William Thomas

“It was as though her nature were so brimming over with something that against her will it showed itself now in the flash of her eyes, and now in her smile. Deliberately she shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in the faintly perceptible smile.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“In the same way now, since this reasoning
seems generally too bitter for those men
who have not tried it and the common crowd
shrinks back in fear, I wanted to explain
my argument to you in these verses,
sweet-spoken Pierian song, as if I were
sprinkling it with poetry’s sweet honey,
if, with such a method, I could perhaps
get your attention on my verse, until
you perceive the entire nature of things—------1310
how it is shaped and what its structure is.”
― Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things

“When the winds arrive and leaves fall to coat the forest floor, youth recedes and you come to the horizon of your life. You will then plan the remainder of life and the route to take. Then will appear the consequences of your past actions, so choose those actions well.”
― Leonide Martin, The Controversial Mayan Queen: Sak K'uk of Palenque

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night