Prologue Quotes

“This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.”
― Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination

“Do the dead frighten you?”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood

“Now hear a new truth. The Great Mother Herself will be forced to hide from those who are coming. She will seem to disappear while they grow strong, but someday She will return. Although our children and their children, perhaps to the thousandth generation, must live in the new world that has forgotten Her, they must never forget. She will return.”
― Barbara Ardinger

“We end up populating what we call the intelligentsia with people who are delusional, literally mentally deranged, simply because they never have to pay for the consequences of their actions, repeating moderniest slogans stripped of all depth...The principle of intervention, like that of healers, is first do not harm; even more we will argue, those who don't take risks should never be involved in decision making (p.10).

Their three flaws 1) they think in statics not dynamics 2) they think in low, not high dimensions 3) they think in terms of actions, never interactions....The first flaw is they are incapable in thinking in second steps and unaware of the need of them...The second flaw is that they are also incapable of distinguishing between multidimensional problems and their single dimensional representations. The third flaw is they can't forecast the evolution of those one helps by attaching, or the magnification one gets from feedback. (p.9)”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

“There once was a town.
It was a quaint little town, in a quiet valley, where life moved at the pace of snails and the only road in was the only way out, too. There was a candy store that sold the sweetest honey taffy you ever tasted, and a garden store that grew exotic, beautiful blooms year-round. The local café was named after a possum that tormented its owner for years, and the chef there made the best honey French toast in the Northeast. There was a bar where the bartender always knew your name, and always served your burgers slightly burnt, though the local hot sauce always disguised the taste. If you wanted to stay the weekend, you could check-in at the new bed-and-breakfast in town--- just as soon as its renovations were finished, and just a pleasant hike up Honeybee Trail was a waterfall there, rumor had it, if you made a wish underneath it, the wish would come true. There was a drugstore, a grocer, a jewelry store that was open only when Mercury was in of retrograde---
And, oh, there was a bookstore.
It was tucked into an unassuming corner of an old brick building fitted with a labyrinthine maze of shelves stocked with hundreds of books. In the back corner was a reading space with a fireplace, and chairs so cozy you could sink into them for hours while you read. The rafters were filled with glass chimes that, when the sunlight came in through the top windows, would send dapples of colors flooding across the stacks of books, painting them in rainbows. A family of starlings roosted in the eaves, and sang different songs every morning, in time with the tolls of the clock tower.
The town was quiet in that cozy, sleepy way that if you closed your eyes, you could almost hear the valley breathe as wind crept through it, between the buildings, and was sighed out again.”
― Ashley Poston, A Novel Love Story

“it bends time when you least expect it."
Like the pages of a book, uniting a prologue with a happy ending, an epilogue with a tragic beginning, two middles, two climaxes, two stories that never quite meet in the world outside.”
― Ashley Poston, The Seven Year Slip

“One admirable thing about my grandparents was their ability to forgive infinitely.”
― Eleanor Lanahan

“Le Poète, l'amour du Beau, voilà sa foi,
L'Azur, son étendard, et l'Idéal, sa loi !”
― Paul Verlaine, Poèmes saturniens

“Once upon a time, in a castle carved of stone, a girl plotted murder,”
― Bree Barton, Heart of Thorns

“for the past was only a preface”
― Remy Alberi, The Comprehension Watch

“I still had to invent and write a great philosophic work, which I had begun a year before, and which was called, “The Tower of Babel.” I had already written five hundred pages of it, and I was still only on the Prologue! At this period my sexual anxiety disappeared almost completely, and the philosophic theories of my book took up all the room in my psychic activity.”
― Salvador Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí

“In A.D. 1223 an infant was born, clutching a jewel in her tiny fist. Her peasant father ran to the castle to bring back a priest, but by the time they returned to the hut, the jewel had disappeared. The priest declared that such would be the child's life: all good would slip through her fingers.
The years passed, and the girl's beauty became celebrated. Knights and kings journeyed far to gaze into her eyes before leaving her on their crusades. Women and children made pilgrimages to look upon her angelic face. All who saw her felt blessed.
But an ancient evil called the Atrox also saw her unearthly perfection and pursued her, offering her father great treasures if she would betroth it. The girl saw her father's poverty and agreed to the union, making only one request for herself--- that her beauty should last forever. The Atrox agreed, and she pledged her devotion for eternity.
A Follower of the Atrox came to take the young woman to the underworld, but when he saw her beauty and grace, he fell desperately in love with her and she, too, with him.
They tried to hide their love, but the Atrox saw through their deception. When the young woman stepped into the Cold Fire to receive immortality, instead of preserving her beauty for eternity, the flames consumed her flesh and bones, turning her into a wind spirit.
The knight could not endure life without her. The force of his love drove him across the world, searching for a sorceress with the power to restore her human form. As he was crossing the sea, a storm broke out and sent his ship off course to the island of Aeaea, where Circe, an ancient enchantress, lived. Circe gave him a magic potion. With it, his beloved could possess any body she desired.
Since then many young women have felt her presence and wondered afterward what made them act so wickedly, never understanding that for a brief time, the spirit of the wind had taken over their mind and soul.”
― Lynne Ewing, Possession

“Oh my god I did not know I can write quotes here! that's good news for my FB friends as they will have some rest from my non-continuous deep posts ..”
― Nada Elnokaly

“The scream cut through the jungle like a sharpened machete and brought a wave of fear crashing over the boy’s body. He had never felt terror like this before.”
― Jamie Baptie

“My eyes are wide open, but I see nothing but darkness. My heart races and my breaths come fast as I try to understand what just happened. But I am trying to make sense of something incomprehensible. All I know is that this is no accident. Someone has trapped me here. They have locked me in a place where no one can hear me scream. It will be a miracle if I make it out of here alive.

I am now at the mercy of a serial killer.”
― Jenny Lynne, If I Tell: A Mystery Thriller About a Girl and a Serial Killer

“During the Peloponnesian War a brave Athenian soldier fell desperately in love with the daughter of his commander. He asked for her hand in marriage but she had to refuse. Having dedicated her life to the goddess Selene, she had vowed not to marry until an evil power called the Atrox was vanquished. The soldier swore to destroy the dark force and free his beloved from her vow.
He traveled day and night until he came to the western side of the river Oceanus. There he passed through groves of barren willows and poplars until he found the cave that led to Tartarus, the land of the dead. He entered it, and when he reached the impenetrable darkness, demons swarmed around him.
A towering black cloud surged toward him. He knew it was the Atrox. But instead of trembling with fear, he became intoxicated with his own bravery; he alone had the courage to face the Atrox. If he destroyed it, he would not only win his bride, but also become as powerful as any of the immortal gods.
Pride overtook him as he shot his arrow. A terrible scream pierced the misty air. Then the unimaginable happened. The Atrox surrendered to him and humbly offered a gift of gold ankle bands in tribute.
The young man, eager to return to his love and flaunt his victory, clasped the heavy metal bands around his legs, but as he did, flames ravaged his body and the evil he had set out to destroy consumed him. The Atrox had tricked him and given him not ornaments but shackles, condemning him to an eternity of servitude. Demons carried him away from the underworld and cast him out from Earth.
Over the centuries many people have seen the young soldier in the night sky and thought of him only a falling star. He wanders the universe alone, unable to return to Earth unless summoned by his master, the Atrox.”
― Lynne Ewing, Moon Demon

“As I stare across the never-ending whiteness that is my arctic prison, I realize that while I seek isolation at times, the work requires me to interact with the locals—we each have something that the other party needs. And out here in the frigid wilderness, the night creeps in, expanding across several months, making my life, and duty, that much more difficult. I’m not getting any younger, and the cabin I live in, while ringed with several layers of protection, is not going to keep me safe from my work. (Opening paragraph of prologue.)”
― Richard Thomas, Incarnate: A Novel

“The veil is weakening, and they’re pushing through. I fear it won’t be long now.”
― Richard Thomas, Incarnate: A Novel

“Once upon the dawn of time, there was water.

Before the stars, before the Maker set life into earth, life into lungs, beast or man to roam . . . there was water.”
― Amanda Dykes, All the Lost Places

“The first baby was born strong, healthy.

The second one was still”
― Claira Teichroeb, Daughters of Irin: a novella

“It began with a whisper and it will end with a scream. What comes between is a dance of
fate’s tangled threads.”
― Carissa Broadbent, Children of Fallen Gods

“Bahkan malaikat pun akan tersenyum—bukan karena mereka menghakimi, tapi karena akhirnya ada satu manusia yang benar-benar mengerti: bahwa kebebasan sejati dimulai ketika kau berhenti peduli pada suara-suara yang tidak berarti.”
― Vergi Crush

“Jika dosa bisa memiliki wajah, itu bukan milik iblis!
Itu milik mereka yang bersujud di depan cahaya, tapi hatinya tertanam dalam lumpur...Ironis. Jijik. Menyedihkan; pada titik ini, iblis pun merasa malu..”
― Vergi Crush

“Maka lebih baik menerapkan fisika tanpa dosa—hidup dengan sebab-akibat yang jelas, memahami konsekuensi dari setiap tindakan, dan tidak menyalahkan "takdir" atas kebodohan sendiri.”
― Vergi Crush

“To request someone's wand, was to ask for their life.”
― Cedric Ennis, Eyes of the Watcher

“The Emperor's game continues,' he answered. 'He's taken our seers and soothsayers—turned them into blood-mad assassins and theorists.”
― Cedric Ennis, Eyes of the Watcher

“The rest followed suit, charging into the belly of the monster, with its teeth spread thin to the sides. This was their only chance of preservation.”
― Cedric Ennis, Eyes of the Watcher

“This is my hirac delest my final statement. I have formed the mental link to the thought-speak transponder in my fighter's computer. I will record my memories before the Yeerks annihilate all trace of me.

If this message someday reaches the Andalite world, I want the truth to be known. I am called a great warrior. A hero. But there is a great deal that no Andalite knows about me. I have not lied, but I have kept the truth a secret.
This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many years on Earth ... and yet, no time at all.
I landed here now in this construction site because I was looking for a great weapon: the Time Matrix.”
― K.A. Applegate, The Andalite Chronicles

“The flat unraised spirits that have dared”
― William Shakespeare