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No more than a shadow's breadth separates you and death! What will you do now with your pitiable moment?
I shall continue to live it... That is what moments are for.

Только один вдох отделяет тебя от смерти. Что ты будешь делать со своим жалким мгновением?
— Я проживу его, — сказал Кармоди. — А для чего еще существуют мгновения?

rules are a great assistance to a smart operator, just as a lot of laws are a great help to lawyers. The rules, doctrines...of science are there to help you, not to hinder you. They're there in order to provide you with reasons for what you do. Most of them are true, more or less, and that helps. But always remember—these rules are there to help you explain to the customers what you do after you do it, not before

физические законы помогают ловкому дельцу так же, как юридические законы помогают адвокату. Правила, доктрины...науки служат для того, чтобы помогать, а не мешать вам... Но всегда помните: законы помогают объясняться с заказчиками после работы, а не до нее. У вас есть проект, и вы его осуществляете так, как вам удобнее, а затем подгоняете факты к результатам, а не наоборот.

Не страшен разъяренный тигр - страшна умывающаяся кошка. (с) Как кошка проучила храброго охотника

Тот факт, что все происходило в иллюзорном пространстве, ничего не менял: иллюзорный лазер разит в иллюзорном пространстве наповал, ибо все мы живы, пока кажемся себе живыми, и умираем, когда нам начинает казаться, что мы мертвы.

Being virtually killed by a virtual laser in virtual space is just as effective as the real thing, because you are as dead as you think you are.

Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you.

Все, что ты видишь, слышишь, переживаешь, – это и есть твое, персональное. Ты строишь вокруг себя собственную Вселенную – ту, которую воспринимаешь. Поэтому та Вселенная, которую ты воспринимаешь, принадлежит одному тебе. Персонально.

ANOTHER SPACECRAFT!” said the headlines and news stand billboards. “THIS ONE’S PINK.” A couple of months later they could have made a lot more of it. The third spacecraft, half an hour after that, the little four berth Hrundi runabout, only made it on to the local news.

Anyone who can go through Hyde Park on a summer’s evening and not feel moved by it is probably going through in an ambulance with the sheet pulled over their face.

There is a feeling which persists in England that making a sandwich interesting, attractive, or in any way pleasant to eat is something sinful that only foreigners do.
“Make ’em dry,” is the instruction buried somewhere in the collective national consciousness, “make ’em rubbery. If you have to keep the buggers fresh, do it by washing ’em once a week.

Envoys must be protected, of course, and murder must be punished; everybody knows that. But it still doesn't feel nice to read about a genocide over your morning coffee. News like that can spoil a man's entire day. Three or four genocides and a man just might get angry enough to switch his vote.

Конечно же, посланников нужно защищать, а убийство должно караться - это все знают. Но все равно неприятно читать о геноциде, попивая свой утренний кофе. Такие новости могут испортить настроение на весь день. Три-четыре геноцида, и человек может так рассердиться, что отдаст свой голос другому кандидату

Thinking
This book contains some. Whether you try it at home is up to you.


Мышление
Герои книги иногда предаются этому занятию. Попробуете ли вы его в домашних условиях — зависит исключительно от вас.

I can prove that no European has been into this cave before me. See the gold on the gods and the globe and the big door?”
“Yes. Of course, dear. I could hardly fail to notice.”
“There you are, then,” said Daphne, picking up the lamp. “It’s still here!

I’m sure people here won’t object to copies being made for all the big museums. But don’t take this place away from them. It’s theirs.”
“I think people will say it belongs to the world.”
“And they will be thinking like thieves.

Я не могу отрицать видимое, но могу вопрошать о природе того, что вижу

I can’t deny what I see, but I can question what it is

in those wars you were supposed to wear a red rose or a white rose to show whose side you were on, but he was very attached to a pink rose called Lady Lavinia, which we still grow at the Hall, actually, so he ended up fighting both sides at once. He lived, too, because everyone thought it was bad luck to kill a madman. That’s what you need to know about my family: We might be pigheaded and stupid, but we do fight

Она просто хотела получить объяснение, что-нибудь более осмысленное, чем «на то Божья воля» — взрослый вариант детского «потому что потому»

She just wanted an explanation that was better than “It’s the will of God,” which was grown-up speak for “because.”

А что до детей, то, поучаствовав в рождении Путеводной Звезды, Дафна решила: если ей когда-нибудь вздумается завести детей, она найдет где-нибудь готовых.

as for children, after seeing the birth of Guiding Star, she was certain that if she ever wanted children she’d buy some ready-made

Они не знали, почему это смешно. Иногда человек смеется, потому что в душе больше нет места для слез. Иногда потому, что светский этикет у костра на морском берегу — это очень смешно. Иногда потому, что ты выжил, когда все было против тебя.

They didn’t know why these things were funny. Sometimes you laugh because you’ve got no more room for crying. Sometimes you laugh because table manners on a beach are funny. And sometimes you laugh because you’re alive, when you really shouldn’t be

Another thing about Grandmother was her belief that a conversation consisted of someone else listening to her talking, so even mild interruptions seemed to her to be some strange, puzzling inversion of the natural order of things, like pigs flying. It baffled her.

Еще одной чертой бабушки была незыблемая уверенность: беседа — это когда бабушка говорит, а все остальные слушают. Поэтому, если собеседник вдруг подавал голос, хотя бы ненадолго, бабушку это удивляло и сбивало с толку. Для нее это была странная игра природы, вроде летающих свиней.

It’s hard enough being alive, trying to survive in the world and find your place in it, to do the things you need to do to get by, without wondering if the thing you just did, whatever it was, was worth someone having . . . if not died, then having given up her life.

I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I found joy in the things that made me happy. The custard was sweet and creamy in my mouth, the dark swollen currants in the spotted dick were tangy in the cake-thick chewy blandness of the pudding,and I had faith in Lettie

It was strange, how easily and quickly protection could cause destruction. Sometimes, Vasher wondered if the two weren't really the same thing. Protect a flower, destroy pests who wanted to feed on it. Protect a building, destroy the plants that could have grown in the soil. Protect a man. Live with the destruction he creates.

Giving her ten thousand Lifeless is enough to make even me consider my drunk-monkey theory.”
“The one who chooses names and titles of the Returned?”
“Exactly,” Lightsong said. “I’ve actually considered expanding the theory. I am now proposing to believe that God-or the universe, or time, or whatever you think controls all of this-is all really just a drunk monkey.”

I don’t suppose you’d want to go destroy some evil, would you? the voice said. I’m not really sure what that means, to be honest. I’ll just trust you to decide.”

You're a very difficult person to manipulate, you know."
"Nonsense," he said. "You just have to promise me that I won't have to do a thing, and then I'll do anything you want."
"Anything?"
"Anything that doesn't require doing anything."
"That's nothing, then."
"Is it?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's something.

time burns away behind us, leaving only ash and memory.  That memory passes from mind to mind, then finally to my lips.  When all is truth, and all are lies, does it matter if some say[...]?  Your belief is your own.