He Looked Just Perfect

“He looked just perfect to play Dorian Gray in a

film version of Oscar Wilde's novel. Young, 

graceful, and indecently fresh and handsome, 

he could easily have worn a badge that 

said READY FOR DEBAUCHERY!” 

~ Sergei Lukyanenko, The Last Watch

He's Not a Piece of Meat

“He's not a piece of meat you can job off the market by the pound. 

Because, if you do, maish, if you do, you'll rot in hell.” 

~ Rod Serling, Requiem for a Heavyweight and Other Plays - 

Tragedy in a Temporary Town, The White Cane and The Elevator

He Knew She Was There

“He knew she was there by the rapture and the terror

that seized on his heart. 

She was standing talking to a lady at the opposite

end of the ground. 

There was apparently nothing striking either in

her dress or her attitude. 

But for Levin she was as easy to find in that

crowd as a rose among nettles. 

Everything was made bright by her. 

She was the smile that shed light all around her.” 

~ Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Water, Wind and Birdsong

“Water, wind, and birdsong were the echoes in

this quiet place of a great chiming symphony that

was surging around the world. 

Knee-deep in grasses and moon daisies, 

Stella stood and listened, swaying a little as the 

flowers and trees were swaying, her spirit voice singing loudly,

 though her lips were still, and every pulse in 

her body beating its hammer strokes in time to the song.” 

~ Elizabeth Goudge, Gentian Hill

It Goes So Fast

“It goes so fast, he thought, they don't tell you that, how fast it goes...” 

~ S.E. Hinton, Hawkes Harbor

There Was a Leap of Joy

“There was a leap of joy in him, like a flame lighting

up in a dark lantern. 

At this moment he believed it was worth it. 

This moment of supreme beauty was worth all

the wretchedness of the journey. 

It was always worth it. 

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 

worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 

It was the central truth of existence, and all men knew it, 

though they might not know that they knew it. 

Each man followed his own star through so much pain because he knew it, 

and at journey's end all the innumerable lights would glow into one.” 

~ Elizabeth Goudge, Gentian Hill

The First Grave

“The first grave. Now we're getting someplace. 

Houses and children and graves, that's home, Tom. 

Those are the things that hold a man down.” 

~ John Steinbeck, To a God Unknown

You Can Be Good

“You can be good for the mere sake of goodness;

 you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness. 

You can do a kind action when you are not feeling 

kind and when it gives you no pleasure, 

simply because kindness is right; 

but no one ever did a cruel action 

simply because cruelty is wrong -

 only because cruelty is pleasant or useful to him,

 In other words, badness cannot succeed even in 

being bad in the same way in which goodness is good. 

Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. 

And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled.” 

~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You Might Hear Some Ugly Post

“You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, 

but do one thing for me if you will: 

you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. 

No matter what anybody says to you, 

don't you let 'em get your goat.

Try fighting with your head for a change...

it's a good one, even if it does resist learning.” 

~ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

The Best Men

Photo credits to Jayzzy

“The best men in all ages keep classic traditions alive.” 

~ George Santayana

Girls Are Caterpillars

Photo credits to Jayzzy

“Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, 

to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; 

but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae, 

don't you see - each with their peculiar propensities, 

necessities and structure.” 

~ Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla

Love It Is Said

Photo credits to Jayzzy

“Love, it is said, is blind, but love is not blind.
It is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard.
To see the best is to see most clearly, and it is the lover's privilege.” 

~ J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister

Social Class Positioning

“Social class positioning influences all aspects of

everyday interaction – how to talk, if to talk 

and when, whom to trust, whether or not to plan

or risk, what can or cannot be done, 

how to belong, and who to be. Of course, 

how people respond to these social interactions

 depends on how social class intersects with

 the meanings and practices associated with other 

significant sociocultural categories 

(gender, race, ethnicity, age, cohort, religion, geography, sexual orientation) 

that also influence psychological tendencies.” 

~ Susan T. Fiske, Facing Social Class: How Societal Rank Influences Interaction: 

How Societal Rank Influences Interaction

You May Try

“You may try your hardest and fail, but you 

have the choice whether or not 

to get back up again" 

- Anna Celeste Vega

~ Anna Vega

How May a Mortal

“How may a mortal, face and defeat the Kraken” 

~ Beverley Cross, Clash Of The Titans: 

The Official Illustrated Adaptation Of The Epic Film Of The Year

Had You Behaved

“...had you behaved in a more gentleman like manner!” 

~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Like a Long Sighing of Wind

“Like a long sighing of wind in trees it begins, 

then they sweep into sight, borne now upon a

cloud of phantom dust. 

They rush past, forward leaning 

in the saddles, with brandished arms, beneath 

whipping ribbons from slanted and eager lances; 

with tumult and soundless yelling they sweep 

past like a tide whose crest is jagged with the 

wild heads of horses and the brandished arms 

of men like the crater of the world in explosion.” 

~ William Faulkner, Light in August

The Collective Sign of Relief

“The collective sign of relief heaved on V-J Day

 ought to have inspired 

Hollywood to release a 

flood of "happily ever 

after" films. But some 

victors didn't feel too good about their spoils.

 They'd seen too much by then.

Too much warfare,

 too much poverty, too much greed, all in the

 service of rapacious progress. A bundle of unfinished 

business lingered from the Depression — nagging

 questions about ingrained venality, mean human nature,

 and the way unchecked urban growth threw society 

dangerously out of whack. Writers and directors 

responded by delivering gritty, bitter dramas that

 slapped our romantic illusions in the face 

and put the boot to the throat of the smug

 bourgeoisie. Still, plenty of us took it — and liked it.” 

~ Eddie Muller, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir

Old Time Heaved a Moldy Sigh

“Old Time heaved a moldy sigh from tomb and arch and vault; 

and gloomy shadows began to deepen in corners;

 and damps began to rise from green patches of stone; 

and jewels, cast upon the pavement of the nave 

from stained glass by the declining sun, 

began to perish. Within the grill-gate of the chancel, 

up the steps surmounted loomingly by the fast darkening organ, 

white robes could be dimly seen, and one feeble voice, 

rising and falling in a cracked monotonous mutter, 

could at intervals be faintly heard. In the free outer air, 

the river, the green pastures, and the brown arable lands, 

the teeming hills and dales, were reddened by the sunset: 

while the distant little windows in windmills and farm homesteads, 

shone, patches of bright beaten gold. In the Cathedral, 

all became gee, murky, and sepulchral, 

and the cracked monotonous mutter went on like a dying voice, 

until the organ and the choir burst forth, and drowned it in a sea of music. 

Then, the sea fell, and the dying voice made another feeble effort, 

and then the sea rose high, and beat its life out, 

and lashed the roof, and surged among the arches, 

and pierced the heights of the great tower; 

and then the sea was dry, and all was still.” 

~ Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Second: Them Poor Things

“Second: them poor things well out o' this, and 

never no more will I interfere with 

Mrs. Cruncher's flopping, never no more!"

"Whatever housekeeping arrangement that may be,

" said Miss Pross, striving to dry her eyes and compose herself, 

"I have no doubt it is best that Mrs. Cruncher 

should have it entirely under her own superintendence.—

O my poor darlings!"

"I go so far as to say, miss, moreover," proceeded 

Mr. Cruncher, with a most alarming tendency to 

hold forth as from a pulpit—"and let my words 

be took down and took to Mrs. Cruncher through 

yourself—that wot my opinions respectin' flopping 

has undergone a change, and that wot I only hope 

with all my heart as Mrs. Cruncher may 

be a flopping at the present time."

"There, there, there! I hope she is, my dear man,

"cried the distracted Miss Pross, "and I hope 

she finds it answering her expectations.” 

~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Outside Styx's Apartment

“Outside Styx's apartment was not the first time 

Rochester and I had met, or would it be the last. 

We first encountered each other at Haworth House in

Yorkshire when my mind was young and the 

barrier between reality and make-believe had not 

yet hardened into the shell that cocoons us in adult 

life. The barrier was soft, pliable and, for a moment, 

thanks to the kindness of a stranger and the power 

of a good storytelling voice, I made 

the short journey--and returned.” 

~ Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair

Your Slave and Enemy

“Your slave and enemy,

D. Karamazov” 

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

This Is What Happened

“This is what happened” 

~ Douglas Fairbairn, Shoot