Isobel Bennett Quotes & Sayings

Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust. — Charles Dickens

I didn't know, nor have I ever discovered, who let go first. I'm not prepared to accept that it was me. But everyone claims not to have been first. What is certain is that if we had not broken ranks, our collective weight would have brought the balloon to earth a quarter of the way down the slope a few seconds later as the gust subsided. But as I've said, there was no team, there was no plan, no agreement to be broken. No failure. So can we accept that it was right, every man for himself? Were we all happy afterwards that this was a reasonable course? We never had that comfort, for there was a deeper covenant, ancient and automatic, written in our nature. Co-operation - the basis of our earliest hunting successes, the force behind our evolving capacity for language, the glue of our social cohesion. Our misery in the aftermath was proof that we knew we had failed ourselves. But letting go was in our nature too. Selfishness is also written in our hearts. — Ian McEwan

Lady Talaith. Is that what you're wearing to dinner tonight?"
...
"And exactly when did I start owing you an explanation for
anything I do?"
"She's got you there, brother." The pair turned on him so fast,
Gwenvael stumbled back against the window, almost falling out of it.
"Don't bother. I'll accidentally hit myself in the head later. — G.A. Aiken

I pursue this dream and carry on. I don't dwell too much on the outside, I just focus on the inside. — Conor McGregor

Ive never taken a vacation. Ive never been to Europe. Every time I planned to do something big, I got a job, and I could never pass that up. — Dan Lauria

The idea that information can be stored in a changing world without an overwhelming depreciation of its value is false. It is scarcely less false than the more plausible claim that after a war we may take our existing weapons, fill their barrels with information. — Norbert Wiener

I was never one to go up to someone as a five- or six-year-old and say, 'Hello, my name's Paul, will you be my friend?' But I found if I did an impression of the PE teacher or whatever and people laughed, then they did like me, and so then they started talking to me, rather than me making the initial overture and then maybe being rebuffed. — Paul Merton