Shapes Quotes - Page 30

• We are stratified creatures, creatures full of abysses, with a soul of inconstant quicksilver, with a mind whose color and shape change as in a kaleidoscope that is constantly shaken.

  Pascal Mercier

  Color, Soul, Mind

  Pascal Mercier (2008). “Night Train to Lisbon: A Novel”, p.334, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• He was beautiful, that was always affirmed, but his beauty was hard to fix or to see, for he was always glimmering, flickering, melting, mixing, he was the shape of a shapeless flame, he was the eddying thread of needle-shapes in the shapeless mass of the waterfall. He was the invisible wind that hurried the clouds in billows and ribbons. You could see a bare tree on the skyline bent by the wind, holding up twisted branches and bent twigs, and suddenly its formless form would resolve itself into that of the trickster.

  A. S. Byatt

  Beautiful, Clouds, Flames

  A.S. Byatt (2011). “Ragnarok: the End of the Gods”, p.28, Canongate Books

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• Granny Weatherwaz was a witch. That was quite acceptable in the Ramtops, and no one had a bad word to say about witches. At least, not if he wanted to wake up in the morning the same shape as he went to bed.

  Terry Pratchett

  Morning, Bed, Wake Up

  Terry Pratchett (2012). “The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld”, p.21, Harper Collins

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• HOUSE RULES [at the Praetor Lupus Headquarters] No shape-shifting in the hallways. No howling. No silver. Clothing must be worn at all times. ALL TIMES. No fighting. No biting. Mark all your food before you put it in the communal refrigerator.

  Cassandra Clare

  Fighting, House, Biting

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• I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have - I can reflect light into the dark places of this world - into the black places in the hearts of men - and change somethings in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.

  Robert Fulghum

  Heart, Dark, Men

  Robert Fulghum (1999). “Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”, p.99, Dramatic Publishing

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• Algaliarept varied its shape, sifting through my mind without me even knowing to choose what scared me the most. Once it had been Ivy. Then Kisten —until I had pinned him in an elevator in a foolish moment of vampire-induced passion. It's hard to be scared of someone after you've French-kissed him.

  Kim Harrison

  Passion, Ivy, Knowing

  Kim Harrison (2010). “Every Which Way But Dead”, p.5, HarperCollins UK

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• Schwartz's research suggests something important: we can stretch our personalities, but only up to a point. Our inborn temperaments influence us, regardless of the lives we lead. A sizeable part of who we are is ordained by our genes, by our brains, by our nervous systems. And yet the elasticity that Schwartz found in some of the high-reactive teens also suggests the converse: we have free will and can use it to shape our personalities.

  Susan Cain

  Personality, Brain, Important

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• Hey,” the other said, coming to life. “You’re supposed to be in jail.” Al grinned at him, his white-gloved grip tightening on the wooden handle, which was intricately carved in the shape of a naked, writhing woman. Nice. “And your momma wanted you to have a brain,” he said, yanking the door open and slamming it into the guy’s face.

  Kim Harrison

  Nice, Doors, White

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• You existed. You existed now as a fractal. Definition: A fractal is generally a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be broken into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole. Maybe I was a fractal. Maybe the photographer was a fractal. Maybe we were all fractals.

  David Levithan

  Geometric Shapes, Broken, Definitions

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• He looked at the little maiden, and she looked at him; and he felt that he was melting away, but he still managed to keep himself erect, shouldering his gun bravely. A door was suddenly opened, the draught caught the little dancer and she fluttered like a sylph, straight into the fire, to the soldier, blazed up and was gone! By this time the soldier was reduced to a mere lump, and when the maid took away the ashes next morning she found him, in the shape of a small tin heart. All that was left of the dancer was her spangle, and that was burnt as black as a coal.

  Hans Christian Andersen

  Morning, Heart, Gun

  Hans Christian Andersen (1993). “Andersen's Fairy Tales”, p.103, Wordsworth Editions

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• There’s a morning when presence comes over your soul. You sing like a rooster in your earth-colored shape. Your heart hears and, no longer frantic, begins to dance.

  Rumi

  Spiritual, Morning, Heart

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• The idea was to have a basin inverted on his head and his hair cut to the shape of it. Skill and money were not needed. Then the idea grew that it was more convenient to leave the basin on his head. Stray thoughts were trimmed along with stray hair; brain-vines, tentacles of thought, were not encouraged to wander. Then, in the interests of human economy, the head of adaptable man became a basin of uniform shape—a basin, a crash helmet. Safe at last; no more thought-cuts.

  Janet Frame

  Cutting, Men, Hair

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• Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force of the group's normative power to shape the opinions of the followers who conform without thinking things through, they are often taken at face value. The persistent minority forces the others to process the relevant information more mindfully. Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Taken, Thoughtful, Thinking

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• Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.

  Steven Pressfield

  Jobs, Destiny, Life Is

  "The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles". Book by Steven Pressfield, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2002.

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• We love the imperfect shapes in nature and in the works of art, look for an intentional error as a sign of the golden key and sincerity found in true mastery.

  Dejan Stojanovic

  Art, Errors, Keys

  "Mastery". Poem by Dejan Stojanovic, www.poemhunter.com.

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• If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.

  Maya Angelou

  Life Changing, Would Be, Continents

  "35 Maya Angelou Quotes That Changed My Life" by J.N. Salters, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 29, 2014.

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• It's an honor and privilege to be next to the great mysteries, and that's what I get to do every day. Why are we here? How beautiful the Earth is. Whatever it is, large and small. There's so much that's beautiful and moving and sad, to experience that and find shapes for it, to deeply enter that meditative space. There's nothing like it. Everything else seems so pale.

  Carole Maso

  Beautiful, Moving, Space

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• Everything is in constant flux on this earth. Nothing keeps the same unchanging shape, and our affections, being attached to things outside us, necessarily change and pass away as they do. Always out ahead of us or lagging behind, they recall a past which is gone or anticipate a future which may never come into being; there is nothing solid there for the heart to attach itself to. Thus our earthly joys are almost without exception the creatures of a moment.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Heart, Past, Joy

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• I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, than at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish t were about love, or about sudden realizations important to one’s life, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow. I’m sorry there is so much pain in this story. I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire or pulled apart by force. But there is nothing I can do to change it.

  Margaret Atwood

  Sorry, Pain, Sunset

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• Magic is a kind of energy. It is given shape by human thoughts and emotions, by imagination. Thoughts define that shape—and words help to define those thoughts. That’s why wizards usually use words to help them with their spells. Words provide a sort of insulation as the energy of magic burns through a spell caster’s mind.

  Jim Butcher

  Imagination, Magic, Mind

  Jim Butcher (2001). “Fool Moon: Book two of The Dresden Files”, p.94, Penguin

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• ...by and by a change came: I started to muse about the shape of my nose. I put my trivial surroundings aside and mused more and more about myself, and I found this to be a bewitching occupation. I stopped asking and longed instead to speak of my thoughts and feelings. Alas, there was no one besides myself who found me interesting.

  Tove Jansson

  Interesting, Feelings, Asking

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• Words were power, words tried to change you, to shape bridges of longing that no one could ever really cross.

  Guy Gavriel Kay

  Bridges, Longing, Crosses

  "Tigana". Book by Guy Gavriel Kay, 1990.

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• Who doesn't have a dark place somewhere inside him that comes out sometimes when he's looking in a mirror? Dark and light, we are all made out of shadows like the shapes on a motion-picture screen. A lot of people think that the function of the projector is to throw light on the screen, just as the function of the story-teller is to stop fooling around and simply tell what happened, but the dark places must be there too, because without the dark places there would be no image and the figure on the screen would not exist.

  MacDonald Harris

  Dark, Thinking, Mirrors

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• the mark we've left on each other is the color and shape of love. That's the unfinished business between us. because love, love is never finished.

  Sara Zarr

  Love Is, Unfinished Business, Color

  Sara Zarr (2008). “Sweethearts”, p.157, Hachette UK

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• He could wear hats. He could wear an assortment of hats of different shapes and styles. Boater hats, cowboy hats, bowler hats. The list went on. Pork-pie hats, bucket hats, trillbies and panamas. Top hats, straw hats, trapper hats. Wide brim narrow brim, stingy brim. He could wear a fez. Fezzes were cool. Hadn't someone once said that fezzes were cool? He was pretty aur ether had. And they were. They were cool.

  Derek Landy

  Cowboy, Pie, Style

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