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“It’s the end of the world. That’s what it is. At least, it’s the end of the century. Here we are, months away from a new era, and what do we find? We have been cheated. Weren’t we promised everything? That fancy exhibition ten years ago, and now they will have another one, and what do we see? The electric light, the wonders of machinery, the wonders of science, technology and medicine, where are these things for the likes of you and me? When I retire I will be lucky to make ends meet. No motor cars for me, no luxuries. And here we are, the end of the century coming, and we have been cheated. That is what underlies this angst, my boy; it is anger and fear. Anger at what we do not have and fear that when the clock strikes twelve on the 31st of December, we will find that, lo and behold, we are no better off than we were in the previous century. Anger and fear, my boy. Anger and fear.”
― Marcus Sedgwick, Mister Memory

“There was a life Chris hadn't been able to take in his grasp. Families, driveways, trampolines, friends around for dinner. All the stuff you'd see on adverts. Was this forever now? The lonely flat with the neutral walls and the Sky Sports. Maybe there was a way out, but Chris couldn't immediately spot it. Treading water, getting fatter, laughing less. Chris was out of rocket fuel. It was lucky that Chris loved his job, was good at his job. Chris always found it easy to get up in the morning; he just found it hard to go to sleep at night.”
― Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club

“Which is more important, I wonder: not to be lonely, or to live the life you've chosen for yourself.”
― Kikuko Tsumura, There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job

“Events come to people, not people to events. Why do some people have exciting lives and other people dull ones? Because of their surroundings? Not at all. One man may travel to the ends of the earth and nothing will happen to him. There will be a massacre a week before he arrives, and an earthquake the day after he leaves, and the boat that he nearly took will be shipwrecked. And another man may live at Balham and travel to the City every day, and things will happen to him. He will be mixed up with blackmailing gangs and beautiful girls and motor bandits. There are people with a tendency to shipwrecks--even if they go on a boat on an ornamental lake, something will happen to it.”
― Agatha Christie, Three Act Tragedy