Slate Quotes - Page 2

• Contrary to what some parents might believe or hope for, children are not born a blank slate. Rather, they come into the world with predetermined abilities, proclivities and temperaments that nurturing parents may be able to foster or modify, but can rarely reverse.

  Jane Brody

  Children, Believe, Adoption

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• The apartment was entirely, was only, for her: a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her not only in themselves, their tender spines, but in the moments or periods they evoked… Her self, then, was represented in her books; her times in her records; and the rest of the room she thought of as a pure, blank slate.

  Claire Messud

  Wall, Book, Self

  FaceBook post by Claire Messud from Aug 23, 2012

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• I know absolutely nothing about where I'm going. I'm fine with that. I'm happy about it. Before, I had nothing. I had no life, no friends, and no family really, and I didn't really care. I had nothing, and nothing to lose, and then I knew loss. What I cared about was gone; it was all lost. Now I have everything to gain; everything is a clean slate. It's all blank pages waiting to be written on. It's all about going forward. It's all about uncertainty and possibilities.

  Gregory Galloway

  Loss, Waiting, No Friends

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• We're not blank slates. What we've done, what we've survived all go into us.

  Nora Roberts

  Done, Blank, Survived

  Nora Roberts (2011). “Nora Roberts' Bride Quartet”, p.853, Penguin

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• The desirable virgin is sexy but not sexual. She's young, white, and skinny. She's a cheerleader, a babysitter; she's accessible and eager to please (remember those ethics of passivity!). She's never a woman of color. SHe's never a low-income girl or a fat girl. She's never disabled. "Virgin" is a designation for those who meet a certain standard of what women, especially young women, are supposed to look like. As for how these young women are supposed to act? A blank slate is best.

  Jessica Valenti

  Girl, Sexy, Color

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• Without memories to cloud it, the mind perceives with absolute clarity. Each observation stands out in stark relief. In the beginning, when there's not yet a smudge, the slate still blank, there is only the present moment: each vital detail, shocked color, the fall of light. Like film stills. The mind relentlessly open to the world, deeply impressed, even hurt by it: not yet gauzed by memory.

  Nicole Krauss

  Hurt, Memories, Fall

  Nicole Krauss (2003). “Man Walks Into a Room”, p.138, Anchor

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• If I don't think about anything, and start with a clean slate, in terms of what I have to do, a lot of different ideas come up, and I can think about things more openly.

  Namie Amuro

  Thinking, Ideas, Different

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• Love is not an equation, it is not a contract, and it is not a happy ending. Love is the slate under the chalk, the ground that buildings rise, and the oxygen in the air. It is the place you come back to, no matter where your headed

  Jodi Picoult

  True Love, Love Is, Air

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• When I pointed to him his palms slipped slightly, leaving greasy sweat streaks on the wall, and he hooked his thumbs in his belt. A strange spasm shook him, as if he heard fingernails scrape slate, but as I gazed at him in wonder the tension slowly drained from his face. His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears. “Hey, Boo,” I said. “Mr. Arthur, honey,” said Atticus, gently correcting me. “Jean Louise, this is Mr. Arthur Radley. I believe he already knows you.

  Harper Lee

  Wall, Believe, Sweat

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• Every American wants a clean slate, but nobody wants to lose what they've got.

  Rob Sheffield

  Want, Clean, Loses

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• It’s unfortunate that we live in such a panicked, dysmorphic society where women don’t even give themselves a chance to see what they’ll look like as older persons. I want to have some idea of what I’ll look like before I start cleaning the slates.

  Julia Roberts

  Ideas, Giving, Looks

  "Julia Roberts: I’m A Hindu, I Don’t Believe In Botox". www.huffingtonpost.com. August 4, 2010.

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• The strongest argument against totalitarianism may be a recognition of a universal human nature; that all humans have innate desires for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The doctrine of the blank slate... is a totalitarian's dream.

  Steven Pinker

  Dream, Pursuit Of Happiness, Desire

  "Steven Pinker: the optimistic voice of science" by Andrew Anthony, www.theguardian.com. September 17, 2011.

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• Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house-the color of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house.

  Benjamin Britten

  Bricks And Mortar, Fog, Color

  "The Classical Music Experience: Discover the Music of the World's Greatest Composers". Book by Julius H. Jacobson (p.341), 2008.

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• I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  School, Broke

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2016). “Anne of the Island”, p.236, Youcanprint

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• Please allow me to wipe the slate clean. Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom. Think of love as a state of grace, not the means to anything, but the alpha and omega. An end in itself. Florentino Ariza, Love in the Time of Cholera

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Love, Mean, Reality

  FaceBook post by Gabriel García Márquez from Sep 15, 2014

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• Blank-slate friendships were thin and temperamental. She knew that. There was no history there to cement people together, for better or worse.

  Sarah Addison Allen

  People, Together, Blank

  Sarah Addison Allen (2010). “The Girl Who Chased the Moon: A Novel”, p.113, Bantam

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• It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to look down upon the houses like this." I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soon explained himself. "Look at those big, isolated clumps of buildings rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-coloured sea." "The board-schools." "Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Running, Spring, School

  Arthur Conan Doyle, General Press (2016). “The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 56 Stories & 4 Novels”, p.340, GENERAL PRESS

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• Nothing mattered much to me for a time there, after you told me you could never love me, Anne. There was nobody else -- there never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  School, Broke

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2015). “Anne of Green Gables Collection: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of the Island, and More Anne Shirley Books”, p.664, Xist Publishing

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• There's nothing so attractive as a blank slate. Take one attractive man, slap on a thick coat of daydream, and voila, the perfect man. With absolutely no resemblance to reality.

  Lauren Willig

  Reality, Men, Perfect

  Lauren Willig (2007). “The Deception of the Emerald Ring”, p.112, Penguin

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• Blot your misdeeds out (if you are particularly conscientious), by a good deed, as soon as you can; just as we did a correct sum at school on the slate, where an incorrect one was only half rubbed out. It was better than wetting our sponge with our tears; both less loss of time where tears had to be waited for, and a better effect at last.

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  School, Loss, Tears

  Elizabeth Gaskell (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell (Illustrated)”, p.1131, Delphi Classics

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• Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking.

  Frederick Buechner

  Sleep, Night, Grace

  FaceBook post by Frederick Buechner from Jan 01, 2016

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• My room is cleared. My head is cleared. Earlier, around dawn, I took out the last load of trash. I look around and see what's left. Nothing. There is no more Daelyn Rice. As I was. As I am. Or will become. I'm a blank slate

  Julie Anne Peters

  Dawn, Looks, Lasts

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• Patch's eyes were slate black, darker than a million secrets stacked on top of each other. He dropped his gaze to the ring in his hand, turning it over slowly. "Swear you'll never stop loving me," I whispered. Ever so slightly, he nodded.

  Becca Fitzpatrick

  Eye, Hands, Black

  Becca Fitzpatrick (2013). “The Complete Hush, Hush Saga: includes Hush, Hush; Crescendo; Silence and Finale”, p.296, Simon and Schuster

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• A baby is such a blank slate, like training the understudy for a role you're planning to leave. You truly hope your replacement will do the play justice, but in secret you want future critics to say you played the character better.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Baby, Character, Play

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• Qhuinn's eyes shifted away from his buddy--and just happened to measure the distance down to the stone patio below. Hmm . . . doing a swan dive onto all that slate might just get the images of those two out of his head... of course, it would also turn his brain into scrambled eggs, but really, was that such a bad thing?

  J.R. Ward

  Broken Heart, Distance, Eye

  J.R. Ward (2010). “Lover Mine: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood”, p.420, Penguin

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