#be

How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print. ↗

— Karl Kraus

#diplomats #how #in print #journalists #led

On the girl’s brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars a s beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, ‘I survived’. In a few breaths’ time I will speak some sad words to you. But you must hear them as we have agreed to see scars now. Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means the storyteller is alive. The next thing you know, something fine will happen to her, something marvellous, and then she will turn round and smile. ↗

— Chris Cleave

#scars #survival #beauty

And the snow that fell onto the roof in winter... it fell softly... softly... and it covered the house, the armchair, the books, the children's voices. It covered Anna and Abel, covered their parallel world, and everything was finally, very, very quiet. ↗

— Antonia Michaelis

#anna-and-abel #anna-leemann #crying #depressing #heartbreaking

The words that I will have to find for that explanation will be sharp and they will hurt, much worse than the thorns of roses. ↗

— Antonia Michaelis

#the-storyteller #storytelling

Possibly, she thought, the pool of answers was limited. There are fewer answers in the world than questions, and if you ask me now why that is so, I must tell you that there is no answer to that question. ↗

— Antonia Michaelis

#fairytale #micha #storytelling

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. --as quoted in THE RIVER OF WINGED DREAMS ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#angels #civil-war #democracy #destiny #determination

Avery's tone was grand and high-pitched." And, since I've been hanging out with you, Dad's decided I'm on good behavior now." "Poor oblivious bastard," murmured Christian. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#christian-ozera #behavior

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#behavior

My behavior is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I'm quite prone to such bouts of deplorability--take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table. ↗

— Brandon Sanderson

#behavior

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. ↗

— Viktor E. Frankl

#frankl #meaning #viktor #behavior