Humphreys Quotes & Sayings

I am far more interested in being a beginner than in trying to become an expert. Life is difficult and complicated for everyone - but it's very, very short. — Alastair Humphreys

If you pretend to feel a certain way, eventually you do feel that way. That has been a surprisingly pleasant lesson to learn in life. — Helen Humphreys

Good. Drink your tea," he ordered. "It will make you feel better."
Nothing will make me feel better, she thought, but she drank it down. It was hot and sweet. Mr. Humphreys must have put his entire month's sugar ration into it.
She drained the cup, feeling ashamed of herself. She wasn't the only one who'd had a bad night. — Connie Willis

You were the one girl I wanted who wanted nothing to do with me. — Sara Humphreys

The rising wave of nostalgia and an increasing interest in heritage sites and historic buildings is perhaps not only a sense of yearning for a lost Singapore, but also the recognition that neither 1959 nor 1965 marked Year One (...) In all the campaigns and features on Singapore's 50th anniversary that I've come across, the Kranji War Memorial was never mentioned. It just doesn't fit the slender narrative. That's such a shame because the cemetery is a fitting, dignified tribute to thousands of Singapore heroes, both local and foreign. — Neil Humphreys

You are a spitfire of a woman, do you know that? You remind me of a horse that hasn't been broken yet. All skittish and full of wild energy."
"Are you for real?" Her jaw fell open. "Did you just compare me to a horse? — Sara Humphreys

Love is a slippery slope and it's so easy to fall. — Sara Humphreys

The period before something learns to be afraid is the most dangerous of all, because it is then the creatures are the most vulnerable. — Helen Humphreys

I'm still a little hungry." She shot a sly glance at Ronan before tangling her fingers in his. "Not quite sure what I want, though."
"Could've fooled me," Ronan murmured. — Sara Humphreys

I'm not sure whether or not any love matches are made in heaven, but some do suggest heaven had a hand in the introductions. — Josephine Humphreys

I'm beginning to feel as though everything has happened before, that our story has already been told. Just as we were powerless to stop the fox stealing the chicken, so there seems to be an inevitability to all that takes place at Mosel. This is a ghost story. And we have somehow become the ghosts of these young men who worked this estate before the Great War. The living are the dead. — Helen Humphreys

Scaoileadh Me ...
'Release me.' That was what he said. No doubt about it. It was in Gaelic, but that was what the voice said.
Holy. Crap. — Sara Humphreys

His girl was on the tentacles of expectation about it.
(From Mr. Humphreys and his Inheritance) — M.R. James

She used to be a mathematician. Now she looks for omens and signs. At one time she thought math would clarify the world for her. She knew her link to real things was weak [ ... ] She had hoped knowledge of mathematics, the world's rules, might strengthen her hold. But it did not. The world turned opaque and medieval, its every event mysterious. Now she uses a private mathematics, one made from omens and signs and dreams. — Josephine Humphreys

Maya wrapped one leg around him, writhing against him as she threaded her fingers through his hair and held him to her, urging him on.
"Never stop touching me that way," Maya rasped. — Sara Humphreys

Love is not a good thing, I've decided. It just makes you afraid you'll lose what you love, and then, because your fear makes a space for that to happen, it does. What's the point? — Helen Humphreys

I like the candor of dogs. They're always honest about what they're feeling. — Helen Humphreys

Haw Par Villa is the nutty exception. It's mad, slightly unhinged and overwhelmingly rubbish. Without a doubt, Haw Par Villa is the Louis Tussaus House of Wax of Singapore. There is no higher compliment (...) For it's own sake, Haw Par Villa still had to be terrible, macabre, distasteful and offensive. — Neil Humphreys

The nose can't help catchin' what the ears get sick with. Yessir, rock bands just sweat evil. Evil's been around for a long time, ever since rocks started getting real hot and making a lot of noise as they exploded out o' the ground and evil spirits wisped out of hell. If a band ever uses a fog machine, hold your breath so you don't become possessed by one. — M.C. Humphreys

Projections' - attempts to blame all and sundry for my own past folly - will be found of no avail, and we must learn to withdraw them. None other is to blame for our body, home or circumstance, our friends and enemies, our job and place in the world. We made it all; let us accept and use and better it. — Christmas Humphreys

Revenge! The stupidest motive on earth, just an attempt to change history. — Josephine Humphreys

Sharp. Intense. Powerful. Intoxicating.
Just like Killian.
Damn it all.
Before she could stop herself, Sadie took an involuntary step back.
Killian countered, taking one step closer, and his lips tilted into a lopsided grin.
Shit on a stick.
How annoying. — Sara Humphreys

It follows that I must accept myself for what I am before I can deliberately change it. — Christmas Humphreys

I'm not into werewolves, but holy crap is he a hottie. Totally gorgeous and built like a tank. I bet he's got one down to his
— Sara Humphreys

People do sometimes change, of course. Habits, allegiances, dreams are all alterable, but only under extraordinary pressure - like great love, fear, grief. More often, people don't change. A girl who never missed a day of work does not suddenly decide to stay home in bed, for no good reason. — Josephine Humphreys

It dawned on him that the loneliness of marriage, the thing Alice had so feared, starts out of love itself, which can never deliver on its promises. — Josephine Humphreys

Like most good looking women, she was never sure of her beauty, and had to keep checking on it, to make sure it was still there. — Josephine Humphreys

I'm terrified that if I let myself go there again, if I explore these out-of-control emotions, that there will be no turning back. It's like looking into a giant abyss. There's no end in sight. There's no bottom to the well, and if I allow myself to fall in..."
"He'll catch you," Jordan whispered. "But you have to trust him, and you have to trust in yourself. That's love, my friend - leaping into the mighty unknown because your heart overtakes your mind. That's what life is all about, but we can't and don't do it alone. Give Ronan a chance, Maddy. — Sara Humphreys

She wanted him, but she didn't want to want him. — Sara Humphreys

He was in a state of wonder most of the time, the way a young boy is
engaged by the most ordinary things as if they were great miracles. — Josephine Humphreys

It's as if I've never seen Jane before, never known her. With just an undervest on, she looks unbelievably thin. Arms no wider than the sticks of a bower. A collarbone protuding from the skin in all its detail. And with that one gesture, I learn the fundamental truth of her. When she takes off her sweater and, without thinking, hands it over to David to use as wool, I can see how Jane loves. And I know -with all my heart I know- that there is no protection in the world for someone who loves like that. — Helen Humphreys

We see, at least with intellect, that beyond both true and false is truth; that there is beauty beyond our present views on the beautiful and ugly; that pleasure-pain can now alike be transcended, and that some day we shall truly see that 'form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form'. — Christmas Humphreys

There are many different stories to tell. It's never the same. Every day weather blows in and out, alters the surface. Sometimes it is stripped down to a single essential truth, the thing that is always believed, no matter what. The seeds from which the garden has grown. — Helen Humphreys

People Should not be protected from the world.. -It cripples them. — Josephine Humphreys

It's so hard to get life right, she thinks, pulling the blanket tight around her shoulders. All the small balances are impossible to strike most of the time. And then there are the larger choices. It's hopeless. She might as well be one of those gannets, tossed about by the gusts of wind that drive up from the Atlantic. — Helen Humphreys

The point, dear Davis, is that sometimes what you want is nothing more than to put your name beside someone else's, someone whom you love. Stretch your name out alongside theirs as though it was you, lying next to them. — Helen Humphreys

I must have a screw loose," she muttered under her breath. Satisfied the counter was clean, she squatted down and put the cleaning supplies away in the cabinet beneath the register. "Yup. There's definitely something wrong with me."
"Are you looking for confirmation on that?" Jordan's heart hitched in her chest as Gavin's familiar baritone filled the shop. "Or am I supposed to argue with you? — Sara Humphreys

Sometimes all you need is to climb a simple hill, to spend time staring at an empty horizon, to jump into a cold river or sleep under the stars, or perhaps share a whisky at a small country inn in order to remind yourself what matters most to you in life. — Alastair Humphreys

New becomes stale and old becomes fresh. The impractical, ageing estate long ago left behind to Singapore's pioneers and their homemade tofu stalls takes on a certain irreverence and originality; an anarchic streak even. It goes against the architectural grain. It stands out in a crowd, a rebel with curves. The reclusive behaviour only adds to the appeal. So the old place becomes "hip". — Neil Humphreys

Are ya tryin' to kill me, Maggie?" Declan bit the words out and his fingers dug deeper into her hips. "Are ya wantin' to see a grown man beg? — Sara Humphreys

Our lives are based on what is reasonable and common sense;
Truth is apt to be neither. — Christmas Humphreys

Well, I mean I have forgotten how to go anywhere alone. There are things you have to do. Like throw money into a toll basket on a highway. I'd pull up to it now and panic. Or what if I had to hail a cab? It's hard to believe, but I used to be able to do things when I was twenty that are impossible now [ ... ] It's more than the physical task. It's ... a vision of yourself. If you don't see yourself as being able to do it, then you can't, no matter how easy it is. — Josephine Humphreys

I just discovered something, Mads." Ronan curled his arm over her shoulders and pulled her against him. "There's only one thing I enjoy more than surprising you."
"What's that?" She snuggled into his embrace and rested her head on his chest....
Ronan kissed the top of her head and murmured, "When you surprise me. — Sara Humphreys

My Dear Mother, Please, Mum, read this letter and give me the chance to get to know you again. Mum, I love you and always will. You have been in my heart for forty years. All I remember was a funeral, then I was taken away. I was told you were dead. I will not forgive them for that. Please, Mum, write to me. Please give me the chance to prove to you that there is no hurt in me towards you. — Margaret Humphreys

Kerry pretended to ignore Dante — Sara Humphreys

The truth is that you do forget people. When you conjure them up, long after they have gone, you can't recall the essence of them, just the outline. — Helen Humphreys

Quotes ain't all that useful. Fact is, there's more concise ways to express what you're feelin', like screams and moans. — M.C. Humphreys

Continuous delivery without continuous feedback is very, very dangerous. — Colin Humphreys

The good thing about books is that they remain themselves. What happens in their pages stays there. Harriet does not like the idea of the story bleeding through into real life. She trusts a story, and doesn't trust real life. But what makes her trust a story is the knowledge that it will stay where it is, that she can visit it but that there is no chance it will visit her. — Helen Humphreys

The Road has two rules only: begin and continue. — Christmas Humphreys

But make no mistake about it, Jordan. When the time is right and you're ready" - he trailed his forefinger along the edge of her palm and stilled when she shivered in response - "I have every intention of getting you into bed. And sleeping will have little to do with it. — Sara Humphreys

Growing up in an old city, you learn history's one true lesson: that history fades. Nothing sticks together for very long without immense effort. His own strong house is in a constant process of disintegration. He calls workmen to come repair the roof, paint the porches, replace sills; but even this work has no permanence, it will have to be done again in four or five years. Is this noble activity for a man? Patching, gluing, temporizing, begging for time? — Josephine Humphreys

My aim is a simple one. It is to smash the pedestal of boring upon which modern novelists and their books stand. — Joshua Humphreys

This is what I know about love, That it is tested every day, and what is not renewed is lost. One chooses either to care more or to care less. Once the choice is to care less, then there is no stopping the momentum of goodbye. Each loved thing slips away. There is no stopping it. — Helen Humphreys

Life is too brief and too rich to tiptoe through half-heartedly, rather than galloping at it with whooping excitement and ambition. — Alastair Humphreys

It isn't that nothing is left. It is that what remains is such an old sad ghost of the thing that used to be, and he can't bear lying down with the vestiges. — Josephine Humphreys

I wanted him to be a poet. I wanted him to adventure out into the world and learn its ways, not losing himself in the jumble of life but seeing it in the poet's eye, and withdrawing after in the library room where he could write his poems of revelation. He would tell what he had seen. He never wrote a word in his life. But he did see. — Josephine Humphreys

We don't want your kind in this city.
Take your pack of animals and go back to where you came from.
Mark my words
if you open this club, it will be the last thing you ever do.
Blood will run. — Sara Humphreys

Cloud Foundry will not differentiate you, your apps will. — Colin Humphreys

The creative folks intuitively design what's best for the user, while data folks provide great insights. The true unicorns are those who can go end-to-end designing, building, measuring, analyzing, and iterating with a combination of user intuition and deep analytics. — Matthew Humphreys

I want you to let go. Just close your eyes and feel me. Don't think. Don't try to control it. All you have to do ... is feel. — Sara Humphreys

Instead of focusing on how your feet hurt and your load is so heavy, look at how far you've gone already! Look up to the peak and remember the dreams that started you walking in the first place. — Kelsey Humphreys

Sharing is the secret of civilization. — Josephine Humphreys

The strong don't necessarily survive, but the mean invariably do. — Helen Humphreys

So she kept her eyes trained on the happy couple. I'm fine, Nonie. Sheesh, — Sara Humphreys

We do not now stand in the middle; in every aspect of our life we have, deliberately or by the 'conditioning' of birth, education or environment, allowed ourselves to stand on one bank of the river of life, with some intolerance of those who were foolish enough to choose or be led to stand on the other. Thus we are male or female, old or young, of the East of West. By temperament we are introvert or extrovert, leaders of followers, all for action or striving rather to be. It surely follows that we should be more tolerant of the other fellow, equally right/wrong, and be less swift to judge him with our ignorant, lop-sided view and definite disapproval. In any event, do we have to express an opinion, presume to judge? — Christmas Humphreys

You may disagree. Personal history and national history do not always overlap, a point often overlooked in some of the broad strokes applied to the SG50 celebrations. But do consider your choices. In the age of Buzzfeed, we love lists. Make your own. No two lists will be the same, but collectively, they all say the same thing. They are all in search of a soul. — Neil Humphreys

Who? Mr. Dalton has his hand firmly on Grace's elbow, as though she can't manoeuvre herself through the blockade of tables and chairs.
She could fly right through you, thinks Jack. — Helen Humphreys

My mum's family are from Blaenau Ffestiniog, the slate town. My grandfather was Elis Humphreys Roberts, so that's quite Welsh isn't it? — Simon Fowler

Dakota started laughing. You wouldn't have anything back there to help me tame a punk-rock wild child with a disdain for cowboys, would you? — Sara Humphreys

Loneliness is sometimes cured by visiting with people, and sometimes it's made worse by the same thing. — Helen Humphreys

This is why James likes birds- because they are all possibility. They make a line in the aid, the invisible line of their flight, and this line can join up with other lines or lead somewhere entirely new. All you have to do is believe that the line exists and learn how to follow it. And sometimes life will make this same invisible line for him, make him see where he came from, what he is attached to. — Helen Humphreys

Are ya trying' to kill me, lass?"
"Kill you? No." Maggie leaned closer, her hands drifting up and cradling his face as she rolled her hips again in one wicked pass. "Torture you? Maybe. — Sara Humphreys

Do you have any idea how much I love you?" Jordan curled her hands around the lapel of his jacket and tugged him closer. In her heels, she was almost his height, and when she pressed her body against his, her mouth was a scant inch away. Jordan flicked her tongue over his lower lip and whispered. "It might even border on obsession. — Sara Humphreys

We will not read of that which hurts our pride or fears or 'feelings'. We forget, or gloss over, or excuse, an experience which injured the tentacles of our personality. We forget the pscyhiatrist's definition of a neurosis as 'refused pain'. In the same way we escape from mental pain. We refuse to believe what we do not like. — Christmas Humphreys

Concentration is the creation of the instrument; meditation is the right use of it; contemplation transcends it. — Christmas Humphreys

The difference between being a winner and being a loser is how you pick yourself up again, especially when you're down for the third or fourth or twentieth time! — Susan Humphreys

What's up?" Doug asked with a loud whisper as he swung the door open. His short blond hair was in a state of disarray and the pajama pants he wore were horribly wrinkled. The poor guy looked like a disheveled mess. Pressing his finger to his lips, he stepped back and gestured for Sadie to come in. "Emily is finally asleep, and if she wakes up, I might actually cry. — Sara Humphreys

Now I see how many wolf characteristics you had. You were wary, didn't really trust anyone or anything. You were elusive and secretive. You paced out behind the trees, watching everything and waiting for the moment when it was safe to come in and rest by the fire. But you weren't happy there -- no, I take that back, you were happy there, but you weren't comfortable. It wasn't what you knew. It wasn't what you trusted. You trusted meanness, not kindness. Kindness spooked you -- you were always looking for the trap in it. You trusted in a scrappy existence where you had to fight for your survival. — Helen Humphreys

Me father always said if ya can find a lass who's brilliant in the kitchen and in the bed ya best not let her go. — Sara Humphreys

Emily Williamson never thought she would find commitment so liberating, that her conviction to her cause could promote such happiness within her. She stands in the London sunshine, watching Mrs. Phillips model as a heron, and she feels nothing but gratitude and wonder at the beauty of life. — Helen Humphreys

Even now, as a vampire, the fear of addiction ruled her world.
Would she ever be free? — Sara Humphreys

Why do philosophers in the South so often end as newspapermen, poets as doctors? Maybe they crave what's found in pain and loss: a sense of living among other human beings. They'll give up dreams for that. — Josephine Humphreys

I don't know which end is up. One minute I want to kiss the life out of her, and the next she frustrates the hell out of me. I don't know if I should scratch my watch or wind my ass."
"Welcome to the club, Ronan." Gavin laughed and clapped his brother on the shoulder. "That sure sounds like love to me. — Sara Humphreys

She knew what she looked like - someone at the edge of catastrophe, someone already flinching from a blow that had not yet been delivered. — Josephine Humphreys

Ronan's tall, broad-shouldered form cut a striking figure, and with Bowser at his side, the two of them had an almost superhero-like air about them. They were resolute and unwavering in the face of frightening and hopeless situations.
Man and beast, strong and steady. — Sara Humphreys

Start with a small product in lab environment and grow it! — Colin Humphreys

Another time might be easier than this one, but there's only the time you're in, thinks Enid. And it's always going to be lacking somehow. Best to spend some of your moments here on earth noticing what else is here with you instead of concentrating solely on your own misery. — Helen Humphreys

I am a writer. The proof of how I am feeling is always in my pen. — Helen Humphreys

Forgetting takes practice ... You have to work at it. — Helen Humphreys

Ah, Bluebell, what am I going to do with you?"
Love me. — Sheri Humphreys

Tell me what you want, Mads."
"You," she said in a shaky whisper. "I want you, Ronan. — Sara Humphreys

Life is one, said the Buddha, and the Middle Way to the end of suffering in all its forms is that which leads to the end of the illusion of separation, which enables man to see, as a fact as clear as sunlight, that all mankind, and all other forms in manifestation, are one unit, the infinitely variable appearance of an indivisible Whole. — Christmas Humphreys

She hasn't had a book to read lately and that feeling of story rushes through her like a swoon. — Helen Humphreys

I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to. — Helen Humphreys

Memory is a barricade against forgetting; light is a bulwark against darkness; life is a flex against the stillness of the grave. Maybe that's what I'm trying to do here, clear a space in all the debris, through all the anxieties and worries, where I can just exist, easily and simply, entire, for as long as I have left. — Helen Humphreys

Every story is a story about death. But perhaps, if we are lucky, our story about death is also a story about love. — Helen Humphreys

Enterprises have customers! Ask them for feedback and you can compete with startups! — Colin Humphreys

You can't undo actions with words. — Helen Humphreys

You know who should watch out?" Imogene lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
"Gavin's brothers. Mmm-hmm. Now that Gavin is tying the knot, Carolyn has a bee in her bonnet about getting all her other boys married off. — Sara Humphreys