Simple Victories Quotes & Sayings

The essence of life is not in the great victories and grand failures, but in the simple joys. — Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed - if all records told the same tale - then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'. — George Orwell

My uncle Alex Vonnegut, a Harvard-educated life insurance salesman who lived at 5033 North Pennsylvania Street, taught me something very important.
He said that when things were really going well we should be sure to NOTICE it. He was talking about simple occasions, not great victories: maybe drinking lemonade on a hot afternoon in the shade, or smelling the aroma of a nearby bakery; or fishing, and not caring if we catch anything or not, or hearing somebody all alone playing a piano really well in the house next door.
Uncle Alex urged me to say this out loud during such epiphanies: If this isn't nice, what is? — Kurt Vonnegut

Dried porcini add a substantial, deep flavour to otherwise more neutral vegetables. I use them in risottos, mashed roots and winter soups. — Yotam Ottolenghi

Don't be reluctant about putting on overalls! — Charles M. Schwab

Power as I possess is not, as many believe, given in exchange for a soul. To hear the ignorant speak, one would think it is merely a simple bargain, an exchange of vows, perhaps, and the power one seeks simply flows from the fingertips for the asking. But no, it is not so easy as that! The truly great gifts are not gifts at all, but treasures obtained after long and difficult searching, prizes won only through hard-fought victories over relentless, near-invincible adversaries. [ ... ]
The ignorant speak of hidden arts, but they are not hidden. Indeed, there is nothing secret about them at all; they are freely open and available to any who would pursue them. Ah, but the price! The price is nothing less than the devotion of an entire life. So perhaps the simple-minded are right, after all, in thinking of the acquisition of power as a pact in which the soul is bartered. There is no other way.
- Morgian — Stephen R. Lawhead

Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, Percy. You do not know when it is time to cut your losses. To save a friend, you would sacrifice the world. In — Rick Riordan

Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', — George Orwell

That answer was such a simple one that I could not imagine why I had not guessed it without having to be told. Those very obvious tactical victories are always the victories least foreseen by the onlooker, still less the opponent. — Anthony Powell

A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road. — Alexander Smith

All is fine with the world... — Jayendra Puri Goswami

Live a life of love, of passion of desire, of free will. Take a chance, take the leap, and jump head first into the abyss. Start a flame in your bonfire
heart, and show the world your passion. — Steven Aitchison

Alert Five Chikoya approaching, open assault formation. Multiple target acquisition. Armed Disruptor pulse. Maximum power rating. Sequential fire. U-shadow update: landing exit capsule behind Building-D. Armed Neutron lasers. Maximum power rating. Sequential fire. U-shadow update: decoy capsules on collision vector. Mach eight. Accelerating. Armed Microkinetics. Enhanced explosive warheads. Free fire authority. Armed Ariel smartseeker stealth mines. Chikoya profile loaded. Dispense. Alert New targets. — Peter F. Hamilton

Overtired five-year-olds needed to be handled like explosive devices. — Liane Moriarty

The great victory, which appears so simple today, was the result of a series of small victories that went unnoticed — Paulo Coelho

I think the more emotional you are, the better. I'm sort of writing [songs] as I go and I can never tell how it's going to be or how it's going to feel until I get into the studio. But I definitely think it will. I probably can't help but have the emotions in my voice. — Miranda Lambert

Meg and Belch only had eyes for each other. Not in the usual romantic sense. — Eoin Colfer

This is your last chance, honey," Brandy says, and her blood is getting all over the place. She says, "Do you love me?" It's when folks ask questions like this that you lose the spotlight. — Chuck Palahniuk

To captivate our varied and worldwide audience of all ages, the nature and treatment of the fairy tale, the legend, the myth have to be elementary, simple. Good and evil, the antagonists of all great drama in some guise, must be believably personalized. The moral ideals common to all humanity must be upheld. The victories must not be too easy. Strife to test valor is still and will always be the basic ingredient of the animated tale, as of all screen entertainments. — Walt Disney

Man is born with the faculty of speech. Who gives it to him? He who gives the bird its song. — Joseph Joubert

Nothing to Lose [10w]
Never underestimate the danger of men with nothing to lose. — Beryl Dov

They are all negros. And the Fascists won't be called black because of their racial pride, so they are called White after the White Russians. And the Bolsheviks want to be called Black because of their racial pride. So when you say black you mean red, and when you mean red you say white and when the party who call themselves blacks say traitors they mean what we call blacks, but what we mean when we say traitors I really couldn't tell you. But from your point of view it will be quite simple. Lord Copper only wants patriot victories and both sides call themselves patriots, and of course both sides will claim all the victories. But, of course, it's really a war between Russia and Germany and Italy and Japan who are all against one another on the patriotic side. I hope I make myself plain? — Evelyn Waugh

Aygi Cycle (4)

Coarse hawthorn
beloved uncle's
memory entwined

among its
gnarled and
armored limbs

copy of
Lolita by
his deathbed — Michael Palmer

There are many ways of writing badly about painting ... There is an 'appreciative' language of threadbare, not inaccurate, but overexposed and irritating words ... the language of the schools which 'situates' works and artists in schools and movements ... novelists and poets [that] see paintings as allegories of writing ... — A.S. Byatt