#decline

I was convinced that she was about to tell me my card was declined, and assumed Derek wanting to talk later meant he'd soon be telling me our life was declined. Everything, everyone had reached their limits with me. ↗

— Joshua Mohr

#life #metaphor #relatable #life

I told her stories. They were only a sentence long, each one of them. That’s all I knew how to find. So I told her broken stories. The little pieces of broken stories I could find. I told her what I could. I told her that the Global Alliance had issued more warnings about the possibility of total war if their demands were not met. I told her that the Emperor Nero, from Rome, had a giant sea built where he could keep sea monsters and have naval battles staged for him. I told her that there had been rioting in malls all over America, and that no one knew why. I told her that the red-suited Santa Claus we know — the regular one? — was popularized by the Coca-Cola Company in the 1930s. I told her that the White House had not confirmed or denied reports that extensive bombing had started in major cities in South America. I told her, “There’s an ancient saying in Japan, that life is like walking from one side of infinite darkness to another, on a bridge of dreams. They say that we’re all crossing the bridge of dreams together. That there’s nothing more than that. Just us, on the bridge of dreams. ↗

— M.T. Anderson

#decline-of-civilization #excess #dreams

I respectfully decline the invitation to join your hallucination. ↗

— Scott Adams

#hallucination #i #invitation #join #respectfully

For instance, why are we terrorizing this country, leading with murder and mayhem, when crime is actually on the decline, as somebody, as somebody mentioned? ↗

— Christiane Amanpour

#country #crime #decline #instance #leading

The Steps to Folly as well as Sin are gradual, and almost imperceptible, and when we are once on the Decline, we go down without taking notice on't. ↗

— Mary Astell

#decline #down #folly #go #gradual

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms. ↗

— Aristotle

#degenerate #democracies #into #republics

The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite. ↗

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

#been #decline #fall #finite #first

The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses. ↗

— Ben Bernanke

#businesses #crisis #declines #destroyed #economic

I don't believe in myths of decline or myths of progress, even as regards the literary scene. ↗

— Harold Bloom

#decline #even #i #literary #myths

But friends invited me to a private screening of Emmanuelle and said I'd learn a few things. But I know all the swear words. I just don't use them. So I declined. ↗

— Irene Dunne

#few #few things #friends #i #invited