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Quotes by Novelist
"The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity."
29
"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
29
"I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler."
29
"The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following:1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog.2. The terrible twos last through age three.3. Never ask your child an open-ended question, such as "Do you want to go to bed now?" You won't want to hear the answer, believe me. "Do you want me to carry you upstairs, or do you want to walk upstairs to go to bed?" That way, you get the outcome you want and they feel empowered."
29
"One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving."
29
"I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature."
28
"The world outside existed in a kind of darkness; and we inquired about nothing."
28
"In Trinidad, where as new arrivals we were a disadvantaged community, that excluding idea was a kind of protection; it enabled us - for the time being, and only for the time being - to live in our own way and according to our own rules, to live in our own fading India."
28
"I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child."
28
"Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us."
28
"The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step outside the frame."
28
"Boys my age are boring. They have nothing to say and half of them seem like complete idiots.I was going to say that they didn't improve with age but didn't want to spoil her illusions."
28
"One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria."
28
"The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives."
28
"It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness."
28
"Never, never marry, my friend. Here's my advice to you: don't marry until you can tell yourself that you've done all you could, and until you've stopped loving the woman you've chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you'll be cruelly and irremediably mistaken. Marry when you're old and good for nothing. Otherwise all that's good and lofty in you will be lost."
28
"People pontificate, "Suicide is selfishness." Career churchmen like Pater go a step further and call in a cowardly assault on the living. Oafs argue this specious line for varying reason: to evade fingers of blame, to impress one's audience with one's mental fiber, to vent anger, or just because one lacks the necessary suffering to sympathize. Cowardice is nothing to do with it - suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what's selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching."
28
"Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."
28
"I was wrong when I said that I did not regret the past. I do regret it; I weep for the past love which can never return. Who is to blame, I do not know. Love remains, but not the old love; its place remains, but it is all wasted away and has lost all strength and substance; recollections are still left, and gratitude; but..."
28
"Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members."
27
"A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience."
27
"Strictly speaking, every citizen above a certain level of income is guilty of some offense."
27
"We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice."
27
"The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions."
27
"What 'jazz' means to me is the worst kind of working conditions, the worst in cultural prejudice. The term 'jazz' has come to mean the abuse and exploitation of black musicians."
27
"I have trusted to my intuition to find the subjects, and I have written intuitively. I have an idea when I start, I have a shape; but I will fully understand what I have written only after some years."
27
"But when he thought to complain about the burden of its weight, he remembered that, because he had the jacket, he had withstood the cold of the dawn.We have to be prepared for change, he thought, and he was grateful for the jacket's weight and warmth.The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy."
27
"Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man."
27
"In the fight between you and the world, back the world."
27
"Slavery is no more sinful, by the Christian code, than it is sinful to wear a whole coat, while another is in tatters, to eat a better meal than a neighbor, or otherwise to enjoy ease and plenty, while our fellow creatures are suffering and in want."
27
"Because I know you, Percy Jackson. In many ways, you are impulsive, but when it comes to your friends, you are as constant as a compass needle. You are unswervingly loyal, and you inspire loyalty. You are the glue that will unite the seven."
27
"And Gandalf said: "This is your realm, and the heart of the greater realm that shall be. The Third Age of the world is ended, and the new age is begun; and it is your task to order its beginning and to preserve what must be preserved. For though much has been saved, much must now pass away; and the power of the Three Rings also is ended. And all the lands that you see, and those that lie round about them, shall be dwellings of Men. For the time comes of the Dominion of Men, and the Elder Kindred shall fade or depart."
27
"One belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years."
27
"A chaplain's biggest gift is to be present and just listen."
27
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