Averted Gaze Quotes & Sayings

Tentatively she curled an arm around his neck and relaxed against him as she held the lantern to light their way.
He was silent as he climbed the stairs with her, and though she kept her gaze averted, she could feel his eyes on her. In a few moments they were in the corridor leading from the wing, and with unerring direction, he turned down the hall toward her bedchamber.
Erienne was most observant of that fact and remembered the night he had paused outside her door.
"You seem to know your way quite well through this house. Even the way to my chamber."
"I know where the lord's chambers are and that you're using them," he replied, meeting her gaze.
"I don't think I'll ever feel safe in this house again," she replied with more truth than sarcasm.
A devilish grin gleamed back at her.
-Erienne & Christopher — Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

She averted his eyes, but not before he recognized the pain in them, a tormented and languished gaze, a stare preserved for people who were able to love deeply enough that they could be destroyed by it. For a moment, he knew that gaze intimately, remembering it from a time long gone. The ache of a shattered belief once known. He knew that feeling. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

Jasmine

"Almost the twenty-first century" --
how quickly the thought will grow dated,
even quaint.

Our hopes, our future,
will pass like the hopes and futures of others.

And all our anxieties and terrors,
nights of sleeplessness,
griefs,
will appear then as they truly are --

Stumbling, delirious bees in the tea scent of jasmine. — Jane Hirshfield

To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are. — Hans Urs Von Balthasar

He glanced at Trey nervously and quickly averted his gaze to settle on Brian. "You guys rock. I absolutely idolize you. I wan't to be you."
"I want to do you," Trey said, toying with the hair at the nape of Mark's neck. — Olivia Cunning

Perhaps the reason we so often experience happiness only in hindsight, and that chasing it is such a fool's errand, is that happiness isn't a goal in itself but is only an aftereffect. It's the consequence of having lived in the way that we're supposed to - by which I don't mean ethically correctly so much as just consciously, fully engaged in the business of living. In this respect it resembles averted vision, a phenomena familiar to backyard astronomers whereby, in order to pick out a very faint star, you have to let your gaze drift casually to the space just next to it; if you look directly at it, it vanishes. And it's also true, come to think of it, that the only stars we ever see are not the "real" stars, those cataclysms taking place in the present, but always only the light of the untouchable past. — Tim Kreider

I grew up in different orphanages in Israel, and if they gave me a pair of shoes, a shirt, and pair of pants every year, I was lucky. The rest was handouts, leftover clothes. So I appreciated clothes because I only had one new shirt each year. — Elie Tahari

Icarus did not survive his fall. We can only hope Daedalus fares better. — Michael J. Martinez

He was an old hand at the Camp now, his hollow countenance and the intensity of his averted gaze familiar to all who came and went around him. Some had carried to other camps a description of his lanky, quiet presence, had spoken of his strangeness, his regular, lone attendance before the chapel statue. He had made no friends, but in his duties was conscientious and persevering and reliable, known for such qualities to the officers who commanded him. He had dug latrines, metalled roads, adequately performed cookhouse duties, followed instructions as to the upkeep of equipment, and was the first to volunteer when volunteers were called for. That he bore his torment with fortitude was known to no one. — William Trevor

But to call God "almighty" does cause problems for some. J.I. Packer says, "Men treat God's sovereignty as a theme for controversy, but in Scripture it is a matter of worship. — Raymond F. Cannata

The beat generation is a coffeehouse full of people expectantly looking at their watches waiting for the beat generation to come on. *1958 — Mort Sahl

I wasn't sure exactly how prostitutes determined price, but if men bought hookers by the pound, these two would be doing okay. — Janet Evanovich

You could've left me there and ran, like I said. But instead you came back and you helped me. You didn't have to."
"I ... I couldn't leave you there." I averted my gaze. "It wouldn't have been right. And I would've never been able to forgive myself. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

If the track is tough and the hill is rough,
THINKING you can just ain't enough! — Shel Silverstein

Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand. The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure - these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion. Even in my short life I had learned as much as that - or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I love you, Althea - you are so beautiful," murmured the young man into my ear.
Well, I was willing enough. I looked up at him from under my eyelashes. "I love you too," I confessed. I averted my gaze and added privately, "You are so rich."
Unfortunately, I apparently said this aloud, if just barely, and his hearing was sharper than one would expect, given his other attributes. — Patrice Kindl

From the depths of her mind Stella's thoughts erupted with jealousy as the men nearby averted their gaze that had been focused on her to this new female attraction, her mind was pricked with feelings of inadequacy as it somersaulted through her body and she jolted in shock at the size of her breasts which were significantly larger than Stella's. — Jill Thrussell

The flower display continued through the town. Window boxes adorned the shop fronts, hanging baskets hung from patent black lampposts, trees grew tall in the main street. Each building was painted a different refreshing color and the main street, the only street, was a rainbow of mint greens, salmon pinks, lilacs, lemons, and blues. The pavements were litter free and gleaming as soon as you averted your gaze above the gray slate roofs you found yourself surrounded by majestic green mountains. — Cecelia Ahern

The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure- these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion. — Arthur Conan Doyle

But there is an unholy fascination in systematic noise. He did not flee from it incontinently, as one might have expected him to do. He remained, astonished at himself for remaining, since nothing could have been more repulsive to his tastes, more painful to his senses, and, so to speak, more contrary to his genius, than this rude exhibition of vigour. The Zangiacomo band was not making music; it was simply murdering silence with a vulgar, ferocious energy. One felt as if witnessing a deed of violence; and that impression was so strong that it seemed marvelous to see the people sitting so quietly on their chairs, drinking so calmly out of their glasses, and giving no signs of distress, anger, or fear. Heyst averted his gaze from the unnatural spectacle of their indifference. — Joseph Conrad