#sid

Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic... ↗

— Bob Woodward

#bob-woodward #idealists #leadership #obama-s-wars #president

At last, somebody in line steps forward. “I can commit,” he says. He’s a tall, lean young man with a rifle slung over his back. “What’s your name?” Chris asks. “Andrew,” he replies. “And I’m in.” Chris nods. A few other guys step forward and, after a few moments, the entire crowd of ex-POWs takes one step, signifying their decision. My chest swells with pride – pride for Chris’s leadership, pride for the people willing to give their lives to take down Omega. It’s a rush. ↗

— Summer Lane

#cassidy-hart #chris-young #romance #state-of-chaos #summer-lane

One of my main regrets in life is giving considerable thought to inconsiderate people. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#inconsiderate #inconsiderate-people #life #people #regret

IF her life had taught her anything, it was that you never really knew what people had going on beneath the surface. People were shit. The only difference between them and animals was people felt the need to hide it. ↗

— Stacia Kane

#downside-ghosts #truth #life

Whether it is good or evil, whether life in itself is pain or pleasure, whether it is uncertain-that it may perhaps be this is not important-but the unity of the world, the coherence of all events, the embracing of the big and the small from the same stream, from the same law of cause, of becoming and dying. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#life #siddhartha #uncertainty #unity #life

The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret. ↗

— Gregory Maguire

#secrecy #two-sides-to-the-story #vice-versa #life

There's no reality except the one contained within us. That's why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#assert #contained #except #images #itself

They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#being #hesse #life #siddhartha #unity

She touched something deep in his soul. He didn't believe in love at first sight, but the thought of hurting her made his chest ache. ↗

— Jodie B. Cooper

#love #paranormal-romance #sidhi #soul-mate #teen

I'm never going to complain about receiving free early copies of books, because clearly there's nothing to complain about, but it does introduce a rogue element into one's otherwise carefully plotted reading schedule. ... Being a reader is sort of like being president, except reading involves fewer state dinners, usually. You have this agenda you want to get through, but you get distracted by life events, e.g., books arriving in the mail/World War III, and you are temporarly deflected from your chosen path. ↗

— Nick Hornby

#freebies #planning #president #reading #reading-lists