Yes, she was a dog, but not only a dog. I am a man, but not only a man. Sentiment is not sentimentality, common sense is not common ignorance, and intuition is not superstition. Living with a recognition of the spiritual dimension of the world not only ensures a happier life but also a more honest intellectual life than if we allow no room for wonder and refuse to acknowledge the mystery of existence.
Considering the extreme violence and the cannibalism, Carson thought the public ought to be unduly alarmed. But his position was not elected, and having come from a city in which political power mattered more than any other force in society, he knew the folly of asserting the full truth of anything when those who had ascended through the ballot box preferred to support a version of the truth made more palatable to the voters.
Intuition was the highest form of knowledge, antecedent to all teaching, not reliant on reasoning.
As you know, Bob, what with DNA analysis, this whole business is getting highly sophisticated these days. Why, they can break down a sample into so many signatures that a person’s blood is almost as unique as his fingerprints.
Only now does he realize that the worst of all miseries to afflict the human heart is loneliness.
In their humility, they can’t easily see themselves as the spine and heart of the world, but if they don’t eventually understand their value, the necessity of their resistance, the future will be an ugly realm of madness, oppression, and endless violence.
We sometimes take refuge in misery, a strange kind of comfort... But no matter what happens in life, happiness is there for us, waiting to be embraced.
There are numerous tools with which to conceal the truth, although nothing has been quite as effective and reassuring as six or eight or ten feet of compacted earth.
Once the golden phase had passed, the sun used only the red and orange spectrum of its palette to paint the sky in advance of the long night of darkness, and by reflection the harbor waters caught fire.
Human beings could hate to the point of killing whom they hated, based on class and race and politics and religion and mere envy.
On the dark water of the harbor, reflections of shoreside lights cockled like colorful skeins of rippled-ribbon sugar candy.
The romantic fragrances of yellowing paper.
Go to Hell.” “I’m sure you can give me good directions.
Haters lived to hate, to exercise power over those they hated. They were obsessive about it. Focused. Relentless.
Even bad guys,” Roy said patiently, “deserve compassion. This man has suffered. You can see that. I need to get my hands on him, yes, and be sure that society’s safe from him – but he still deserves to be treated with compassion, with as much mercy as possible.
Plain, homely women like you and me will never lead a glamorous life, never go to exotic places. So books have a special value to us. We can experience most everything vicariously, through books. This isn’t bad. Living through books is even better than having friends and knowing... men.
They had formed an alliance for survival and a covenant of affection against the darkness of the world.
To be a winner, you gotta be in the game.
No matter how attentive their people were, dogs spent more time waiting than doing.
You need somebody to work for besides who pays you, somebody special to build something with, to share a future with.