Dot Gacke > Dot's Quotes

“The American generals could only think in terms of large armies and huge battles. They believed or hoped that an enemy who chose to hide in jungles and tunnels would quickly be flushed out by American fire-power and then die in open battle.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“In the back of my mind, I thought maybe I would find my Robert Redford in New Orleans. We made our way to the city by afternoon and planned to drive home when the sun rose over Lake Pontchartrain. We had no idea where else to go, except to Bourbon Street. We walked toward the bright lights and glowing colors of one strip club after another…. In 1975, Big Daddy’s was the top, topless go-go joint on Bourbon.”
― Karen Hinton, Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power

“One year from now, a decade, a century, half a millennium, will things be different? Dare we dream it? When we are seen for ourselves, not just as the conduit of progeny, heirs, lineage, not just as beautiful objects to be protected, inspected, appreciated, but for who we are at the core . . .”
― Gina Buonaguro, The Virgins of Venice

“Let me make two remarks. First I concentrate on the task ahead for 2016. I’m quite busy with that—thank you very much. And I’m looking with great interest in the American election campaign.’ For the second time during their press conference, the clicking sounds of the cameras was deafening.”
― Claudia Clark, Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel

“But we need to do more. We are now in The Between Times for AI—between the demonstration of the technology’s capability and the realization of its promise reflected in widespread adoption.”
― Ajay Agrawal, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

“You can handle the wheelchair," said the occupational therapist, with a smile intended to make the remark sound like good news, whereas to my ears it had the ring of a life sentence.”
― Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death

“I believe . . . that the petal of a flower or a tiny worm on the path says far more, contains far more than all the books in the library. One cannot say very much with mere letters and words. Sometimes I'll be writing a Greek letter, a theta or an omega, and tilt my pen just the slightest bit; suddenly the letter has a tail and becomes a fish; in a second it evokes all the streams and rivers of the world, all that is cool and humid, Homer's sea and the waters on which Saint Peter wandered; or becomes a bird, flaps its tail, shakes out its feathers, puffs itself up, laughs, flies away. You probably don't appreciate letters like that, very much, do you, Narcissus? But I say: with them God wrote the world.”
― Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund

“Got to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven. You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked.”
― Kathryn Stockett, The Help

“I want to belong with someone. I want to feel at the center of something, and not the edge. I want children and grandchildren. I don't want to grow old and die, knowing that when I die, there will be no more like me.”
― Mary Doria Russell, Children of God

“It's only after the change is fully formed that you can see what's happened.”
― Sebastian Faulks, Engleby

“Tomorrow is the day of the yearly election of the Well-Doer. Tomorrow we shall again hand over to our Well-Doer the keys to the impregnable fortress of our happiness. Certainly this in no way resembles the disorderly, unorganized election days of the ancients, on which (it seems so funny!) they did not even know in advance the result of the election. To build a state on some non-discountable contingencies, to build blindly—what could be more nonsensical? Yet centuries had to pass before this was understood!”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin, We

“When I'm hung-over I try to imagine being old and look- ing back fondly on now, on this bit I'm currently living, and how in retrospect it might seem adventurous. In the future when I only ever sit in a chair because I'm too gnarled for pleasure or movement I'll remember when I stayed out all night and had life-changing conversations and walked all the way home because I lost my phone.”
― Sara Pascoe, Weirdo

“We are humiliated and disillusioned once again by our own countrymen because they attempt to trample on us, which increases our isolation and unimportance.”
― Dorlies von Kaphengst Meissner Rasmussen, Escaping the Russian Onslaught: A Family’s Story of Fleeing the Russian Army after Hitler’s Nazi Regime

“Coincidence is God's way of showing He cares.”
― Ashby Jones, The Little Bird

“I walked past Malison, up Lower Main to Main and across the road. I didn’t need to look to know he was behind me. I entered Royal Wood, went a short way along a path and waited. It was cool and dim beneath the trees. When Malison entered the Wood, I continued eastward. 
I wanted to place his body in hallowed ground. He was born a Mearan. The least I could do was send him to Loric. The distance between us closed until he was on my heels. He chose to come, I told myself, as if that lessened the crime I planned. He chose what I have to offer.
We were almost to the cemetery before he asked where we were going. I answered with another question. “Do you like living in the High Lord’s kitchens?”
He, of course, replied, “No.”
“Well, we’re going to a better place.”
When we reached the edge of the Wood, I pushed aside a branch to see the Temple of Loric and Calec’s cottage. No smoke was coming from the chimney, and I assumed the old man was yet abed. His pony was grazing in the field of graves. The sun hid behind a bank of clouds.
Malison moved beside me. “It’s a graveyard.”
“Are you afraid of ghosts?” I asked.
“My father’s a ghost,” he whispered.
I asked if he wanted to learn how to throw a knife. He said, “Yes,” as I knew he would.  He untucked his shirt, withdrew the knife he had stolen and gave it to me. It was a thick-bladed, single-edged knife, better suited for dicing celery than slitting a young throat. But it would serve my purpose. That I also knew. I’d spent all night projecting how the morning would unfold and, except for indulging in the tea, it had happened as I had imagined. 
Damut kissed her son farewell. Malison followed me of his own free will. Without fear, he placed the instrument of his death into my hand. We were at the appointed place, at the appointed time. The stolen knife was warm from the heat of his body. I had only to use it. Yet I hesitated, and again prayed for Sythene to show me a different path.
“Aren’t you going to show me?” Malison prompted, as if to echo my prayer.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“Funny how some things work out. I mean, how many pairs of eyes do you look into in a lifetime – hundreds, maybe even thousands? Yet, only one pair of eyes means anything and everything. Who knows why?”
― A.G. Russo, Bangtails, Grifters, and a Liar's Kiss

“Yesterday, I asked a robot, Gumball I think, do you know Murphy’s law of gravitation? It answered, ‘No, sir, I know only Newton’s and Einstein’s laws of gravitation; I don’t know Murphy’s law.’ I replied, ‘Eh, Gumball, the slice always falls with the buttered side to the floor. That’s Murphy’s law.’” Everyone burst into laughter.”
― Todor Bombov, Homo Cosmicus 2: Titan: A Science Fiction Novel

“Most cities are like deserts: concrete and steel, dust and ash, rusty detritus in the outskirts, the occasional oasis.”
― Gary Clemenceau, Banker's Holiday: A Novel of Fiscal Irregularity

“Theo, no matter what happens in life, you must always remember that we live in a mathematically precise world. Everything that happens has a reason and even though we rarely understand those reasons and often don’t even see them, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
― Alexander Morpheigh

“The huge sadness of the northern plains rolled down on him
and
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe,but nothing could be done about it,and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
Close Range, Brokeback Mountain and other stories.”
― Annie Proulx

“says Brother Richard, a wide, cheerful man with liver spots and a comb-over, who brags that he has twenty-eight grandchildren.”
― Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

“But after all, the villains are the salt in the soup of a story.”
― Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

“Los conocimientos que Francis recibió en la abadía no le habían preparado para nada que tuviese un valor práctico en el mundo oscuro e ignorante de todos los días; donde la cultura no existía y un joven educado, además, no tenía valor para una comunidad, a menos que supiese cultivar la tierra, pelear, cazar o mostrase algún talento especial para el latrocinio intertribal o para el descubrimiento de aguas subterráneas o metales maleables.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., Cántico por Leibowitz

“Only that man who has offered up himself entire to the blood of war, who has been to the floor of the pit and seen the horror in the round and learned at last that it speaks to his inmost heart, only that man can dance. - The judge”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

“Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

“I want you to understand what you are doing, not just perform tasks because I say so.”
― Charles Dowding, Charles Dowding's Skills for Growing

“A various set of symptoms which are all part of the human condition.”
― Jamie Kershaw, Hurricane to a Rainbow: Anxiety, PTSD, BPD, Autistic Spectrum, and Schizophrenia

“Yet Wolfgang rose from the ashes, like a phoenix, and has now cast Salieri into the shadows.”
― Rich DiSilvio, The Arnolfini Art Mysteries

“Death, death it is,
their horrid voices croak,
as mountain rivers melt
in rushing floods.
Yet even as waters boil,
deep within the earth
armies of the Angel rise,
trumpeting symphonies
of the apocalypse.”
― Don Hynes, Stranger to the Beautiful: A Journey of Faith, Hope, and Transformation

“The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.”
”
― Mark C. Zauderer, Counsel, the Courtroom Is Open: Lessons from More Than a Half-Century in Law and Life