Akpevwe

“From the earliest age, we must learn to say good-bye to friends and family. We see our parents and siblings off at the station; we visit cousins, attend schools, join the regiment; we marry, or travel abroad. It is part of the human experience that we are constantly gripping a good fellow by the shoulders and wishing him well, taking comfort from the notion that we will hear word of him soon enough. But experience is less likely to teach us how to bid our dearest possessions adieu. And if it were to? We wouldn’t welcome the education. For eventually, we come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends. We carry them from place to place, often at considerable expense and inconvenience; we dust and polish their surfaces and reprimand children for playing too roughly in their vicinity—all the while, allowing memories to invest them with greater and greater importance. This armoire, we are prone to recall, is the very one in which we hid as a boy; and it was these silver candelabra that lined our table on Christmas Eve; and it was with this handkerchief that she once dried her tears, et cetera, et cetera. Until we imagine that these carefully preserved possessions might give us genuine solace in the face of a lost companion.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“Manners are not like bonbons, Nina. You may not choose the ones that suit you best; and you certainly cannot put the half-bitten ones back in the box.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“Elodin shrugged nonchalantly, though I sensed a hint of disappointment. “This is a good place for a namer. Tell me why.” I looked around. “Wide wind, strong water, old stone.” “Good answer.” I heard genuine pleasure in his voice. “But there is another reason. Stone, water, and wind are other places too. What makes this different?” I thought for a moment, looked around, shook my head. “I don’t know.” “Another good answer. Remember it.” I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, I asked, “What makes this a good place?” He looked out over the water for a long time before he answered. “It is an edge,” he said at last. “It is a high place with a chance of falling. Things are more easily seen from edges. Danger rouses the sleeping mind. It makes some things clear. Seeing things is a part of being a namer.” “What about falling?” I asked. “If you fall, you fall.” Elodin shrugged. “Sometimes falling teaches us things too. In dreams you often fall before you wake.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

“What about falling?' I asked. 'If you fall, you fall.' Elodin shrugged. 'Sometimes falling teaches us things too. In dreams you often fall before you wake.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear