There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.
I felt that I was not, never had been and never would be a living part of this overpoweringly solid and deeply meaningful world around me.
Nothing endures. Not a tree. Not love. Not even death by violence.
What I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.
Sarcasm... the protest of those who are weak.
It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart
I began to know that each morning reasserted the problems of night before, that sleep suspended all but changed nothing, that you couldn’t make yourself over between dawn and dusk.
Everything has to evolve or else it perishes.
So the more things remained the same, the more they changed after all. Nothing endures. Not love, not a tree, not even a death by violence.
But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved.
Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him.
It is a sad day when one looks back and sees that his largest regrets have become some of the most integral elements of his dreams.
But something held me back. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.
Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a God.
When you love something it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.
You have to do what you think is the right thing, but just make sure it’s the right thing in the long run, and not just for the moment.
I did no know everything there was to know about myself, and knew that I did not know it.
Gene, on the desire to be Finny: "I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.
So the more things stay the same, the more they change after all.
As I said, this was my sarcastic summer. It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.
I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.
So the more things remain the same, the more they change after all—plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change. Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.
Life is fighting. In life, it's the look ahead that counts. We are all born equally far from the sun. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love.
Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was converging elsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic men.
I knew that part of friendship consisted in accepting a friend’s shortcomings, which sometimes included his parents.
The scornful force of his tone turned the word into a curse
Because it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.
I jounced the limb.
We are all born equally far from the sun.
What deceived me was my own happiness; for peace is indivisible, and the surrounding world confusion found no reflection inside me.
There are special, strange gifted people in the world and they have to be treated with understanding
He was nodding his head, his jaw tightening and his eyes closed on the tears. “I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and I believe you. You’ve already shown me and I believe you.
You never waste your time. That's why I have to do it for you.
Most of the students there, he said, don't know what they think. You tell 'em, they'll think it. I plan to tell 'em.
He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.
Finny never permitted himself to realize that when you won they lost. That would have destroyed the perfect beauty which was sport.
I did not stop to think that one wave is inevitably followed by another even larger and more powerful, when the tide is coming in.
It was demeaning to scrape affection from virtually everyone you encountered. That was immature.
As I walked briskly out the road the wind knifed at my face, but this sun caressed the back of my neck.
...he's imagining himself Justice incarnate, balancing the scales. He's forgotten that Justice incarnate is not only balancing the scales but also blindfolded.
Because, unfamiliar with the absence of fear and what that was like, I have not been able to identify its presence.
Why talk about something you can't do anything about?
And sometimes you need too much to know the facts, and so humbly and stupidly you stay.
...his jaw tightening and his eyes closed on the tears. “I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and I believe you.
Let us pray". We all slumped immediately and unthinkingly in to the awkward crouch in which God was addressed.
I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little
You can do more! A lot more. If you want a...record you can be proud of, you'll do a heck of a lot more than just what you have to.
The first person who says anything unpleasant will get a swift kick in the ass.
This is a school,' said Pete in his level voice. 'All views can be expressed and considered here. We're not indoctrinating you.' Yes, well,' Hochschwender replied coolly, 'that's a matter of point of view.
I saw on the pad not an operator's number from my home town, but one which seemed to interrupt the beating of my heart.
Is he using terror to keep away boredom? Does he have to try to destroy something? Even as a last resort, himself?
It was only long after that I recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.
We reminded them of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction.
It seemed clear that wars were not made by genereations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.
Phineas just walked serenely on, or rather flowed on, rolling forward in his white sneakers with such unthinking unity of movement that "walk" didn't describe it.
There was a breath of widening life in the morning air--something hard to describe--
Well, it’s a useful room.” “Yes, I guess it’s useful, all right.
Someone made a long speech listing every infraction of the rules we were committing that night. Someone else made a speech showing how by careful planning we could break all the others before dawn.
I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.
There are just tiny fragments of pleasure and luxury in the world, and there is something unpatriotic about enjoying them.
The war was and is reality for me.
