Surface Quotes - Page 8

• In his eyes shone the reflection of the most beautiful planet in the Universe---a planet that is not too hot and not too cold; that has liquid water on the surface and where the gravity is just right for human beings and the atmosphere is perfect for them to breathe; where there are mountains and deserts and oceans and islands and forests and trees and birds and plants and animals and insects and people---lots and lots of people. Where there is life. Some of it, possibly, intelligent.

  Stephen Hawking

  Beautiful, Ocean, Eye

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• I laughed. Partly at the joke, partly at how Afghan humor never changed. Wars were waged, the Internet was invented, and a robot had rolled on the surface of Mars, and in Afghanistan we were still telling Mullah Nasruddin jokes.

  Khaled Hosseini

  War, Robots, Mars

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.122, A&C Black

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• Together, we looked down at the tiny house, the sole thing on this vast, flat surface. Like the only person living on the moon. It could be either lonely or peaceful, depending on how you looked at it. "It's a start," I said.

  Sarah Dessen

  Lonely, Moon, House

  Sarah Dessen (2011). “What Happened to Goodbye”, p.89, Penguin

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• Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Animal, Government

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• ...to slip beneath the surface and soar along the silent bottom of the sea agile and shining in water honeycombed with light.

  Ellen Meloy

  Light, Sea, Water

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• I will meet you on the nape of your neck one day, on the surface of intention, word becoming act. We will breathe into each other the high mountain tales, where the snows come from, where the waters begin.” -In the yellow time of pollen

  Luke Davies

  Yellow, Snow, Water

  Luke Davies, “Totem (I)”

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• You don't look back along time but down through it, like water. Sometimes this comes to the surface, sometimes that, sometimes nothing. Nothing goes away.

  Margaret Atwood

  Time, Water, Looks

  Margaret Atwood (1989). “Cat's Eye”, Bantam

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• ‎I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.

  Lauren DeStefano

  Ocean, Forever, Touching

  Lauren DeStefano (2011). “The Seeds of Wither: EBook Sampler with Exclusive Short Story”, p.58, Simon and Schuster

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• Julius Tallow was a fool. He appeared complacent, but like a weak swimmer out of his depth, his legs were kicking frantically under the surface, trying to keep him afloat. Whatever happened, Nathaniel did not intend to sink with him.

  Jonathan Stroud

  Trying, Depth, Kicking

  Jonathan Stroud (2004). “The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book Two: Golem's Eye”, Disney-Hyperion

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• Peeta rinses the pearl off in the water and hands it to me. “For you.” I hold it out on my palm and examine its iridescent surface in the sunlight. Yes, I will keep it. For the few remaining hours of my life I will keep it close. This last gift from Peeta. The only one I can really accept. Perhaps it will give me strength in the final moments.

  Suzanne Collins

  Hands, Giving, Water

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)”, p.365, Scholastic Inc.

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• Cole grasped a handful of vials and syringes with one hand and dumped them on the island in front of me. They rolled and whirled in misshapen circles on the counter surface. "Here are our options." My ears rang. "We have more than one?" "Three, precisely," Cole said. He pointed to each in turn. "That one makes you a wolf. That one makes me a wolf. That one gives us both seizures.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Islands, Hands, Circles

  Maggie Stiefvater (2011). “Shiver Trilogy (Shiver, Linger, Forever)”, p.867, Scholastic Inc.

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• There was just one moon. That familiar, yellow, solitary moon. The same moon that silently floated over fields of pampas grass, the moon that rose--a gleaming, round saucer--over the calm surface of lakes, that tranquilly beamed down on the rooftops of fast-asleep houses. The same moon that brought the high tide to shore, that softly shone on the fur of animals and enveloped and protected travelers at night. The moon that, as a crescent, shaved slivers from the soul--or, as a new moon, silently bathed the earth in its own loneliness. THAT moon.

  Haruki Murakami

  Loneliness, Animal, Moon

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• The past is dead and buried. But I know now that buried things have a way of rising to the surface when one least expects them to.

  Dan Simmons

  Past, Rising, Way

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• Since early morning he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends the ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite all you feel when your head is under water.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Morning, Swimming, Rivers

  Kenneth Grahame (2015). “The Wind in the Willows: Top 100 Classic Novels”, p.66, 谷月社

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• You are so terribly nimble, so clever. I distrust your cleverness. You make a wonderful pattern, everything is in its place, it looks convincingly clear, too clear. And meanwhile, where are you? Not on the clear surface of your ideas, but you have already sunk deeper, into darker regions, so that one only thinks one has been given all your thoughts, one only imagines you have emptied yourself in that clarity. But there are layers and layers - you're bottomless, unfathomable. Your clearness is deceptive. You are the thinker who arouses most confusion in me, most doubt, most disturbance.

  Anais Nin

  Clever, Thinking, Ideas

  "Henry and June". Book by Anais Nin, 1986.

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• Now, the world is more than it seems to be. You know this, of course, because you read stories. You understand that there is the surface and then there are all the things that glimmer and shift underneath it. And you know that not everyone believes in those things, that there are people—a great many people—who believe the world cannot be any more than what they can see with their eyes. But we know better.

  Anne Ursu

  Believe, Eye, People

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• That's the strangest thing about this life, about being in the ministry. People change the subject when they see you coming. And then sometimes those very same people come into your study and tell you the most remarkable things. There's a lot under the surface of life, everyone knows that. A lot of malice and dread and guilt, and so much loneliness, where you wouldn't really expect to find it, either.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Loneliness, People, Guilt

  Marilynne Robinson (2004). “Gilead: A Novel”, p.6, Macmillan

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• Either that boy is the sanest creature on Earth, he thought, or he is so disturbed that our tests cannot even begin to scratch the surface.

  Eoin Colfer

  Boys, Scratches, Earth

  Eoin Colfer (2014). “Artemis Fowl:”, p.749, Penguin UK

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• In our absence, the violet early evening light pours in the bay window, filling the still room like water poured into a glass. The glass is delicate. The thin, tight surface of the liquid light trembles. But it does not break. Time does not pass. Not yet.

  Marya Hornbacher

  Evening Light, Glasses, Water

  Marya Hornbacher (2009). “Madness: A Bipolar Life”, p.99, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• My tablecloth was missing in action and long, jagged scratches covered the table's surface.The scratches looked suspiciously like letters. I climbed on a chair and looked at it from above. MINE. Oh, that's great. Fantastic. So mature. Perhaps he would pull my pigtails next or stick a tack on my seat.

  Ilona Andrews

  Long, Missing, Scratches

  Ilona Andrews (2012). “Gunmetal Magic: A Novel in the World of Kate Daniels”, p.123, Penguin

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• But there is nothing enduring in the world, and therefore even joy in the second minute is already not as acute as in the first; in the third minute it becomes still weaker and finally merges unnoticeably with the usual condition of the soul, as a circle on the water, caused by the fall of a pebble, finally merges with the smooth surface.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Fall, Circles, Water

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• So when he touched me, it was deeper and slower than the wildfire, like the flow of molten rock far beneath the surface of the earth. Too deep to feel the heat of it, but it moved inexorably, changing the very foundations of the world with its advance.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Rocks, Foundation, World

  Stephenie Meyer (2009). “The Host”, p.471, Hachette UK

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• Extending his senses, Lorkin tried again to hear his mother’s surface thoughts. What he picked up seemed too out of character, however. He must be imagining it. Though…it was also odd that he would imagine his mother thinking such a string of curse words.

  Trudi Canavan

  Mother, Character, Thinking

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• If our lives are truly "hid with Christ in God," the astounding thing is that this hiddenness is revealed in all that we do and say and write. What we are is going to be visible in our art, no matter how secular (on the surface) the subject may be.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Art, Writing, May

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, p.102, Convergent Books

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• The walls are covered -crammed- with writing. No. Not writing. They are covered with a single four-letter word that has been inscribed over and over, on every available surface. Love.

  Lauren Oliver

  Wall, Writing, Four

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