Learning Quotes (page 104)
You cannot say to the sun, 'More sun,' or to the rain, 'Less rain.' To a man, geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet, to learn kindness after so much unkindness, to understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find her prayers were answered, can that not be called happiness? After all these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.
Arthur Golden
That is one thing I've learned, that it is possible to really understand things at certain points, and not be able to retain them, to be in utter confusion just a short while later. I used to think that once you really knew a thing, its truth would shine on forever. Now it's pretty obvious to me that more often than not the batteries fade, and sometimes what you knew even goes out with a bang when you try to call on it, just like a lightbulb cracking off when you throw the switch.
Ann Patchett
![Richard G. Scott quote: "Our Father expects you to learn how to obtain that divine help..."](/pic/348591/600x316/quotation-richard-g-scott-our-father-expects-you-to-learn-how-to-obtain.jpg)
![Swami Vivekananda quote: "Have Faith in Man, whether he appears to you to be a very..."](/pic/348487/600x316/quotation-swami-vivekananda-have-faith-in-man-whether-he-appears-to-you.jpg)
Books lie, he said.God dont lie.No, said the judge. He does not. And these are his words.He held up a chunk of rock.He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things.The squatters in their rags nodded among themselves and were soon reckoning him correct, this man of learning, in all his speculations, and this the judge encouraged until they were right proselytes of the new order whereupon he laughed at them for fools.
Cormac McCarthy
![Maxim Gorky quote: "Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book,..."](/pic/348308/600x316/quotation-maxim-gorky-keep-reading-books-but-remember-that-a-books-only.jpg)
It is not merely enough to love literature if one wishes to spend one's life as a writer. It is a dangerous undertaking on the most primitive level. For, it seems to me, the act of writing with serious intent involves enormous personal risk. It entails the ongoing courage for self-discovery. It means one will walk forever on the tightrope, with each new step presenting the possiblity of learning a truth about oneself that is too terrible to bear.
Harlan Ellison
![Thomas Jefferson quote: "Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful...."](/pic/348196/600x316/quotation-thomas-jefferson-every-day-is-lost-in-which-we-do-not-learn.jpg)
My favorite six letter word is
always
because it promises
so much.
My favorite five letter word is
never
because it insists on contradicting
the promise.
My favorite four letter word is
once
because it says it
happened then.
My favorite three letter word is
yes
because I’m just now learning
to say it
to my heart.
My favorite two letter word is
if
because it makes
all things possible
like this:
If not always
If not never
Then once.
Yes.
Kate DiCamillo
You could pay Arthur Janov to teach you to scream about history, or you could learn prayer or a mantra, or you could write your life down and hope to make peace with it, write it down, or paint it, or turn it into improvisational theater, but that was the best you could probably do. You were stuck.
Rick Moody