Ros B

“To make a good man, God has to use all of his skill. Some of the goodness of God himself goes into such a man. And when the man is ready to take his place on the earth, God must feel the pride that I feel when I look at the rug I am weaving, at the strands that bind closely together and knot and make a pattern, and at the beauty of the colours. Such a long day's work to make a good man! And yet, one bullet that takes a second to speed through the air and strike a man will kill him in an instant. How can God forgive such a thing? And yet He can, so it is said, for His heart is great and His forgiveness infinite, if the sinner repents. But I am not God and I cannot forgive the man who killed my brother.”
― Najaf Mazari, The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif

“Simply looking each other in the eye can make a big difference. Failure to make eye contact, or perhaps, worse still, failing to look with interest into someone’s eyes, diminishes our sense of connectedness. When there is no eye contact or when there is no interest shown in the eyes of the person who gazes at us, we feel like we have been ‘looked through’. The Germans have a phrase for this—wie Luft behandeln—which translates as ‘looked at as though air’. When we are looked at in this sort of way, it can be quite hurtful.”
― Jonathan Andrews, The Reconnected Heart: How relationships can help us heal

“He’s more attached to things than people.”
― Art Spiegelman, The Complete Maus

“There you have it, Montag. It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick (p. 58).”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451