Quotes By Letter: L

“I'm sorry to say this but those who are most worthy of love are never made happy by it. Do you still think men love the way we do? No... men enjoy the happiness they feel. We can only enjoy the happiness we give. They are not capable of devoting themselves exclusively to one person. So to hope to be made happy by love is a certain cause of grief.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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“Well I had no choice, did I? I'm a woman. Women are obliged to be far more skillful than men. You can ruin our reputation and our life with a few well-chosen words. So of course I had to invent not only myself but ways of escape no one has every thought of before. And I've succeeded because I've always known I was born to dominate your sex and avenge my own.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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“When I came out into society I was 15. I already knew then that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest to me, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learn how to look cheerful while under the table I stuck a fork onto the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelists to see what I could get away with, and in the end it all came down to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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“When one woman strikes at the heart of another she seldom misses, and the wound is invariably fatal.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

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“But anyway, this is what it feels like to get violated. What you're feeling now. It's awful, isn't it? I mean, it makes you feel so powerless.”

-She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb

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“Insanity -- a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.”

-R.D. Lang

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“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.”

-This Be The Verse, Phillip Larkin

Recommended by Angela.

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“Some fear the dark; I embrace it. It is the only place where my eyes are blind, and my soul wanders freely from the truth of reality.”

-Laura

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“And in the end I'll live. And maybe I'll hate myself for all eternity, but somehow I think not, because the light can free me.”

-Lauren

Recommended by Kessa.

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“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.”

-Lady Chatterley's Lover, D.H. Lawrence

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“I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

-Self-Pity, D. H. Lawrence

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“And then she realized that his presence was the wall, his presence was destroying her.”

-Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence

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“I didn't realize that when you really love, there's no freedom at all, except to die.”

-Le Divorce [movie]

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“You hurt people desperately in order to protect your lies, which have become like children to you--gnawing, desperate children not content to suck every drop of milk from your breast, because they are always hungry. So they bite into the nipple itself, they devour the flesh itself, and still you protect them. The problem ceases to be that you cannot live without your lies so much as that your lies cannot live without you.”

-While England Sleeps, David Leavitt

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“We've all fallen, but at the same time we're not broken. There is the hint that we are going to get up again.”

-Amy Lee

Recommended by Heather.

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“What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?”

-Ursula K. LeGuin

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“It is not wonderful. It is an ugly world. Not like this one. Annarres is all dusty and dry hills. All meager, all dry. And the people aren't beautiful. They have big hands and feet, like me...But not big bellies. They get very dirty, and take baths together, nobody here does that. The towns are very small and dull, and they are dreary. No palaces. Life is dull, and hard work. You can't always have what you want, or even what you need, because there isn't enough. You Urrasti have enough. Enough air, enough rain, grass, oceans, food, music, buildings, factories, machines, books, clothes, history. You are rich, you own. We are poor, we lack. You have, we do not have. Everything is beautiful here. Only not the faces. On Annares, nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels, there you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free--possessing nothing, they are free. And you, the possessors, are the possessed. You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes--the wall, the wall!”

-The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin

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“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now? Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

-John Lennon

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“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that, I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock'n'roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

-Beatles Anthology, John Lennon

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“Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.”

-Beautiful Boy, John Lennon

Recommended by James.

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“i was swallowing my pain, i was swallowing my pain.”

-Jealous Guy, John Lennon

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“Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death.”

-Cold, Annie Lennox

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“Let me be the only one
To keep you from the cold.
Now the floor of heav'n is laid,
Its stars of brightest glow.
They shine for you.
They shine for you.
They burn for all to see.
Come into these arms again
And set this spirit free.”

-Love Song For A Vampire, Annie Lennox

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“I'm living in an empty room
With all the windows smashed
And I've got so little left to lose
That it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass.”

-Walking on Broken Glass, Annie Lennox

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“In the middle of the room was a canopy, from which hung curtains of red brocaded stuff, and, under the canopy, an open coffin. 'That is where I sleep,' said Erik. 'One has to get used to everything in life, even to eternity.'”

-The Phantom Of The Opera, Gaston Leroux

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