#tory

Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war. ↗

— William S. Burroughs

#conflict #function #happiness #itself #purpose

‎I was cursed with the pessimism of both the Russians and the Jews two of the gloomiest tribes in the world. Still if there wasn't greatness in me maybe I had the talent to recognize it in others even in the most irritating others. ↗

— David Benioff

#history #inspirational #jewish #jews #pessimism

A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise. ↗

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

#story #writing #authority

History is a set of lies agreed upon. ↗

— Napoleon Bonaparte

#history #lies #set #upon

I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice. ↗

— Andre Dubus

#short-story

The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes: a counter pushed across a table, a pen stroke that alters the force of a phrase, a woman's sigh as she passes and leaves on the air a trail of orange flower or rose water; her hand pulling close the bed curtain, the discreet sigh of flesh against flesh. ↗

— Hilary Mantel

#gestures #history #power #subtlety #tudors

Nothing changes; we humans repeat the same sins over and over, eternally. ↗

— Isabel Allende

#human-nature #sins #change

As we know from the study of history, no new system can impose itself upon a previous one without incorporating many of the elements to be found in the latter... ↗

— Margaret Atwood

#history #incorporation #change

No perfection can last forever. Time tears at it; wears it down until it's nothing, just an empty shell. ↗

— Cassandra Giovanni

#romance #sob-story #story-of-the-broken-hearted #love

Tell me why it feels like you're a part of my soul? ↗

— Cassandra Giovanni

#meant-to-be #romance #love