Karen

“One of its (civilisations) most powerful weapons has always been 'barbarity': 'we' know that 'we' are civilised by contrasting ourselves with those we deem to be uncivilised, with those who do not -or cannot be trusted to - share our values. Civilisation is a process of exclusion as well as inclusion. The boundary between 'us' and 'them' may be an internal one (for much of world history the idea of a 'civilised woman' has been a contradiction in terms), or an external one, as the word 'barbarian' suggests; it was originally a derogatory and ethnocentric ancient Greek term for foreigners you could not understand, because they spoke in an incomprehensible babble: 'bar-bar-bar ...' The inconvenient truth, of course, is that so-called 'barbarians' may be no more than those with a different view from ourselves of what it is to be civilised, and of what matters in human culture. In the end, one person's barbarity is another person's civilisation.”
― Mary Beard, How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith

“-Men still walk around like the US of A is a big cake store and all the cake is for them. Don't you think?
-I'm not letting them have my cake. That's my bloody cake and I'm eating it.”
― E. Lockhart, Genuine Fraud

“Dimly, he remembered a view of Syon House on the other side of the river. He knew of someone who had held their wedding reception there, their wedding breakfast. The idea of a wedding breakfast seemed enchanting to him. He thought of Melody; a throng of people, the ghosts of his past, were the guests. And he saw it at last, farther away than he had thought, like a house painted onto the backdrop of a stage in muted colours. Was this why he had come? The lion on the ramparts reminded him of himself and his own inadequacies and his mane tied down. He veered off through the trees in the direction that the wind seemed to blow him. The leaves of eucalyptus, oak and pine roared at him behind his back.”
― Katharine Davies, The Madness of Love

“A constant factor in human history is the need to protect oneself. Another factor is the urge to attack someone else.”
― Stan Beckensall, Coastal Castles of Northumberland