Van Staveren Quotes & Sayings

Since the purpose of reading, of education, is to become good, our most important task is to choose the right books. Our personal set of stories, our canon, shapes our lives. I believe it is a law of the universe that we will not rise above our canon. Our canon is part of us, deeply, subconsciously. And the characters and teachings in our canon shape our characters
good, evil, mediocre, or great. — Oliver DeMille

Anna Sergeyevna looked at Bazarov. A bitter smile played over his pale features. "This man loved me!" she thought - and she felt sorry for him and held out her hand to him in sympathy.
But he understood her.
"No!" he said and took a step backwards. "I'm a poor man but I've never yet taken charity. Goodbye and good luck. — Ivan Turgenev

It takes an earthquake to remind us that we walk on the crust of an unfinished planet. — Charles Kuralt

People who were gone only lived on in your memory if you had memories. Why hadn't she held on tighter? — Tara Altebrando

There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive ... wormhole refractors ... You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold. — The Doctor

We have always existed in different forms - carbon, oxygen, water, heat. Maybe Heaven is this brief period when the elements realize they're alive. — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Fear says "I am in control": joy remembers Who is in control! EL — Evinda Lepins

At the bottom of all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid blond beast, prowling about avidly in search of spoil and victory ... — Friedrich Nietzsche

If you could arrange to avoid that routine job-world, you were an intellectual or an artist. Too restless, tremorous, agitated, too mad to sit at a desk eight hours a day, you needed an institution - a higher institution. — Saul Bellow

Time went on. Whatever happened, nothing happened, because she was so beautifully out of contact. She and Clifford lived in their ideas and his books. She entertained. there were always people in the house. Time went on as the clock does, half past eight instead of half past seven. — D.H. Lawrence

You can't blame anyone else, ... , no one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices. — Max Brooks

'Excessive regulation in the banking reform bill will destroy a substantial part of our bond-distributing machinery. Can anyone expect that a step of this kind will improve the quality of our long-term investments?' — Barry Ritholtz

We almost have to force or drive ourselves to work hard if we are to reach our potential. If we don't enjoy what we do, we won't be able to push as hard as we need to push for as long as we need to push to achieve our best. However, if we enjoy what we do and if we're enthusiastic about it, we'll do it better and come closer to becoming the best we can be. — John Wooden