“Deep within I m shaken by the violence of existing for only you...”
“Gwynn, she was always talking about wanting to be drunk and honestly I did want to encourage that, I wanted to go to a bar with her and let all the stuff sobriety pushed down be released so I could catch it in my palms and finally kiss her. She was just so sad. Melancholy was a fleshy wave permanently cresting on her face, she had to speak through it when she talked.”
“A gentle, warm, sweet pain spreads through my chest at those words.”
“Leif gripped Benny s shoulders to hold him back, but he broke free and chased the truck, pumping his tiny arms and legs with great furry. I love you! he called out, when he was just ten feet away. I gripped the metal bars, my throat choked with emotion. I love you! Silas cried, as he followed. They both kept after us, sprinting wildly behind the cage. I watched their mouths moving, saying those words over and again, as the truck bounded through the woods and their small bodies disappeared, unreachable, behind the trees.”
“Bragging about your compassion is the first step towards feeling a genuine emotion.”
“February 13, 1936 I ask of people more than they can give me. It is useless to maintain the contrary. But what a mistake and what despair. And myself perhaps... Seek contacts. All contacts. If I want to write about men, should I stop talking about the countryside? If the sky or light attract me, shall I forget the eyes or voices of those I love? Each time I am given the elements of a friendship, the fragments of an emotion, never the emotion or the friendship itself.”
“Words form the sinew and muscle that hold societies upright, he argued. Consider the Koran, the Bible, the American Constitution, but also letters from fathers to sons, last wills, blessings, curses. Thousands upon thousands of words infused with the full spectrum of emotions fill in the nooks and corners of human life.”
“A politician is not allowed to get too emotional in public, so what he does is drop subtle hints that, over time, cause the public to get emotional. Once the same emotions are generated by enough people, the politician can use it to steer the public in his desired direction. Fear is an emotion that is often used this way. A smart politician knows that if he can create fear in enough people, those people will give up what they truly want in order to give the politician what he says they need.”
“With hardly any effort at all, she made me feel special. Just like all the other people she toyed with.”
“The spirit is liquid and easily flows and surges, sinking and boiling with the currents of circumstances. Bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ is no easy-chair job.”
“Painting is a great outlet for those inner emotions you cannot get out any other way.”
“Dreams can twist your emotions like no reality can.”
“I write so the endangered thoughts roaming naked and vulnerable through the misty jungles of my mind aren t slain by the guns of practical living.”
“Feeling sorry for myself was an art.”
“Societies would _not_ be better off if everyone were like Mr Spock, all rationality and no emotion. Instead, a balance - a teaming up of the internal rivals - is optimal for brains. ... Some balance of the emotional and rational systems is needed, and that balance may already be optimized by natural selection in human brains.”
“It is the favourite stratagem of our passions to sham a retreat, and to turn sharp round upon us at the moment we have made up our minds that the day is our own.”
“You can t plan someone else s future, and I fully plan to become someone else.”