhunter

“Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.”
― Margaret Atwood, Surfacing

“Stupidity isn't punishable by death. If it was, there would be a hell of a population drop.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, The Laughing Corpse

“Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.”
― Jim Butcher, Vignette

“The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.”
― Harlan Ellison

“Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.”
― Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian

“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.”
― Sir Walter Scott

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.”
― Walter Scott, Marmion

“For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”
― Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

“The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon. But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?”
― Sir Walter Scott

“I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?”
― Walter Scott

“The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.”
― Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel

“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, 

when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, 

when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore. 


Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the waters of life, 
having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, 
and in our efforts to build a new earth, 

we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim. 


Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, 
where storms will show your mastery, 
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. 
We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes, 
and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. 
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ. ”
― Sir Francis Drake

“There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.”
― Sir Francis Drake

“It isn't that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.”
― Francis Drake

“Disturb us, Lord”
― Sir Francis Drake

“Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.”
― Sir Francis Drake

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
― Confucious

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
― Confucious

“The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.”
― Confucious

“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
― Confucious

“Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star.”
― Confucious

“Learn as if you were not reaching your goal and as though you were scared of missing it”
― Confucius

“Your life is what your thoughts make it.”
― -Confucious

“He who searches for evil, must first look at his own reflection.”
― Confucious

“Yes, Max, you are going to die. Just like everybody else.
Thank you, Confucious.”
― James Patterson