ŷ������

“As Aristocleia raised her cup to toast Xanthippus, her gown slipped from her shoulders, exquisite as Aphrodite’s, and flowed like the water that slid over her naked breasts when she allowed him to watch her bathe. It was wonderful to possess a gem of a woman. It made a man feel beautiful and godlike himself, briefly.”
― Yvonne Korshak, Pericles and Aspasia: A Story of Ancient Greece

“Is everybody in? Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin. The entertainment for this evening is not new, you've seen this entertainment through and through you have seen your birth, your life, your death....you may recall all the rest. Did you have a good world when you died? -enough to base a movie on??”
― Jim Morrison, An American Prayer

“Navarre asserted, “We have such powerful forces and so strong a defence system that Dien Bien Phu is an impregnable fortress!�� the American Lieutenant General “Iron Mike�� O’Daniel also shared that opinion.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume One

“Meanwhile, the British had announced that they would leave all British bases east of Suez. That cause great concern to the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, who immediately went into discussion about this with cabinet ministers.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“After World War Two, the Australian army had been re-organised into its peace-time army status. The army was primarily three battalions which together with supporting units, formed a regiment and the battalions making up the regiment were identified by both their number and the title of the regiment. This meant that the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment was identified by the initials of 1RAR. The two other battalions were identified as 2RAR or 3RAR. At the height of Australia’s commitment to the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War) Australia had a total of nine battalions which were later called the First Division.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“Thickly forested regions of Phuoc Tuy including the Rung Sat swamps and farms considered to be controlled by the Vietcong, were regularly sprayed by defoliants including “Agent Orange�� using aircraft. This was both an inhumane and unsuccessful strategy which only destroyed enough food to feed 245,000 Vietnamese people for a year resulting in a propaganda gift to the Vietcong. (Ham, 2007). Given that defoliation did not uncover the enemy, who kept on fighting from jungle, caves and tunnels, the whole defoliation programme must be considered a failure. Given also, that birth defects and other health problems associated with defoliants can be directly blamed upon “Agent Orange��, it stands to reason that the allies in the Second Indochina War who sprayed it upon villages and farms can in fact be said to be, “Guilty of War Crimes!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“The April forced ‘Resettlement�� of the villages of Long Phuoc, and Long Tan inflamed the already seething hatred of foreigners by the local Vietnamese people. They had only recently removed the French yoke after almost a century of cruel and repressive French rule. Now here were the Americans and their allies who in the Vietnamese eyes were continuing to do as the French had done before them. Into this sort of environment of hate, the Australian soldiers were sent to complete what the Americans had started.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious Enemy

“Every gathering has its moment. As an adult, I distract myself by trying to identify it, dreading the inevitable downswing that is sure to follow. The guests will repeat themselves one too many times, or you'll run out of dope or liquor and realize that it was all you ever had in common.”
― David Sedaris, Naked

“What other problems do American soldiers face when hunting down these fanat­ical killers?��
“A person’s senses are more acute when being hunted,�� Reid said. “More adept at avoiding capture.��
These guys are good, Blake thought as a bead of sweat trickled down the small of his back. What have I gotten myself into?”
― Chad Boudreaux, Scavenger Hunt

“Convincing all nations in the civilized world to agree that any investments into these corporations should be tax-free was not an easy task. Tea with the Queen didn’t quite cut it. Saki with the Japanese Prime Minister was pleasant, but not quite enough. We had to offer major trade concessions to our partner nations to bring them to the negotiating table. In retrospect, it was a small price to pay. The talks earned me the title of “The Great Negotiator.�� I didn't mind.”
― Nancy Omeara, The Most Popular President Who Ever Lived [So Far]

“From the vaulted arches several stories above us, entire, mature trees were growing, reaching leafy boughs down into the open air between the floor and ceiling. There was a full glade growing up there, oak, birch, maple, and elm, like someone had carved out a few acres of the park and fixed it there upside down.”
― Alan Bradley, The Sixth Borough

“It became increasingly common to resolve international tensions by legal means. The chant “Criminal Trials, Not Missiles�� became prevalent after its use in my first State of the Union address. Nice ring to it.”
― Nancy Omeara, The Most Popular President Who Ever Lived [So Far]

“Well.. Is that all you've got?.. I hope not..cuz you haven't finished entertaining me yet..
-Gaara to Rock Lee during the Chunin preliminary”
― Masashi Kishimoto

“The first time the extent of this problem was obvious to me was when I was hanging out with a small group of people in which one unironically said, “I would not consider dating someone who was not regularly seeing a psychologist”—and others in the group agreed with them. It was at that point I realized that some psychologists were convincing their patients that no person could be mentally healthy without regularly visiting them. They had so thoroughly incepted a dependency in their patients that they had created a cultural identity around that dependency.”
― Simone Collins, The Pragmatist’s Guide to Crafting Religion: A playbook for sculpting cultures that overcome demographic collapse & facilitate long-term human flourishing

“If I had made another choice that night, would
my life have been less pursued by ghosts? Or just
significantly shorter?”
― Katie Hall-May, Puck's Legacy

“Should I stay in Greenville, teach my students, or work for Mike Espy (in Washington, DC)��.Capitol Hill had many more men than women walking the halls, whether they were members of Congress or congressional and committee staff or lobbyists. The receptionist was usually a woman, and the chief of staff, a man. Sometimes I wondered why anyone in Washington would want to listen to what a girl from Soso, Mississippi, had to say.”
― Karen Hinton, Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power

“In his entire life, Father Abaddon Sohar had never seen anything like what was in that cell, and he knew instantly that at least one of those fantastic tales of the monstrous birth of some grotesque abomination was, in fact, very, very true.”
― Stephen A. Reger, Storm Surge: Book Two of the Stormsong Trilogy

“Secrets breed other secrets. That’s how they work.”
― Katie Hall-May, Puck's Legacy

“... the moral is plain. Avoid, if possible, being bored yourself or boring others.”
― Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing

“When I can’t find something, I try to remember what I put on top of it. Whatever I was looking for is usually under something else that came next.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“If the voices in your head talk to you, no one cares until they tell you to start killing people. Then you’re crazy.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“I’d like to be remembered as someone who used their ability as a novelist or as a dramatist to say the things he felt needed to be said about the society while being as entertaining as possible. Because if you don’t entertain, nobody’s listening.”
― Budd Schulberg

“An involved parent is already a superhero.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“Cursing his luck, he wished he’d stayed at work just a little longer. His heart was pounding. Murder. He’d just witnessed a murder. ”
― Christian Warren Freed, The Lazarus Men

“I can see into your heart. You have good intentions. You can’t go wrong when you start with good intentions.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“Nothing that happened in the past is anything we can change. And it shouldn’t interfere with the happiness of the present.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“A limiting belief is practically invisible to us �� it hides in habit and custom and mores. It is the way we live. To break out of the limiting belief would almost be like �� (gasp) rebellion!”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“This shows that the ordinary person is wanting more for their lives. They want to be of help, they want to make things better.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“You’re thinking she doesn’t see your outfit, or the color of your shoes. What she does see is You! I think you could stand in a line of a thousand people all wearing costumes and she would see you out of all of them. She loves you and you can’t camouflage yourself from love like that.”
― Linda Armstrong, Mission: Subhero

“If you're not entertaining yourself while writing--don't write.”
― Don Roff