J. A. Baker Quotes
I think about all the ways I’ve been perceived by others over the years: as a burden, a dutiful daughter, a girlfriend, a spiteful wretch, an inva
Emotion has its place, but it must not interfere with taking the appropriate action.
Grace and chocolate cake can cover a world of awkwardness.
Modern American culture dictated the importance of touching the hand of someone you’ve just met, however counterintuitive it seemed. Why would he want to touch someone he didn’t know?
To get it all done I have to dim my brain, turn it down by notches like the flat-turn knob on a gas lantern, leaving only a nub of flame.
The whole point of straws, I had thought, was that you did not have to set down the slice of pizza to suck a dose of Coke while reading a paperback.
Do our natures dictate the choices we make, I wonder, or do we choose to live a certain way because of circumstances beyond our control?
His rules were thus: One, resist when beneficial to the cause. Two, dignity before humiliation. Three, don’t show true emotions.
One of the most important skills we can develop for collapse is thecapacity to listen.
Gratitude is a state of mind that inherently recognizes interdependence with the external world, whether it be other humans, nature, the sacred, or a combination of these.
Fundamentally, what all forms of positive thinking about collapse come down to is our own fear of death.
I didn’t say a word. He wouldn’t be using oxygen. K2 is more dangerous than Everest.
An eternity is any moment opened with patience.
He reaches over and touches my necklace. "You still have it. That gives me faith." "Faith in what?""God, I suppose. No, I don't know. Survival.
Like a kiss, the pain which envelops us will leave and in it's place there will be an empty pit.
There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime. That is not an exaggeration.
I have witnessed how the power of listening, storytelling and embracing gray areas breaks through the rigid 'us vs. them.
The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.
There were so many viciously sarcastic ways to respond, Jaden’s brain was temporarily paralyzed due to witty comeback overload.
Excerpt from Magel's Daughter:"I think we're all like the lutefisk, steeped in poison, and then we try to clean it up for Christmas.
I want to say, Christina, that you are ... unusual. And somehow..." her voice trails off. "Your mind-- your curiosity-- will be your comfort.
Jo shook her head. She wished she had an answer for Claire, but as far as she knew, love would leave its mark. Sometimes it even took the skin right off you.
So go, girl. We should have been one person all along, not two.
How did I go from being the maiden in a fairy tale to a wretched old maids so quickly? It happened almost without my realizing it...
I am soft and kind hearted. Sadly people mistake that for weakness. But I’d rather be weak thank ugly hearted.
I have come to think that's where Heaven is, a place in the memories of other where our best selves live
Well, honey, once you've been head-over-heels in love with somebody, you don't go back to being 'friends'. It doesn't work that way. - Megan's Dad
Either the key to a man's wallet is in his heart, or the key to a man's heart is in his wallet. So, unless you express your charity, you are locked inside your greed.
...we steal with our eyes closed to the conditions in which the poor, who make our affluence possible, live. We covet what our neighbours have and want more of the same.
Who would have thought that a human and a dragon could make such a perfect match?
It's a peculiar kind of dissatisfaction, a bittersweet nostalgia for a moment not yet past.
If you really want to know me, I said, we'll have to start with the witches.
Molly is the opposite. So many things have gone wrong for her in her seventeen years that she’s come to expect it. When something does go right, she hardly knows what to think.
I wondered if having conversations with your dog was less crazy than babbling to yourself when no one else was around. I guess it depended on whether or not the dog answered.
Mountaineers are one of the few groups to celebrate before the finish line. More mountaineers die on the descent than on the ascent.
Jim turned his head slowly to look into my eyes and shuddered. “It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to dying.
That's a lot of what the ghetto is, a reflection of poor self esteem
It's as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn't - which, of course, is pretty often - she is surprised and affronted.
This is like telling a person who has leapt off a cliff to be careful. I am already in midair.