By Category: Other

“We speak of stories ending, [...] when in truth it is we who end. The stories go on and on.”

-Kushiel's Avatar, Jacqueline Carey

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“I may not be in control of anything else, but I am in control of my body.”

-The Carpenters: The Untold Story, Karen Carpenter

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“'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat. 'We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

'You must be," said the Cat. 'or you wouldn't have come here.'”

-Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

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“...it takes all the running you can do to stay in one place.”

-Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

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“lice came to a fork in the road.

'Which road do I take?' she asked.

'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire cat.

'I don't know,' Alice answered.

'Then,' said the cat, 'it doesn't matter.'”

-Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

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“Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

-Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

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“The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked. 'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'”

-Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

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“'Contrariwise,' continued Tweedle-Dee, 'if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'”

-Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

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“'I hope you don't suppose those are real tears?' Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt.”

-Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

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“'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'”

-Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

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“Anybody who talks about the future is a bastard, it's the present that counts. Invoking posterity is like making speeches to worms. ”

-Journey To The End Of The Night, Louis-Ferdinand Céline

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“I like my demons. I consider them close personal friends. In fact, we enjoy each others company immensely.”

-Chance [movie]

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“Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie--
Dust unto dust--
The calm, sweet earth that mothers all who die
As all men must;

Mourn not your captive comrades who must dwell--
Too strong to strive--
Within each steel-bound coffin of a cell,
Buried alive;

But rather mourn the apathetic throng--
The cowed and the meek--
Who see the world's great anguish and its wrong
And dare not speak!”

-Mourn Not the Dead, Ralph Chaplin

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“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”

-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [movie]

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“Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem
and he called it 'Chops' because that was the name of his dog
and that's what it was all about
and his teacher gave him an 'a' and a gold star
and his mother hung it on the kitchen door and read it to all his aunts
that was the year Father Tracy took all the kids to the zoo
and he let them sing on the bus
and his little sister was born with tiny toenails and no hair
and his mother and father kissed alot
and the little girl around the corner sent him a valentine signed with a row of x's and he had to ask his father what the x's meant
and his father always tucked him in bed at night
and was always there to do it

Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines he wrote a poem
and he called it 'autumn' because that was the name of the season
and that's what it was all about
and his teacher gave him an 'a' and asked him to write more clearly
and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because of the new paint
and the kids told him that Father Tracy smoked cigars
and left them in the pews
and sometimes they would burn holes
that was the year his sister got glasses with thick lenses and black frames
and the girl around the corner laughed when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
and the kids told him why his mother and father kissed alot
and his father never tucked him in bed at night
and his father got mad when he cried for him to do it

Once on a piece of paper torn from his notebook he wrote a poem
and he called it 'Innocence: a question' because that was the question about his girl
and that's what it was all about
and his professor gave him an 'a' and a strange steady look
and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because he never showed it to her
that was the year Father Tracy died
and he forgot how the end of the Apostle's Creed went
and he caught his sister making out on the back porch
and his mother and father never kissed or even talked
and the girl around the corner wore too much makeup
that made him cough when he kissed her but he did anyway because that was the thing to do
and at 3am he tucked himself into bed - his father snoring loudly

that's why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem
and he called it 'Absolutely Nothing'
because that's what it was all about
and he gave himself an 'a' and a slash on each damned wrist
and he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn't think he could reach the kitchen.”

-The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Recommended by Hilary.

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“All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief. ”

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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“The injuries that befall us unexpectedly are less severe than those which are deliberately anticipated.”

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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“Nenny and I don't look like sisters... not right away. Not the way you can tell with Rachel and Lucy who have the same fat popsicle lips like everybody else in their family. But me and Nenny, we are more alike than you would know. Our laughter for example. Not the shy ice cream bells' giggle of Rachel and Lucy's family, but all of a sudden and surprised like a pile of dishes breaking. And other things I can't explain.

One day we were passing a house that looked, in my mind, like houses I had seen in Mexico. I don't know why. There was nothing about the house that looked exactly like the houses I remembered. I'm not even sure why I thought it, but it seemed to feel right.

Look at that house, I said, it looks like Mexico.

Rachel and Lucy look at me like I'm crazy, but before they can let out a laugh, Nenny says: Yes, that's Mexico all right. That's what I was thinking exactly.”

-The House On Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

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“A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.”

-Citizen Kane [movie]

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“A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.”

-The Favorite Game, Leonard Cohen

Recommended by Emma.

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“You can say what you mean
But it won't change a thing
I'm sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge, tied to the noose
And you came along and you cut me loose.”

-Amsterdam, Coldplay

Recommended by Eleri.

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“Come up to meet you
Tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are.”

-The Scientist, Coldplay

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“You know I hate, detest, can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies, - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do.”

-Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

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“If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts.”

-Mrs. Potter's Lullabye, Counting Crows

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“One of my big problems is time sickness. When I feel lonely, I assume that the mood will never pass--that I'll feel lonely and bad for the rest of my life, which means that I've wrecked both the present and the future. And if I look back on my past, I wreck that too, by concentrating on all the things I did wrong. The brutal thing about time sickness is that naming it is no cure. I look at the philodendron on the kitchen windowsill, the only thing in my condo that ever changes. I found it at a bus stop twelve years ago and I've kept it going ever since. I like it because up close its leaves are pretty, and also because it makes me think of time in a way that doesn't totally depress me. ”

-Eleanor Rigby, Douglas Coupland

Recommended by Shay.

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