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“Yesterday, I asked a robot, Gumball I think, do you know Murphy’s law of gravitation? It answered, ‘No, sir, I know only Newton’s and Einstein’s laws of gravitation; I don’t know Murphy’s law.�� I replied, ‘Eh, Gumball, the slice always falls with the buttered side to the floor. That’s Murphy’s law.’�� Everyone burst into laughter.”
― Todor Bombov, Homo Cosmicus 2: Titan

“As Aristocleia raised her cup to toast Xanthippus, her gown slipped from her shoulders, exquisite as Aphrodite’s, and flowed like the water that slid over her naked breasts when she allowed him to watch her bathe. It was wonderful to possess a gem of a woman. It made a man feel beautiful and godlike himself, briefly.”
― Yvonne Korshak, Pericles and Aspasia: A Story of Ancient Greece

“If you always try to subjugate people by coercion, because you are strong, then sooner or later you will run into somebody who is just as strong, if not stronger. Then you'll be in trouble.”
― Max Nowaz, The Polymorph

“Bring me Mother Julian’s Scroll within two weeks, or I’ll get that guttersnipe Leni prosecuted for attempted murder. She won’t survive long in prison.”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

“He sounds like a politician running for office.”
― March Lions, The Last Sunset

“We envy people like you, and we want to be you; we can't, so we destroy you.”
― Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“The business of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" was one of the aphorisms his boss liked to quote.”
― Sara Gruen, Ape House

“The fact is that I find in the day's light, in this diffused, pale, almost shadowless luminosity, a darkness deeper than the night's.”
― Italo Calvino , If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

“Amelia Bedelia," said Mrs. Rogers,
"Christmas is just around the corner."
"It is?" said Amelia Bedelia. "Which corner?"
Mrs. Rogers lauhged and said,
"I mean tomorrow is Christmas Day."
"I know that," said Amelia Bedelia.”
― Peggy Parish, Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia

“...the real danger does not stem from those who seek to grab their share of wealth through force, or from those who try to defend their property through violence, for both of these groups, by their affirmative acts, support the values of the system in which they live. The millions that I would fear are those who do not dream of the prizes that the nation holds forth, for it is in them, though they may not know it, that a revolution has taken place and is building its time to translate itself into a new and strange way of life.”
― Richard Wright

“Get up you lazy bastard. The Governor wants a word with you,�� said a guard. 
He opened his eyes and smiled. There was another guard standing near the cell door in 
anticipation of any trouble. The prisoner smiled at him, too. 
Now what can the Governor want from me? He wondered. His dishevelled form seemed 
incapable of coherent thought. “It’s nice of him to remember me,�� he said aloud, trying to 
concentrate.
“Surprising he’s got any time for a worthless shit like you,�� said the first guard. 
“I once used to be a very important person,�� the prisoner said feebly.”
― Max Nowaz, The Arbitrator

“There is no father,�� he said eventually, ‘And I believe you’re running away from something. You’re a lovely woman trying to hold it all together but it’s too much for you. You think I’m a stupid old man who doesn’t care what he looks like and sits here day after day with nothing to do. And doesn’t notice anything. But you don’t know what’s here inside …�� he laid his arm across his chest, ‘My soul and my heart and my mind. There is so much in here it’s bursting and roving around the world like a lost soul with no home, endlessly looking and searching. I feel the mystery, I sense the mysteries �� and the endless joy and the wonder and incredible beauty of the world and the pain and the cruelty. You feel all this too Sarah, but you pretend you’re a shallow woman with some sort of story, and underneath you think about �� many things. Which of my books are you itching to get your hands on, huh? And you’re carrying the pain around with you, and something has just happened, and you are worried and, something has happened in the last few minutes and it’s all more than you can bear, and you need to tell me, yes me, Samuel. I am so much more than you think I am, and I can understand, and I can help.�� Ruby looked up startled and their eyes met. ‘I am so tired,�� she said, ‘Yes, you are right. I am so very tired of it all.' ”
― Elizabeth Tebby Germaine, A MAN WHO SEEMED REAL: A story of love, lies, fear and kindness

“You can’t set fires, Anna. Never again. Promise.��
[Anna] aimed her defiance at Mary.
“And you? What’s your reason to hate me?��
Caroline spoke quietly. “We nearly died �� in the fire in those mountains and at the house when Ravi had a gun pointed at us.�� Her eyes were full of tears. “The fire you set at The Old Hospital could have killed me as well as Janet and Agnes.��
Anna muttered into the syrupy dregs of her tea. “Fire, you’re firing me?��
Mary grimaced. There had been too much fire.”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

“O-I-M. It stands for Organic Intelligent Material.�� “Does that mean it’s alive?�� “It is definitely alive. And because we infuse it with AI, it’s an intelligent living being. And we treat it as such.”
― Steven Decker, Time Chain: A Time Travel Novel

“She said, “My people of Oxford, you are suffering from the administration of Hugh le Despencer the Elder and his son called Hugh le Despencer the Younger! I have issued warrants for their arrest and bringing to trial for crimes of High Treason against both men and their partner in crime called Edmund Fitzalan! I urge all of you to inform my soldiers of the where-abouts of these men!”
― Michael G. Kramer, Isabella Warrior Queen

“Chuck skipped through the rest of the preamble to the actual examples
Spaceguard had chronicled:
“On March 23rd, 1989, an asteroid designated Asteroid 1989FC missed
hitting the Earth by six hours. This little jewel packed the energy of
roughly a thousand of the most powerful nuclear bombs, and the human
race became aware of it shortly after its closest approach. Had this celestial
baseball been only six hours later most of the population of the Earth
would have been eliminated with zero warning.��
“In October of 1990, an asteroid that would have been considered
very small, struck the Pacific Ocean. This little fellow only packed the
energy of a small atomic bomb, about the same as the one that flattened
Hiroshima, and if it had arrived a few hours later or earlier it could have
easily struck a city rather than making a relatively harmless splash into
the center of the ocean. Remember, relatively here, is just a comparative
�ٱ����.”  ��&�����ܴ�;
― Jody Summers, The Mayan Legacy

“Look around! Look what we’ve done to the world. We fucked everything up. In a few years it’s going to be unlivable. We don’t deserve to be stewards of this planet. And that pales to the things we do to each other. We’re monsters, Sander, and someone needs to end it.”
― Alan Bradley, The Sixth Borough

“A silent breeze swept away a moment, one that never can be recaptured, never can it be relived. So it is for us to cherish the  moments, cherish them with all of our might. For just as an eagle in flight, they are transient, soon vanishing like the moon as day return the light.”
― Sherman Kennon, Whisk Of Dust: Too Unseen Distance

“I walked past Malison, up Lower Main to Main and across the road. I didn’t need to look to know he was behind me. I entered Royal Wood, went a short way along a path and waited. It was cool and dim beneath the trees. When Malison entered the Wood, I continued eastward. 
I wanted to place his body in hallowed ground. He was born a Mearan. The least I could do was send him to Loric. The distance between us closed until he was on my heels. He chose to come, I told myself, as if that lessened the crime I planned. He chose what I have to offer.
We were almost to the cemetery before he asked where we were going. I answered with another question. “Do you like living in the High Lord’s kitchens?��
He, of course, replied, “No.��
“Well, we’re going to a better place.��
When we reached the edge of the Wood, I pushed aside a branch to see the Temple of Loric and Calec’s cottage. No smoke was coming from the chimney, and I assumed the old man was yet abed. His pony was grazing in the field of graves. The sun hid behind a bank of clouds.
Malison moved beside me. “It’s a graveyard.��
“Are you afraid of ghosts?�� I asked.
“My father’s a ghost,�� he whispered.
I asked if he wanted to learn how to throw a knife. He said, “Yes,�� as I knew he would.  He untucked his shirt, withdrew the knife he had stolen and gave it to me. It was a thick-bladed, single-edged knife, better suited for dicing celery than slitting a young throat. But it would serve my purpose. That I also knew. I’d spent all night projecting how the morning would unfold and, except for indulging in the tea, it had happened as I had imagined. 
Damut kissed her son farewell. Malison followed me of his own free will. Without fear, he placed the instrument of his death into my hand. We were at the appointed place, at the appointed time. The stolen knife was warm from the heat of his body. I had only to use it. Yet I hesitated, and again prayed for Sythene to show me a different path.
“Aren’t you going to show me?�� Malison prompted, as if to echo my prayer.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“There is no such thing as an artist: there is only the world lit or unlit as the light allows. When the candle is burning, who looks at the wick? When the candle is out, who needs it?”
― Annie Dillard

“If you can’t discover what’s keeping you in, the will to get out soon becomes confused and ineffectual - "Ishmael”
― Daniel Quinn, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

“Those who have no sense of posterity or any concern for future generations are the ones who are really dead. I mean, they are dead right now. Walking zombies.”
― Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

“Pero las cosas invisibles necesitan encarnarse, las ideas caen a la tierra como palomas muertas.”
― Julio Cortázar, Historias de cronopios y de famas

“I didn't put you in a prison, Evey. I just showed you the bars.”
― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile,
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing--and I smile.”
― Shel Silverstein