#inevitability

The ultimate affront, that neither hurries, grows weary nor forgets, is called death. ↗

— Ahmadou Kourouma

#inevitability #death

So one must be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox... ↗

— Stanisław Lem

#cycles #despair #emotion #fear #free-will

Why are my sons followed thus by darkness?' ...'Because they were born in the house of flesh, therefore death follows at their heels. ↗

— Ursula K. Le Guin

#dying #inevitability #life #living #death

Success sometimes may be defined as a disaster put on hold. Qualified. Has to be. ↗

— Nadine Gordimer

#inevitability #success #life

This last night we tear into each other, as if to wound, as if to find the key to everything before morning. ↗

— Michael Ondaatje

#love #sex #love

This inevitability of conflict motivates us today and echoes the reminder that freedom is not given away and our national security is not achieved without sacrifice. ↗

— Jim Walsh

#away #conflict #echoes #freedom #given

Melody is a form of remembrance. It must have a quality of inevitability in our ears. ↗

— Gian Carlo Menotti

#form #inevitability #melody #must #our

That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something. ↗

— Meredith Monk

#bone #both #clarity #down #gentleness

The moving hand once having writ moves on. Nor all thy piety nor wit can lure it back to cancel half a line. ↗

— Omar Khayyám

#inevitability #life #time #life

I have produced no children of my own and my husband is dead," she replied, an acid tone in her voice. "Thus I am more to be pitied than revered. I am expected to give up the shop to my nephew, who will then be able to afford to bring a very good wife from Pakistan. In exchange, I will be given houseroom and no doubt, the honor of taking care of several small children of other family members." The Major was silent. He was at once appalled and also reluctant to hear any more. This was why people usually talked about the weather. ↗

— Helen Simonson

#family #family-relationships #inevitability #pessimism #relationships