Silva Orenstein

“Life’s too short to walk around with your arms crossed and bottom lip poked out. Find a way to smile for yourself even if it’s as simple as licking the spoon clean or putting clean sheets on your bed.”
― C. Toni Graham

“because it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.”
― David McCullough, John Adams

“The most terrifying part of battle was the exit from a trench—standing up and climbing out, knowing that the opposing force would at that moment unleash a fusillade that would continue until the offensive concluded, either with victory, meaning a few yards gained, or defeat, a few yards lost, but invariably with half one’s battalion dead, wounded, or missing. “I shall never forget the moment when we had to leave the shelter of the trenches,” wrote British private Ridley Sheldon, of combat at Helles, at the southwest tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. “It is indeed terrible, the first step you take—right into the face of the most deadly fire, and to realize that any moment you may be shot down; but if you are not hit, then you seem to gather courage. And when you see on either side of you men like yourself, it inspires you with a determination to press forward. Away we went over the parapet with fixed bayonets—one line of us like the wind. But it was absolute murder, for men fell like corn before the sickle.”
― Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

“I brought your topaz silk scarf with me.”
“That’s where it went. I wanted to wear it today, but I couldn’t find it in the closet. Please don’t tell me you like wearing women’s clothes.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Double Cross