Ancient Quotes - Page 10

• The kiss was innocent--innocent enough--but it was also full of something not unlike what Virginia wants from London, from life; it was full of a love complex and ravenous, ancient, neither this nor that. It will serve as this afternoon's manifestation of the central mystery itself, the elusive brightness that shines from the edges of certain dreams; the brightness which, when we awaken, is already fading from our minds, and which we rise in the hope of finding, perhaps today, this new day in which anything might happen, anything at all.

  Michael Cunningham

  Dream, Kissing, Virginia

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• My own feeling about JJ, without knowing anything about him, was that he might have been a gay person, because he had long hair and spoke American. A lot of Americans are gay people, aren’t they? I know they didn’t invent gayness, because they say that was the Greeks. But they helped bring it back into fashion. Being gay was a bit like the Olympics: it disappeared in ancient times, and then they brought it back in the twentieth century. Anyway, I didn’t know anything about gays, so I just presumed they were all unhappy and wanted to kill themselves.

  Nick Hornby

  Fashion, Gay, Hair

  "A Long Way Down". Book by Nick Hornby, June 7, 2005.

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• O Son of Spirit! My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

  Bahá'u'lláh

  Heart, Son, Baha

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• The great wheel of fire of ancient wisdom, silence and word engendering the myth of the origin, human action engendering the epic voyage toward the other; historical violence revealing the tragic flaw of the hero who must then return to the land of origin; myth of death and renewal and silence from which new words and images will arise, keeps on turning in spite of the blindness of purely lineal thought.

  Carlos Fuentes

  Hero, Epic, Fire

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• You must know the story of how the race of ancient days reached the stars, and how they bargained away all the wild half of themselves to do so, so that they no longer cared for the taste of the pale wind, no for love or lust, nor to make new songs nor to sing old ones, nor for any of the other animal things they believed they had brought with them out of the rain forests al the bottom of time--though in fact, so my uncle told me, those things brought them

  Gene Wolfe

  Song, Stars, Uncles

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.38, Orb Books

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• Man is an onion made up of a hundred integuments, a texture made up of many threads. The ancient Asiatics knew this well enough, and in the Buddhist Yoga an exact technique was devised for unmasking the illusion of the personality. The human merry-go-round sees many changes: the illusion that cost India the efforts of thousands of years to unmask is the same illusion that the West has labored just as hard to maintain and strengthen.

  Hermann Hesse

  Buddhist, Yoga, Men

  Hermann Hesse (2013). “Steppenwolf: A Novel”, p.60, Macmillan

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• Memory is a tenuous thing. . . . flickering glimpses, blue and white, like ancient, decomposing 16mm film. Happiness escapes me there, where faces are vague and yesterday seems to come tied up in ribbons of pain. Happiness? I look for it intead in today, where memory is something I can still touch, still rely on. I find it in the smiles of new friends, the hope blossoming inside. My happiest memories have no place in the past; they are those I have yet to create.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Memories, Pain, Past

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• That’s how a scary story works. It echoes some ancient fear. It re-creates some forgotten terror. Something we’d like to think we’ve grown beyond. But it can still scare us to tears. It’s something you’d hoped was healed.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Thinking, Echoes, Scary Stories

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• I used to think I preferred getting old to the alternative, but now I'm not sure. Sometimes the momotony of bingo and sing-alongs and ancient dusty people parked in the hallway in wheelchairs makes me long for death. Particularly when I rememver that I'm one of the ancient dusty people, filed away like some worthless tchotchke.

  Sara Gruen

  Thinking, Long, People

  "Water for Elephants". Book by Sara Gruen, May 26, 2006.

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• What they forget is that, from Ancient Greece on, the people who returned from battle were either dead on their shields or stronger, despite and because of their scars.

  Paulo Coelho

  People, Battle, Stronger

  Paulo Coelho (2011). “The Witch of Portobello”, p.40, HarperCollins UK

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• Isn't it time that these most ancient sorrows of ours grew fruitful? Time that we tenderly loosed ourselves from the loved one, and, unsteadily, survived: the way the arrow, suddenly all vector, survives the string to be more than itself. For abiding is nowhere.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Arrows, Sorrow, Abiding

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• His own voice was older than he was. Ancient, unearthed from some mystical subterranean place...The voice seemed to make his whole body ache. Maybe it made him bleed inside. I wondered if it hurt, if it burned in his throat.

  Francesca Lia Block

  Hurt, Voice, Body

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• There is no justification for the common claim that Christianity was responsible for the abolition of slavery. The Negro slave trade - a far more infamous practice than slavery in the ancient world - was initiated, carried on and defended by Christian men in Christian countries.

  Margaret E. Knight

  Christian, Country, Men

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• Jesus is a mythical figure in the tradition of pagan mythology and almost nothing in all of ancient literature would lead one to believe otherwise. Anyone wanting to believe Jesus lived and walked as a real live human being must do so despite the evidence, not because of it.

  Dennis McKinsey

  Jesus, Real, Believe

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• Cookery is naturally the most ancient of the arts, as of all arts it is the most important.

  George Ellwanger

  Art, Food, Important

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• If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

  William Shakespeare

  Revenge, Shylock, Bears

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 1, sc. 3, l. [42]

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• ...the history of early-medieval Arabia is nearly all legend. Like Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and other founders of patriarchal religions, Mohammed lacks real verification. There is no reliable information about his life or teachings. Most stories about him are as apocryphal as the story that his coffin hangs forever in mid-air "between heaven and earth," like the bodies of ancient sacred kings.

  Barbara G. Walker

  Jesus, Kings, Real

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• Ancient tradition always depicts a true Chinese musician as blind. Esoterically, this implies that his gift of the divine art is so completely guided by, and dedicated to, hosts of the celestial guardians, that both his sight and consciousness are focused above and beyond the objective world.

  Corinne Heline

  Art, Inspiration, Sight

  Corinne Heline (1965). “Music: the keynote of human evolution”

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• The famous Greek physician Hippocrates administered musical treatments to his patients in 400 B.C. Although this type of treatment did not originate with him, it found in him an exponent of the highest order. With the increasing materialism of Western civilization, the major tenants of ancient musical therapy have been either forgotten or discarded.

  Corinne Heline

  Inspiration, Order, Civilization

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• In ancient times music was the foundation of all the sciences. Education was begun with music with the persuasion that nothing could be expected of a man who was ignorant of music.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Inspiration, Men, Ignorant

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• Since the time of the ancient Greeks, we have always felt that there was a close relationship between a strong, vital mind and physical fitness.

  John F. Kennedy

  Strong, Wrestling, Greek

  "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961".

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• Fourth, we will continue providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians who have been displaced by this terrorist organization. This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who are at grave risk, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities. We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.

  Barack Obama

  Christian, Religious, Islamic

  President Obama's Speech on Combating ISIS and Terrorism, www.cnn.com. September 10, 2014.

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• You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' 'Has your life brought joy to others?'

  Morgan Freeman

  Beautiful, Death, Two

  "Fictional character: Carter Chambers". "The Bucket List", 2007.

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• Come my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.

  William Shakespeare

  Death, Gentleman, Dying

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 5, sc. 1, l. [32]

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• I have always had, as I know many people have, a singular passion for Australia. I do love the sunburnt country, its ancient landscapes, its exhilarating reaches of sand and sea.

  Peter Garrett

  Beauty, Country, Passion

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