Decent Quotes - Page 16

• This tug-of-war often obscures what's also happening between us. I am your mother, the first mile of your road. Me and all my obvious and hidden limitations. That means that in addition to possibly wrecking you, I have the chance to give to you what was given to me: a decent childhood, more good memories than bad, some values, a sense of tribe, a run at happiness. You can't imagine how seriously I take that - even as I fail you. Mothering you is the first thing of consequence that I have ever done.

  Kelly Corrigan

  Mother, Running, Memories

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• I wasn't born with any innate talent. I've never been naturally gifted at anything. I always had to work at it. The only way I knew how to succeed was to try harder than anyone else. Dogged persistence is what got me through life. But here was something I was half-decent at. Being able to run great distances was the one thing I could offer the world. Others might be faster, but I could go longer. My strongest quality is that I never give up.

  Dean Karnazes

  Running, Giving Up, Distance

  Dean Karnazes (2017). “Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner”, p.135, Atlantic Books

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• We all want things we can't have. Being a decent human being is accepting that.

  John Fowles

  Want, Accepting, Humans

  John Fowles (1980). “The collector”, Dell Pub Co

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• I'm trying to make you think I'm a decent person. Telling you I saw you naked while I was another species does not help my case

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Thinking, Make You Think, Trying

  Maggie Stiefvater (2009). “Shiver”, p.68, Scholastic Inc.

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• All this time…ever since I sold my soul, I’ve been clinging to this idea that there is something pure and decent out there. That there was something to give me hope that even if I was a lost cause, at least there was something bright and good in the world. But there isn’t. If there was, Seth wouldn’t have fallen. Erik wouldn’t have died. Andrea Mortensen wouldn’t be dying.” -Georgina to Carter

  Richelle Mead

  Ideas, Giving, Soul

  Richelle Mead (2010). “Succubus Shadows”, p.272, Kensington Publishing Corp.

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• The world is not full of betrayers, it is full of people with decent motives and a full desire to do right by those who know them and love them. This is a little-known truth, but I think it is a truth nonetheless. Empirically, from all the years of my work, I would attest to that. I know it is a miraculous conclusion, but there it is. We like to make strangers of everyone. We are not wolves, but lambs astonished in the margins of the fields by sunlight and summer.

  Sebastian Barry

  Summer, Thinking, Years

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• You were faster than me. Better than me. I was too old and cautious. Any decent person who knos waht warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn't know. We made sure youo didn't know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It's waht you were born for.

  Orson Scott Card

  Heart, Battle, Warfare

  Orson Scott Card (2013). “Ender's Game Boxed Set II: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speak for the Dead”, p.308, Tor Science Fiction

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• Charles could care less about shoes - and he suspected he wasn't alone among men in his feelings. Shoe, no shoe, he didn't care. Naked was good, though over the past couple of weeks he was beginning to think that dressed in his clothes was a decent second best.

  Patricia Briggs

  Couple, Past, Men

  Patricia Briggs (2009). “Hunting Ground”, p.91, Penguin

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• You need to remember that. If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you.

  Kazuo Ishiguro

  Lying, Needs, Never Let Me Go

  Kazuo Ishiguro (2009). “Never Let Me Go”, p.74, Faber & Faber

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• Listen," I began, "this is an established,traditional form that-" "Traditional nothing.Where are your clothes?" "Clothes?" I said weakly. "I don't normally bother with them in this guise." "Well,you could put on a pair of shorts,at least.Your not decent." "I'm not sure they'd go with the wings..." The demon frowend,and blinked."Hold on,enough of this." "Lenderhosen would. They'd compliment the leather.

  Jonathan Stroud

  Wings, Clothes, Pairs

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• I think I could be a perfectly decent cat. I've been around cats long enough to know what the rules of being a cat are. When all else fails, wash. And I think I could master the thing that cats do, where they stalk away pretending they meant to do whatever it was in the first place; showing their wounded dignity.

  Neil Gaiman

  Cat, Thinking, Long

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• The people who keep asking if they can't lead a decent life without Christ, don't know what life is about; if they did they would know that 'a decent life' is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for.

  C. S. Lewis

  Men, People, Asking

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.113, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.

  Amy Chua

  Children, Ideas, Parent

  Amy Chua (2011). “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, p.17, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Makes a diff'rence, havin' a decent family,' he said. 'Me dad was decent. An' your mum an' dad were decent. If they'd lived, life woulda bin diff'rent, eh?' 'Yeah, I s'pose,' said Harry cautiously. Hagrid seemed to be in a very strange mood. 'Family,' said Hagrid gloomily. 'Whatever yeh say, blood's important.

  J. K. Rowling

  Dad, Blood, Important

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• The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people - people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behavior, just as money frees people from work.

  George Orwell

  Paris, People, Mad

  George Orwell (1956). “The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage”, New York : Harcourt, Brace

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• When you are old you can look back and see yourself when you are young. It is almost like looking down from heaven. And you see yourself as a young woman, just a big girl really, half awake to the world. You see yourself happy, holding in your arms a good, decent, gentle, beloved young man with the blood keen in his veins, who before long is going to disappear, just disappear, into a storm of hate and flying metal and fire. And you just don't know it.

  Wendell Berry

  Girl, Hate, Men

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• His mom always said that trust was something you earned. And it wasn't something you gave easy. Too often, it was a tool your enemies used to hurt you with. 'Give them nothing, baby. Not until you have no choice. The world is harsh and it is cold. People can be good and decent, but most of them are only out for themselves and they'll hurt anyone they can'.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Mom, Baby, Hurt

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2011). “Invincible: The Chronicles of Nick”, p.78, Macmillan

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• The bravest and most noble are not those who take up arms, but those who are decent despite everything; who improve what it is in their power to improve, but do not imagine themselves to be saviours. In their humble struggle is true heroism.

  Theodore Dalrymple

  Struggle, Humble, Heroism

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• Every decent con man knows that the simplest truth is more powerful than even the most elaborate lie.

  Ally Carter

  Powerful, Lying, Men

  Ally Carter (2011). “Uncommon Criminals”, p.225, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• If you listen to the radio for a whole hour there's maybe one decent song. The rest is mass-produced garbage

  Haruki Murakami

  Song, Radio, Garbage

  Haruki Murakami (2011). “Dance Dance Dance”, p.112, Random House

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• You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. Besides you don't build a better world by choppin' heads off and giving decent girls away to frogs.

  Terry Pratchett

  Girl, People, Giving

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• The short conversation that follows eventually led to a tree religion. Its tenet of faith was this: a tree that was a good tree and led a clean decent and upstanding life could be assured of a future life after death. If it was very good indeed it would eventually be reincarnated as five thousand rolls of lavatory paper.

  Terry Pratchett

  Tree, Paper, Clean

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• It is true that novelists are shameless and obey no decent law, and they are not to be trusted on any account, but some Mysteries even they must honor.

  Catherynne M. Valente

  Law, Honor, Novelists

  Catherynne M. Valente (2014). “The Fairyland Series”, p.205, Macmillan

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• I hate what you represent." ... "Power without conviction." Isana replied, her tone lifeless, matter of fact. "Ambition without conscience. Decent folk suffer at the hands of those like you.

  Jim Butcher

  Hate, Ambition, Hands

  Jim Butcher (2009). “Academ's Fury: The Codex Alera: Book Two”, p.326, Hachette UK

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• I wouldn't burden any decent system of faith by participating in it... I'm not agnostic. Just nonpartisan. Theological Switzerland, that's me.

  Jim Butcher

  Switzerland, Agnostic, Burden

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