Passages Quotes - Page 14

• All cats can see futures, and see echoes of the past. We can watch the passage of creatures from the infinity of now, from all the worlds like ours, only fractionally different. And we follow them with our eyes, ghost things, and the humans see nothing.

  Neil Gaiman

  Cat, Eye, Past

  "Dream Country (The Sandman, Book 3)". Book sub-series by Neil Gaiman, July – October 1990.

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• A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So small as to be negligible, even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole Universe.

  Fred Hoyle

  Blow, Yards, Pieces

  Fred Hoyle (1983). “The Intelligent Universe”

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• Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in. It's change you can Xerox.

  Hillary Clinton

  Believe, Speech, Whole

  "The CNN Democratic presidential debate in Texas". edition.cnn.com. February 21, 2008.

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• It is right for you, young men, to enrich yourselves with the spoils of all pure literature; but he who would make a favorite of a bad book, simply because it contains a few beautiful passages, might as well caress the hand of an assassin because of the jewelry which sparkles on his fingers.

  Joseph Parker

  Beautiful, Book, Men

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• Tennis: the most perfect combination of athleticism, artistry, power, style, and wit. A beautiful game, but one so remorselessly travestied by the passage of time.

  Martin Amis

  Beautiful, Games, Perfect

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• As a philosophical problem, it comes down to a better way to engage with the passage of time; and I think we're getting close to one, because the imaginative loss of the future is becoming acute.The most effective political actors on the planet now are people who want to blow themselves up.These are people who really don't want to get out of the bed in the morning and face another unpredictable day.

  Bruce Sterling

  Morning, Philosophical, Loss

  "The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole". Talk at Long Now Foundation, 2004.

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• Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. It is a corrective to the sluggishness of "the proper channels," a way of breaking through passages blocked by tradition and prejudice. It is disruptive and troublesome, but it is a necessary disruption, a healthy troublesome.

  Howard Zinn

  Law, Healthy, Democracy

  Howard Zinn (1997). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.383, Seven Stories Press

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• N.Y. Chamber of Commerce Urges Passage of Silver For War Use.

  Caryl Parker Haskins

  War, Use, Silver

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• Those who refuse to look at or give expression to the dark side of life are in denial-fear preventing passage through the door of growth, truth and, ultimately, wisdom.

  Laurence Overmire

  Dark, Expression, Doors

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• I believe that the harm which Mill has done to the world by the passage in his book on Political Economy in which he favours the principle of Protection in young communities, has outweighed all the good which may have been caused by his other writings.

  Richard Cobden

  Believe, Book, Writing

  "Richard Cobden". Book by Richard Gowing, 1890.

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• There are a great number of peoples who need more than just words of sympathy from the international community. They need a real and sustained commitment to help end their cycles of violence, and launch them on a safe passage to prosperity.

  Kofi Annan

  Real, Commitment, Numbers

  Kofi Annan's Address, Presenting his Annual Report to General Assembly, www.un.org. September 20, 1999.

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• Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.

  Samuel Johnson

  Exercise, Ideas, Soul

  Samuel Johnson, William Page (1860). “Life and Writings”, p.210

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• In Gilead, the narrator's friend's son describes himself not as an atheist but in "state of categorical unbelief." He says, "I don't even believe God doesn't exist, if you see what I mean." I pointed this passage out to Mom and said it closely matched my own views-I just didn't think about religion.

  Will Schwalbe

  Mom, Atheist, Believe

  Will Schwalbe (2012). “The End of Your Life Book Club”, p.85, Vintage

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• Watching a scene from a film in slow motion is possible, but there’s an unreal air to it; reading a passage from a book slowly does nothing to rob the words of their power. A film presents images; a book creates images inside the reader, with the reader’s active participation. Books are good for your brain.

  Lewis Buzbee

  Book, Reading, Air

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• ... the embryological record, as it is usually presented to us, is both imperfect and misleading. It may be compared to an ancient manuscript, with many of the sheets lost, others displaced, and with spurious passages interpolated by a later hand. ... Like the scholar with his manuscript, the embryologist has by a process of careful and critical examination to determine where the gaps are present, to detect the later insertions, and to place in order what has been misplaced.

  Francis Maitland Balfour

  Hands, Order, Records

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• Humans are animals and like all animals we leave tracks as we walk: signs of passage made in snow, sand, mud, grass, dew, earth or moss.... We easily forget that we are track-markers, through, because most of our journeys now occur on asphalt and concrete--and these are substances not easily impressed.

  Robert Macfarlane

  Animal, Journey, Snow

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• You are treading the path to your greatness: no one shall follow you here! Your passage has effaced the path behind you, and above that path stands written: Impossibility.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Pain, Greatness, Suffering

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• Mithridates, he died old. Housman's passage is based on the belief of the ancients that Mithridates the Great [c. 135-63 B.C.] had so saturated his body with poisons that none could injure him. When captured by the Romans he tried in vain to poison himself, then ordered a Gallic mercenary to kill him.

  A. E. Housman

  Poison, Body, Belief

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• During our journey there were two occasions that we celebrated by honoring someone's talent. Everyone is recognized by a special party, but it has nothing to do with age or birthdate - it is in recognition of uniqueness and contribution to life. They believe that the purpose for the passage of time is to allow a person to become better, wiser, to express more and more of one's beingness. So if you are a better person this year than last, and only you know that for certain, then you call for a party. When you say you are ready, everyone honors that.

  Marlo Morgan

  Birthday, Party, Believe

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• Rejections are painful, but inevitable. They're every writer's rite of passage.

  Octavia Butler

  Writing, Rejection, Painful

  Octavia E. Butler (2012). “Bloodchild: And Other Stories”, p.128, Open Road Media

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• It has been jestingly said that the works of John Paul Richter are almost unintelligible to any but the Germans, and even to some of them. A worthy German, just before Richter's death, edited a complete edition of his works, in which one particular passage fairly puzzled him. Determined to have it explained at the source, he went to John Paul himself. The author's reply was very characteristic: "My good friend, when I wrote that passage, God and I knew what it meant; it is possible that God knows it still; but as for me, I have totally forgotten."

  Jean Paul

  Friendship, Good Friend, Determined

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• Tattoos are a right of passage. They're a marker of bravery, of maturity, of cultural acceptance. The tattoo represents not only a willingness to accept pain - to endure it - but a need to actively embrace it. Because life is painful - beautiful but painful.

  Nicola Barker

  Tattoo, Beautiful, Pain

  Nicola Barker (2012). “The Yips: A Novel”, p.115, Open Road Media

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• Man and the animals are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Life, Animal, Men

  Codice Atlantico 76 in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci Vol. 1, Ch. 1

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• Sandoz turned and accepted the book, looking at the spine. "Aeschylus?"
  Wordlessly, Guiuliani pointed out the passage, and Emilio studied it a while, slowly translating the Greek in his mind. Finally, he said, "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, againstour will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

  Mary Doria Russell

  Pain, Book, Fall

  "The Sparrow". Book by Mary Doria Russell, February 23, 2010.

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• It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.

  E. B. White

  Love, Happiness, Sheep

  Charlotte'sWeb ch. 22 (1952)

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