And there rose in her an unmastering desire to overcome her; to unmask her. If she could have felled her it would have eased her. But it was not the body; it was the soul and its mockery that she wished to subdue; make feel her mastery. (Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway") >> More Virginia Woolf Quotations...
I mean that two of any thing is a most uncomfortable number. One may do s he pleases. Six may get along well enough. But two must always struggle for mastery. Two must always watch each other. Te eyes of all the world will be on two, uncertain which of them to follow. (Susanna Clarke, "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell") >> More Susanna Clarke Quotations...
So generation after generation of men in love with pain and passivity serve out their time in the Zone, silent, redolent of faded sperm, terrified of dying, desperately addicted to the comforts others sell them, however useless, ugly or shallow, willing to have life defined for them by men whose only talent is for death. (Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow") >> More Thomas Pynchon Quotations...
The years after graduation hardened me into someone quite different from the strutting graduate who left campus that day headed for New York city, ready to offer the world his talent. The world, I discovered. was not all that interested. (Mitch Albom, "Tuesdays with Morrie") >> More Mitch Albom Quotations...
Civilization is the mastery of violence, the triumph, constantly challenged, over the aggressive nature of the primate. For primates we have been and primates we shall remain, however often we learn to find joy in a camellia on moss. This is the very purpose of education. (Muriel Barbery, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog") >> More Muriel Barbery Quotations...
MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR. AT LEAST, YOU GET TO READ STUFF THAT'S WRITTEN BY PEOPLE WHO CAN WRITE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO BE AN ENGLISH MAJOR, YOU DON'T NEED ANY SPECIAL TALENT, YOU JUST HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SOMEONE WANTS YOU TO SEE - TO WHAT MAKES SOMEONE ANGRIEST, OR THE MOST EXCITED IN SOME OTHER WAY. IT'S SO EASY!; I THINK THAT'S WHY THERE ARE SO MANY ENGLISH MAJORS! (John Irving, "A Prayer for Owen Meany") >> More John Irving Quotations...