Extract From Chapter 1 Quotes & Sayings

Jane Austen, who is said to be Shakespearian, never reminds us of Shakespeare, I think, in her full-dress portraits, but she does so in characters such as Miss Bates and Mrs. Allen. — A. C. Bradley

A quiet life," Stheno replied. "You wouldn't think it was a lot to ask."
The Hammer — K.J. Parker

Meditation practice is neither holding on nor avoiding; it is a settling back into the moment, opening to what is there. — Jack Kornfield

Some kind of worship of the state, as though the state was somehow different from the schmucks who run it. Can't say I'm keen. — Mike Carey

hard work never killed anyone... but why take a chance? — Carson

Richard Grierson smiles, but it's an inward-pointing smile, a smile of someone folding himself back up for storage in the colorful corners of his own crayon fantasies. She looks at the books, their titles hazy with a thin film of sawdust, and she looks at the toy ships built for imaginary journeys along the red dotted lines of a child's map, and she looks at the exotic pictures in the books still open flat before her, and she understands that these places are just places of the mind, and she wants to be able to exalt his wild dreams and imaginings along with her own - but there's something about them that make them feel like the saddest thing she's ever seen. — Alden Bell

To you it looks like I'm being devious, but all I'm doing is using human ingenuity beforehand to keep the natural order of things from going astray. That's entirely different from hatching foolish schemes that go against nature. So what if I'm being devious? Devious methods aren't bad. Only bad methods are bad. — Soseki Natsume

It was the best 10 years of my career, in fact they are the only team I ever actually played for. That's what happens when you play for Everton, you forget the rest, the rest means nothing. — Duncan Ferguson

The sister played so beautifully. Her face was tilted to one side and she followed the notes with soulful and probing eyes. Gregor advanced a little, keeping his eyes low so that they might possibly meet hers. Was he a beast if music could move him so? — Franz Kafka

As I started to think about how I can claim feminism while also acknowledging my humanity and my imperfections, 'bad feminism' simply seemed like the best answer. — Roxane Gay

Your circumstances do not determine what your life will be; they reveal what kinds of images you have chosen up until now. — Wayne Dyer