c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
I have a totally unhealthy and unrealistic fear of being eaten by a great white shark. This is because I belong to a very specific demographic called American Child Whose Parents Made the Ill-Advised Decision To Allow Her To Watch the Movie Jaws At a Sleepover During Her Formative Years.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
You can pay for whatever you want, but I just want to warn you that I prefer to stay at places that don’t start or end with the word ‘motel.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
Samantha, you're in my world now. We have standards here."-Jesse
— Wendy Ely, Jesse's Brother
Mouse likes to drag you to uninhabited areas with no cell signal—all those places perfect for dying of exposure.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
Don’t take this the wrong way, but Australians have a LOT of bitches on their cashola.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
I try not to laugh too loud, afraid a bark-like noise will be mistaken by any great whites lurking in the area as the distress call of a juvenile seal.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
Locals. They’ll eventually get out. They’re annoyed. Like when Americans go to the lake. And it’s closed. ‘Cause some kid pooped in the water.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
Hey…you don’t look like a rabbit.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
I grimace, thinking someone should come up with a new phrase for 'I left the ocean without a kiwi-sized chunk of my lower-left butt cheek' to replace the rather nebulous term 'exploratory bite.
— Elle Lothlorien, Alice in Wonderland
I jumped at the sound of Drake's voice. "You scared the crap out of me! Where did you come from?"He raised his eyebrows, "From what I learned in Anatomy, I came from my Mother. But if you are refering to just now, through the door.
— K.A. Robinson, Torn
There are moments in your life that can change you forever, and you Norah, you are my forever moment.
— Angela Richardson, Pieces of Lies
I have a billion what-ifs and no way forward.
— Miranda Kenneally, Things I Can't Forget
You could have fucked me ’til your uncut, overexposed on the blogs, ‘too ginormous for my snatch’ pecker fell off. And I’d still no way never ever in a thousand years sell, loan, sample you my Easton. And to answer your question, I run my company with my pussy, and twenty-four other pussy-sporting employees. Easton girls do not allow dickheads or cocks in our fashion world. Period.
— Avery Aster, Undressed
She liked his unique smell, and it turned on all five of her senses, wanting to see him naked, touch him while naked, hear him as he moaned while he made love, taste his skin, and feel his naked body as she seduced him with the trailing of hungry fingers.
— Keira D. Skye
I didn’t have to look at him to know I’d just lost everything I’d ever wanted because I felt it. I felt the loss seep into bone and tissue. I felt it settle between the cracks in my heart and the empty holes in my soul.
— Julie Bale, The Stillness of You
Have you ever had a moment in time when it felt like it moved in slow motion? As if a split second felt like an hour because your mind cannot seem to process in the instant it’s supposed to, and the moment implodes on itself so you can barely breathe, and everything feels like a dream. A slow, heart-wrenching, time-freezing, dream.Well, this was one of those moments for me.
— Angela Richardson, Pieces of Lies
How can a girl look so innocent and so hot at the same time?
— Angela Richardson, Pieces of Lies
Truthfully, from the moment in front of the Chagall, you had me Norah. Until that moment, I didn’t know moments like that existed between a man and a woman. I felt breathless, unhinged and lost, all in one split second because you deterred my future with just one look. You have no idea how completely floored I felt that a girl could so instantly take all my control and direction and all that I knew to be normal, and turn it completely and utterly upside down.
— Angela Richardson, Pieces of Lies
He’d done it again. Screwed up in a social situation and dragged the whole team down with hm. His new team. The ones who were counting on him to be a leader on and off the field. He’d led them, all right, almost into a brawl.
— Jami Davenport, Down by Contact
So nothing! Look, I get that coming here meant you could finally do things on your own, but you are just supposed to just take sips of freedom Norah – don’t just slam it down your throat like a tequila shot!
— Angela Richardson, Pieces of Lies
Can I kiss you?” And she would let him, lightly on her lips, a moment of brief anticipation. “Your kisses are like sugar woman.” He would tell her affectionately. “So sweet.” He would close in on her and then ask softly, “Please spend the night with me.
— Keira D. Skye, A Breath Until Forever
A million possible endearments ran through his head. But he said, “Help.
— Robyn Carr, The Wanderer
Sugar,” Jake said, “I’ve wanted you since the first time you sassed me.”“I wanted to punch you in the nose.”He laughed and kissed her forehead. “My advertising skills left something to be desired.”“You rooked three unsuspecting women.”“I know.” He kissed her lips, taking his time. “I’m offering you a chance for payback.”“And that payback is sex?” He smelled awesome, like a hot, sexy man who’d been in a kitchen trying to please her. Or maybe please himself. With Jake, you never knew.He pulled her tighter against him, kissing her slowly, thoroughly. “I’d do my damnedest to make you a happy woman the second time I sold you something.”Sugar looked into Jake’s eyes. He was too hot, too sexy, almost taking her breath away. “I think your gravy’s burning.”“Nice try. I turned it off.” He tugged her hips against him, kissing her as if he’d never tasted anything as good as her mouth. Sugar moaned and let Jake hike her up on his waist. “If I’m moving too fast, say so. I’ll back off and feed you the best shrimp and steak dinner you’ve ever had. Just good friends breaking bread together.”Sugar gasped as Jake sank his teeth gently into her lower lip. Heat and warmth filled her, stealing her desire to tell him no about anything. “I’m not really that hungry.”His smile turned dangerous. “I am.
— Tina Leonard, Hotter Than Texas
The ferocity of her passion was what he'd been waiting for night after torturous night. He wanted her to hunger the way he hungered. To need like he needed.
— Melissa Cutler, Seduction Under Fire
Sarah, I’m going to take care of you whether you like it or not.
— Robyn Carr, Never Too Late
He flipped back the covers. “Come here, I want to show you something.”She raised a brow impishly, “You still have moves I haven’t seen? Impressive.
— Beth Mikell, Hex upon Me
Isn’t he cute? That he thinks he has a sense of humour?
— Robyn Carr, The Wanderer
He’d never been shy, but he’d always been a little uncertain around girls. He just couldn’t believe they liked him.
— Robyn Carr, The Wanderer
Don’t look so worried Norah,” Clint was trying to reassure me, “you may have your naked painting and guns to help you escape… but me, when things get too much for me… I, drive.
— Angela Richardson, Pieces of Lies
I wasn't raised to let a woman walk through a dimly lit parking lot alone. Wasn't born in a cornfield, you know.”Velia turned. “No, I didn't know. So, you're quite a gentleman. Don't we sound like a good pair—the devil woman and the gentleman?
— Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, Howdy, Ma'am
It didn’t take much to turn a man solitary-being the new guy too often, being controversial now and then, a couple of unsuccessful attempts at a lasting relationship with a woman…
— Robyn Carr, The Wanderer
Do you play cards?”Her lips tingled from the light kiss, “In theory. Why? Do you have a hankering for Old Maid?” She teased, flashing him a smile.He placed his glass down and reached for an intricate metal crafted box. “Not even close. How about a little strip poker?
— Beth Mikell, Hex upon Me
Tell me something, princess, if I make a liar out of you…will you forgive me?” Hex James, Hex upon Me
— Beth Mikell, Hex upon Me
She had left her legs bare, and if he wasn’t mistaken, they had a slight sheen. He realized she’d caught him staring when she cleared her throat.“Are your legs...sparkly?” he managed to ask, feeling the need to explain since he’d been caught leering.“My body lotion has a little bit of glitter in it,” she said with a trace of diffidence.She seemed apologetic. For what, he had no idea.
— Linda Morris, By Hook or By Crook
He’s been fighting a lot on the Midwest circuit, but Vegas is the big-time. If he ever wants to get anywhere, he has to fight here. And since we’re here, we thought we’d get married, since Vegas is so romantic.”Ivy could think of a dozen cities more romantic than Vegas—Akron, Ohio came to mind—but she didn’t argue.
— Linda Morris, By Hook or By Crook
But there’s more. When I was on my way to the event today, Carolyn texted me and told me that Steve and Eve got married over break. Six months after he broke up with me, and after he kept telling me he didn’t see marriage inhis future! And did I tell you that he broke up with me at the school, during the Fitness Fun-a-Thon fundraising eventwe worked at?” Her face grew reflective. “I was handing out bottled water when he asked me to go behind the hydration station so he could talk to me privately. The whole time, Eve kept staring at us from the finish line of the three-legged race.She knew I was getting dumped before I did.
— Linda Morris, Melting the Millionaire's Heart
Do you think I would look good in leather?”His lips lifted in a half smile, “I’m sure they make a bikini top and thong that would be perfect.”Her laugh deepened, “But the hard part will be convincing me to wear it.” Savannah weighed her hands in the air up and down like a scale, “Sexy couture in public, absolutely. Trashy, revealing ho--not so much.
— Beth Mikell, Hex upon Me
Hey," I said softly and cupped his cheek."Yeah?"“What about your dream?”His face went dimples. “I’m lookin’ at it, darlin’.”Oh. Crap. My heart felt near bursting. I was absolutely done for. This man owned me, body and soul, and everything in between.
— Madeline Sheehan, Undeniable
That’s the thing about love — it’s full of possibilities. It can lead you down so many different paths. Sure, for some of us, it can lead to sadness and regret. But, for others, well, for others it can lead them to the greatest future they could’ve ever hoped for. Love is the most possible thing in the world.
— Melissa  Brown, Champagne Toast
Not that it was a crazy complicated skill, but operating an espresso machine during high traffic could be added to my repertoire along with card tricks and how to fire a Colt .45.(Quote taken from ARC, subject to change)
— Karina Halle, Sins & Needles
Being with Demetri wasn’t the absence of pain, it was the added presence of peace, making it easier and easier for that little part of my heart to heal again.--From Pull: A Seaside Novel
— Rachel Van Dyken
No one has ever made me feel like this, no one. So much regret, so much loss, and so much desire all swirled together in my muddled brain. In my muddled heart.
— Melissa  Brown, Champagne Toast
If I was into girls, I'd do you,” I tell him honestly. He leans forward conspiratorially. ”Psst, I'll let you in on a secret Fred,” he glances sheepishly from side to side. ”I actually have a cock. Don't tell anyone, it would ruin my reputation. But feel free to do me any time you want.
— L.H. Cosway
Kissing Kate is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. And as much as I want to think I’m the good guy, as much as I’ve proclaimed that sleeping with an attached girl isn’t my style, I’m not walking away. I can’t. I have her now. She’s mine. And I’m not going anywhere.
— Melissa  Brown, Champagne Toast
She'd been trained as a child no to trust anyone, but he'd just saved her life, and she was freezing. He could be a yeti for all she cared.
— Krystal Shannan, A Very Russian Christmas
Well, with that filly in my line of vision blushing like a virgin, something in me was bound to stand at attention. And my walking legs were occupied.
— A.G. Starling, It's a Love Game
Oh my God, you're huge." She struggled to get her hands to the ends of the long sleeves. The garment hung to her knees. She glanced up to see his lips pressed together, like he was choking on a laugh. The corners of his eyes wee crinkled and amusement flickered in his heated gaze.
— Krystal Shannan, A Very Russian Christmas
[Lizzie Bennington to a reporter who has asked for her opinion about Jack Archer's celebrated thighs.] “When you come back from a set down and bring the match to a final set tiebreak and are a point away from winning the match, only to have what looks like an extremely fit player call a time out because of a cramp and then watch that player sit back and casually converse and laugh while you do your best to keep your mental focus and your body moving so you don’t grow cold and cramp yourself, I hardly think you’d concern yourself with his burgeoning manhood, let alone his thighs!
— A.G. Starling, It's a Love Game
The bathroom’s down the hall if you want to take off your tights. I can throw ‘em in the dryer for you if you want. Or, you can hang them on the shower curtain rod.” He turned. “It’sbeen a long time since I’ve had a woman’s tights draped over my rod.” A quick wink and he was gone before she could do anything more than gape.
— Linda Morris, Melting the Millionaire's Heart
My family stood right in front of me, talking and smiling. I felt like I was viewing one of those cheesy ad shots for camera companies. The ones I looked at and thought, fake, because no one's family ever looked that happy. Yet, the perfect family moment bloomed right before my eyes, and I wasn't a part of it.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Stepping Stones
He stood there tall and dashing, peering down at her with a set of mesmerizing sapphire eyes. It wasn’t the eyes that had her sex-drive squealing into overdrive; it was that…hair. Now, Tarrah had never really been into redheads before, but damn, she sure as hell would be willing to convert.
— Victoria H. Smith, Holiday Fling
One more salt to try," Kellan said, reaching into the box. He brought a jar of black, flaky crystals up to the light. "Black diamond finishing salt. Extremely rare and too bold for those with meek palates. But, for a true connoisseur, the flavor is incomparable." He lowered her head and torso to the ground and pushed her sweater up to expose her stomach and ribs. "I want to sample it on your skin.
— Melissa Cutler, The Trouble with Cowboys
He returned in a moment with a phone, a high-end model that probably cost way more than hers. His cell phone wallpaper was an abstract artwork with lots of colorful circles and blots—Kandinsky, maybe, or Miro? She always got thosetwo confused. She gave him points for not having a picture of some scantily-clad woman thrusting her boobs at the camera, like Steve had on his phone. Tacky. Nude-woman wallpapers were the cell phone equivalent of silver naked-lady mud flaps, in her opinion.
— Linda Morris, Melting the Millionaire's Heart
Full of intrigue, tangled pasts, and raw emotions, [Gambling On A Secret by Sara Walter Ellwood] is guaranteed to keep you turning pages from start to finish and then wishing for one more chapter!
— Carolyn Brown
Getting involved with someone was complicated enough, but with the boss’s daughter? Probably not a good idea.
— Wendy Ely, Jesse's Brother
I stumbled away. I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and just looked athim. "What was that?"His chest rose and fell heavily. "A kiss.""Why?""Why?" He laughed. His blue eyes suddenly looked so sad. "Because I've wanted to do that for twenty years.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Stepping Stones
First of all, I’m not a ‘military type.’ Second, I never proclaimed to be a gentleman of any kind. I just like the facts straight up. There’s no bullshit to wade through to get to the truth." Dylan
— Sara Walter Ellwood, Gambling on a Secret
At the beginning of our relationship, my heart pounded so loudly whenever Istood near him. He had an effect on me that no aspiring vicar should have on a young woman.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Stepping Stones
This had to be Hell.Well, myHell, and funnily enough, my Hell was in a church, surrounded by people I—either door did—love.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Stepping Stones
The nearest arched window poured its soft light over him, allowing me to seeevery inch. Dressed smartly in black loafers and slacks, he wore a thigh-length, blackcoat. He'd brushed his golden hair back, tucked behind his ears, and his cheeks lookedflushed, no doubt due to the bitter, evening air.He looks like an angel in the winter snow. The thought made me growl in irritation."Hello, Magpie."I couldn't move. "Adrian.
— Elizabeth Morgan, Stepping Stones
She grabbed her clutch bag and circled her arms around his neck. "Caulder McCutchen, I'm really not sure what you are."He lifted his head and looked down at her, squinted. "I'm a man. Enough said?"Velia smiled and looped her arm through his. "Yes, sir. Shall we go?
— Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, Howdy, Ma'am
I think of it like a caterpillar--a wrinkly, ugly worm with traces of dull colors on it. But when the worm metamorphoses, it becomes something truly beautiful.” Charli
— Sara Walter Ellwood, Gambling on a Secret
So what’s your name?” the stranger asked.Tarrah pulled his shirt away from her head and held out her hand. “Tarrah. Tarrah Reid.”He slipped his hand into hers, his cheeks stiffening as he held back a smile.Tarrah sighed, knowing exactly what he was thinking. She was completely aware of the fact that she held the name of a famous Hollywood actress. The association actually helped with her “Christmas floozy” persona during the holidays, so she’d never really minded.
— Victoria H. Smith, Holiday Fling
He was working that charm right now on the trainer who kneeled before him and touched his thigh as though it were the thigh of David, Michelangelo’s glorious statue come to life right here on court.
— A.G. Starling, It's a Love Game
He trailed his eyes down over her beautiful breasts then told her, “You’re going to keep your mouth shut and I’m going togive you that Orgasm you asked for.” He thought for a moment she was going to tell him to get lost, but instead she leaned her head back against the wall and pushed her hips out toward him.
— Ella Frank, Exquisite
After I left here on Saturday, I decided never to see you again.”He was sliding the frittata under the broiler, so she could only see his profile, but damn if he didn’t appear to be smirking.“I know that, darling. It wounds my pride you won’t go out with me, but I can console myself with the knowledge that when you do see me, you can’t keep your knickers on for ten minutes running.”She threw her cookie at him, feigning indignation. “You bastard! Are you calling me easy?”“I like you easy. Besides, you’re not to blame. Who’d want to wear wet knickers?
— Ruthie Knox, About Last Night
Young girls think they know what their hearts desire, what they want the most. When really, we know nothing of love, devotion and utter loyalty. Not until we break our own hearts when we learn that what we desire is nothing like what we thought it would be. ~Papercut Doll
— Alexia Purdy
There are no guarantees with love,’ her father said, reading her mind. ‘You can’t hold some of it back, like a deposit, so you can get your money back if something goes wrong. You have to give yourself wholeheartedly, whatever the cost.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
There,” he said with a smirk. “Now I don’t have a swim suit either.”Andi bit her bottom lip and felt the heat begin to flood her cheeks. The sharp pinch on her arm snapped her out of her trance and she quickly swatted at the bug. “Okay, okay. Turn around and don’t peak.” The light from the moon made it easy for her to see his questioning glare. “What?”“Turn around?” Zane asked, trying to hold back a smile. “Need I remind you that I’ve seen you naked before, Miss Ford.”—Zane and Andi in, Zane: The McKades of Texas
— Kimberly Lewis
People don’t really have much of a choice when the heart falls. I’m lucky enough that mine just so happened to fall for you, Misty.”—Dylan to Misty in, When the Heart Falls
— Kimberly Lewis
Screw you, cowboy!” she yelled after him, saying the word exactly as she had before. “And that horse you rode in on.”And—Whoops!—now everyone in the diner had turned to look at them.Zane turned around to her with amusement on his face. “Very original, princess.
— Kimberly Lewis
Coralie Casey was the kind of woman calories were made for; that dewy peaches-and-cream complexion, glossy cherry lips, the succulence of her body beneath that orange, silky dress. A cornucopia of curves, you could say, except it was probably better not to think about horns of plenty.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
I believe in making my potential models comfortable,’ he explained when she shot a surprised look at him. ‘I’m considerate, unlike some artists who bend their sitters into difficult positions and expect them to stay there for hours. My demands are entirely reasonable.’For a moment, her libido got interested in his demands. What would it be like to listen to the soft caress of his voice as he told her how he wanted her? To have those midnight-blue eyes roam over every inch of her body? To be passive, helpless, whilst he did whatever he pleased?
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
Kitty waved her free hand to show that she was ok, although she was very tempted to stand over one of Adam’s window-washing puddles and pretend her waters had broken just to see what he would do.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
Outside, the sunlight had turned pale lemon, but the studio remained cool. The white walls and white-tiled splashback behind the sink were made more clinical by the metal tables which looked as if they’d originally been intended for use in an operating theatre. Even though they were laid out with brushes and paints rather than forceps and retractors, the effect was equally daunting; both sets of tools could open you up in strange and unexpected ways.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
She had offered to drive, not least because it would have given her some control over the evening, but Gethin had raised an eyebrow and told her he liked a more comfortable ride. She assumed it was a reference to her van rather than some frank over-sharing.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
He’s been a bit grumpy since Potato Day.’She heard Gethin choke back a laugh.‘He set up an all-day workshop on all things potato after reading up about successful winter events at other nurseries,’ she went on, unable to hide her own amusement. ‘It was a terrible failure. Hardly anyone turned up apart from our poet, Wilfie, who wrote a Potat-Ode to celebrate the occasion.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
[while dancing] The man who was supposed to be her new partner had taken the caller’s final instruction to extremes. From the way Adam’s mouth was locked against Kitty’s he seemed to be anticipating not a temporary split but a lengthy separation. More of a French Fancy than a farmer’s fancy, thought Coralie.
— Christine Stovell, Move Over Darling
Kay was only half skinny-dipping, but she fervently wished she’d worn something a bit more substantial than a baseball cap and the bottom half of the quintessential teeny-weenie yellow polka-dot bikini.
— Babette James, Clear As Day
Have you been walking in the woods in the last few days?" Matt asked.Lola cleared her throat anxiously. What had she managed to do now, catch jungle fever? "We went hiking in the Greenhills on Wednesday. What's wrong?" Her voice sounded squeaky, so she closed her eyes and took a steadying breath."I don't suppose you've heard of poison ivy," Matt asked. He traced the curve of her knee, pushing the hem of her skirt up her thigh. "Small plant, three leaves, glossy green. Causes a rash of small bumps about a day after contact. Sound familiar?
— Bonnie J. James
Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way.
— Kingsley Amis
If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.
— Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.
— Audre Lorde
I don't believe that consciousness is generated by the brain. I believe that the brain is more of a reciever of consciousness.
— Graham Hancock
Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self and never living your own life or knowing who you are.
— John Bradshaw, Healing the Shame that Binds You
If you don't believe in God, it may help to remember this great line of Geneen Roth's: that awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage. I doubt that you would read a close friend's early efforts and, in his or her presence, roll your eyes and snicker. I doubt that you would pantomime sticking your finger down your throat. I think you might say something along the lines of, 'Good for you. We can work out some of the problems later, but for now, full steam ahead!
— Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
We do not realize how deeply our starting assumptions affect the way we go about looking for and interpreting the data we collect. We should recognize that nonhuman organisms need not meet every new definition of human language, tool use, mind, or consciousness in order to have versions of their own that are worthy of serious study. We have set ourselves too much apart, grasping for definitions that will distinguish man from all other life on the planet. We must rejoin the great stream of life from whence we arose and strive to see within it the seeds of all we are and all we may become.
— Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind
I was struck by an awful thought, the kind that cannot be taken back once it escapes into the open air of consciousness; it seemed to me that this was not a place you go to live. It was a place you go to die.
— John Green, Paper Towns
In each of us there is another whom we do not know.Carl Jungfound in David Eagleman's book: Incognito
— C.G. Jung
My experience is what I agree to attend to.
— William James
Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one's consciousness, making of every image a privileged place.
— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
She had always lived her best life in dreams. She knew no greater pleasure than that moment of passage into the other place, when her limbs grew warm and heavy and the sparkling darkness behind her lids became ordered and doors opened; when conscious thought grew owl's wings and talons and became other than conscious.
— John Crowley, Little, Big
Attempts to wake before our time are often punished, especially by those who love us most. Because they, bless them, are asleep. They think anyone who wakes up, or who, still asleep, realizes that what is taken to be real is a ‘dream’ is going crazy.
— R.D. Laing
I'm moving and not moving at all. I'm like the moon underneath the waves that ever go on rolling and rocking. It is not, "I am doing this," but rather, an inner realization that "this is happening through me," or "it is doing this for me." The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.
— Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
You sea! I resign myself to you also-I guess what you mean, I behold from the beach your crooked fingers, I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me.We must have a turn together,I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land,Cushion me soft, rock me billowy drowse,Dash me with amorous wet, I can repay you.
— Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
How I wished during those sleepless hours that I belonged to a different nation, or better still, to none at all.
— W.G. Sebald, Vertigo
Pain and darkness have been our lot since the Fall of Man. But there must be some hope that we can rise to a higher level ... that consciousness can evolve to a plane more benevolent than its counterpoint of a universe hardwired to indifference.
— Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion
I know that these mental disturbances of mine are not dangerous and give no promise of a storm; to express what I complain of in apt metaphor, I am distressed, not by a tempest, but by sea-sickness. 
— Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters
The bite of conscience is indecent.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
I honestly didn't believe I could bear any more suffering. I was convinced that the child within me was just too young to endure all this, much less understand it. She just wanted to be normal. But another part of me knew that to become normal, all the pieces of this puzzle had to become conscious.p164
— Suzie Burke, Wholeness: My Healing Journey from Ritual Abuse
Was it possible that Ranulph, too, was a real person, a person inside whose mind things happened? He had thought that he himself was the only real person in a field of human flowers. For Master Nathaniel that was a moment of surprise, triumph, tenderness, alarm.
— Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist
For as long as I could remember, I had been transparent to myself, unselfconscious, learning, doing, most of every day. Now I was in my own way; I myself was a dark object I could not ignore. I couldn't remember how to forget myself. I didn't want to think about myself, to reckon myself in, to deal with myself every livelong minute on top of everything else - but swerve as I might, I couldn't avoid it. I was a boulder blocking my own path. I was a dog barking between my own ears, a barking dog who wouldn't hush. So this was adolescence. Is this how the people around me had died on their feet - inevitably, helplessly? Perhaps their own selves eclipsed the sun for so many years the world shriveled around them, and when at least their inescapable orbits had passed through these dark egoistic years it was too late, they had adjusted. Must I then lose the world forever, that I had so loved? Was it all, the whole bright and various planet, where I had been so ardent about finding myself alive, only a passion peculiar to children, that I would outgrow even against my will?
— Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
I swoon into a standing eight count. Goddamn, I actually feel my consciousness want to detach and hide like a turtle retreating into a hopelessly soft shell that won't save anyone.
— Paul Tremblay, No Sleep Till Wonderland
It's clearly a crisis of two things: of consciousness and conditioning. We have the technological power, the engineering skills to save our planet, to cure disease, to feed the hungry, to end war; But we lack the intellectual vision, the ability to change our minds. We must decondition ourselves from 10,000 years of bad behavior. And, it's not easy.
— Terence McKenna
If I know better than you know what I am up to, it is only because I spend more time with myself than you do.
— Daniel C. Dennett, Freedom Evolves
Consider this:1. Would you ride in a car whose driver was on the consciousness-expanding "entheogenic" drug LSD?And here's a bonus question:2. Why does an "expanded consciousness" include the inability to operate a motor vehicle?
— Brad Warner, Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality
We must try to remember everything, every movement, every stretch, every convulsion that made us how we move as we readily grow in our outer body that encompasses the planets, the suns and the moons in every other body that we touch, in every other mouth that we kissed, in every other language that we try to comprehend; for they are not the outside of a stranger, nor are they just images of our psyche, but the very being of ourselves, the dimensional levels of our very existence weaving colours in the tapestry of creation, yet the very non-existence of the template is proof of consciousness, of ascension, of Life.
— AainaA-Ridtz, The Sacred Key — Transcending Humanity
The act of consciousness is central; otherwise we are overrun by the complexes. The hero in each of us is required to answer the call of individuation. We must turn away from the cacaphony of the outerworld to hear the inner voice. When we can dare to live its promptings, then we achieve personhood. We may become strangers to those who thought they knew us, but at least we are no longer strangers to ourselves.
— James Hollis, The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife
Something as superfluous as "play" is also an essential feature of our consciousness. If you ask children why they like to play, they will say, "Because it's fun." But that invites the next question: What is fun? Actually, when children play, they are often trying to reenact complex human interactions in simplified form. Human society is extremely sophisticated, much too involved for the developing brains of young children, so children run simplified simulations of adult society, playing games such as doctor, cops and robber, and school. Each game is a model that allows children to experiment with a small segment of adult behavior and then run simulations into the future. (Similarly, when adults engage in play, such as a game of poker, the brain constantly creates a model of what cards the various players possess, and then projects that model into the future, using previous data about people's personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and gambling is the ability to simulate the future. Animals, which live largely in the present, are not as good at games as humans are, especially if they involve planning. Infant mammals do engage in a form of play, but this is more for exercise, testing one another, practicing future battles, and establishing the coming social pecking order rather than simulating the future.)
— Michio Kaku, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
It's a mystery. A man's at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.
— Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
If, as some savants of consciousness suggest, we are actually agreeing to create, from moment to moment, everything we perceive as real, then it stands to reason that we're also responsible for keeping it going in some harmonious manner.
— Phil Lesh, Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead
One of the major differences I see in the political climate today is that there is less collective support for coming to critical consciousness – in communities, in institutions, among friends.
— bell hooks, Talking About a Revolution: Interviews with Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, bell hooks, Peter Kwong, Winona LaDuke, Manning Marable, Urvashi Vaid, and Howard Zinn
I believe consciousness is brazenly physical, a raucous mirage the brain creates to help us survive. But I also sense the universe is magical, greater than the sum of its parts, which I don't attribute to a governing god, but simply to the surprising, ecstatic, frightening everyday reality we all know. Ultimately, I find consciousness a fascinating predicament for matter to get into.
— Diane Ackerman, An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain
Spirituality is committing suicide. Consciousness is attempting to will itself out of existence.
— Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget
Science has so far been unable to tell us how self-aware dogs are, much less whether they have anything like our conscious thoughts. This is not surprising, since neither scientists nor philosophers can agree about what the consciousness of humans consists of, let alone that of animals.
— John Bradshaw, Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet
[Consciousness] is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation.
— C.S. Lewis
On its own, my internal dissociated part now came to the surface, and I found myself hiding from everyone. I still was not connecting it to the dream I'd had. At one time I had thought I could control these sudden episodes, but I was apparently mistaken. I had grown very unsure about every facet of my mental health. A disturbed part of me was taking over and I was terrified. I began to wonder if Big Suzie would completely cease to exist.
— Suzie Burke, Wholeness: My Healing Journey from Ritual Abuse
Life before consciousness was like blank paper, so be it.
— Santosh Kalwar
When once the Heart is awakened, every single moment 'in-time' is a treasure to beheld
— AainaA-Ridtz
Thinking can only serve to measure out the helplessness of thought.
— H. Rider Haggard, She
You come to this place, mid-life. You don’t know how you got here, but suddenly you’re staring fifty in the face. When you turn and look back down the years, you glimpse the ghosts of other lives you might have led; all houses are haunted. The wraiths and phantoms creep under your carpets and between the warp and weft of fabric, they lurk in wardrobes and lie flat under drawer-liners. You think of the children you might have had but didn’t. When the midwife says, ‘It’s a boy,’ where does the girl go? When you think you’re pregnant, and you’re not, what happens to the child that has already formed in your mind? You keep it filed in a drawer of your consciousness, like a short story that never worked after the opening lines.
— Hilary Mantel, Giving Up the Ghost
Strange, how a moment of existence can cut so deeply into our being that while ages pass unnoticed, a brief love can structure and define the very topology of our consciousness ever after.
— Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell
I see the mycelium as the Earth's natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.
— Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
Superorganism. A biologist coined that word for our great African ant colonies, claiming that consciousness and intelligence resided not in the individual ant but in the collective ant mind. The trail of red taillights stretching to the horizon as day broke around us made me think of that term. Order and purpose must reside somewhere other than within each vehicle. That morning I heard the hum, the respiration of the superorganism. It's a sound the new immigrant hears but not for long. By the time I learned to say "6-inch Number 7 on rye with Swiss hold the lettuce," the sound, too, was gone. It became part of the what the mind would label silence. You were subsumed into the superorganism.
— Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
The myth of quantum consciousness sits well with many whose egos have made it impossible for them to accept the insignificant place science perceives for humanity, as modern instruments probe the farthest reaches of space and time. ... quantum consciousness has about as much substance as the aether from which it is composed. Early in this century, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s relativity destroyed the notion of a holistic universe that had seemed within the realm of possibility in the century just past. First, Einstein did away with the aether, shattering the doctrine that we all move about inside a universal, cosmic fluid whose excitations connect us simultaneously to one another and to the rest of the universe. Second, Einstein and other physicists proved that matter and light were composed of particles, wiping away the notion of universal continuity. Atomic theory and quantum mechanics demonstrated that everything, even space and time, exists in discrete bits – quanta. To turn this around and say that twentieth century physics initiated some new holistic view of the universe is a complete misrepresentation of what actually took place. ... The myth of quantum consciousness should take its place along with gods, unicorns, and dragons as yet another product of the fantasies of people unwilling to accept what science, reason, and their own eyes tell them about the world.
— Victor J. Stenger
There's no consciousness without senses and memories.
— Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut
Denial returned, like a nagging cough you can never quite shake. Actually, it was always close at hand, and even though "satanic ritual abuse" did describe what had happened to me when I was a child. the concept was so foreign and so horrific that some part of me still wanted to stay in denial.Devil worship dominated my childhood. That was undeniable, even if it was still nearly impossible to contemplate. Both of my parents and any number of their friends, as well as "respected" members of our community, had worshipped Satan.I pushed the notion aside with all the power I could muster. I kept thinking to myself that it was ridiculous and impossible.p157
— Suzie Burke, Wholeness: My Healing Journey from Ritual Abuse
Moments of splendor and moments of gloom – they help maintain life’s balance. One thought is key: they all pass...
— Joan Marques
The most fundamental exercise is self-observation, which is the catalyst for inner change, it will give self-knowledge and a clear mind and perception. Without it, the attempt to reach enlightenment and awaken consciousness is destined to fail.
— Belsebuub, The Awakening of Perception: A Collection of Talks and Articles
Even feigning surprise, pretending it was unexpected and saying a ritual thanks, is surely wiser than just expecting everything so carelessly.
— Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
The collective consciousness of mankind defines the existence and sustainability of this civilization.
— Toba Beta, Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza
His brain and his heart knew this, but he couldn’t stop himself, and the razor of his conscience lent the undeniable thrill of pain to the act.
— Robert Girardi, The Pirate's Daughter
No, free will is not an 'extra'; it is part and parcel of the very essence of consciousness. A conscious being without free will is simply a metaphysical absurdity.
— Raymond M. Smullyan, The Tao Is Silent
The nature of consciousness is to point beyond itself. It is a tending toward or pointing to... Since consciousness points beyond itself, it is in its very being a self-transcendence.
— William Barrett, The Illusion of Technique: A Search for Meaning in a Technological Civilization
If one could amputate part of one's consciousness...
— Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980
With every increase in the degree of consciousness, and in proportion to that increase, the intensity of despair increases: the more consciousness the more intense the despair
— Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening
We are consciousness examining and expressing itself so that it can become increasingly aware of its infinite capacity for being and evolving.
— Jay Woodman
To be full of being is to live as a body-soul. One name for the experience of full being is joy.
— J.M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals
The inception of human consciousness, the genesis of awareness, must have entailed prolonged 'condensations' around intractable nodes of wonder and terror, at the discriminations to be made between the self and the other, between being and non-being (the discovery of the scandal of death).
— George Steiner, Real Presences
Each person is a speck of consciousness that is attempting to awaken and return to its point of origin, to the source. That is life’s true journey and story.
— Belsebuub, The Awakening of Perception: A Collection of Talks and Articles
Awareness is not an idea about awareness, as it is not thought at all. Awareness allows you to feel life as it's happening, as it is in perception that consciousness and all spiritual qualities are manifest.
— Belsebuub, Gazing into the Eternal: Reflections upon a Deeper Purpose to Living
Consciousness is everywhere, let it fill you up.
— Jay Woodman
To persevere with the will to understand in the face of obstacles is the heroism of consciousness.
— Nathaniel Branden, Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
Don’t limit your potential, embrace then accentuate the Power of your Heart’s consciousness.
— Steven Redhead, Unleash The Power of Your Heart and Mind
Princess Cookie’s cognitive pathways may have required a more comprehensive analysis. He knew that it was possible to employ certain progressive methods of neural interface, but he felt somewhat apprehensive about implementing them, for fear of the risks involved and of the limited returns such tactics might yield. For instance, it would be a particularly wasteful endeavor if, for the sake of exhausting every last option available, he were even to go so far as resorting to invasive Ontological Neurospelunkery, for this unorthodox process would only prove to be the cerebral equivalent of tracking a creature one was not even sure existed: surely one could happen upon some new species deep in the caverns somewhere and assume it to be the goal of one’s trek, but then there was a certain idiocy to this notion, as one would never be sure this newfound entity should prove to be what one wished it to be; taken further, this very need to find something, to begin with, would only lead one to clamber more deeply inward along rigorous paths and over unsteady terrain, the entirety of which could only be traversed with the arrogant resolve of someone who has already determined, with a misplaced sense of pride in his own assumptions, that he was undoubtedly making headway in a direction worthwhile. And assuming still that this process was the only viable option available, and further assuming that Morell could manage to find a way to track down the beast lingering ostensibly inside of Princess Cookie, what was he then to do with it? Exorcise the thing? Reason with it? Negotiate maybe? How? Could one hope to impose terms and conditions upon the behavior of something tracked and captured in the wilds of the intellect? The thought was a bizarre one and the prospect of achieving success with it unlikely. Perhaps, it would be enough to track the beast, but also to let it live according to its own inclinations inside of her. This would seem a more agreeable proposition. Unfortunately, however, the possibility still remained that there was no beast at all, but that the aberration plaguing her consciousness was merely a side effect of some divine, yet misunderstood purpose with which she had been imbued by the Almighty Lord Himself. She could very well have been functioning on a spiritual plane far beyond Morell’s ability to grasp, which, of course, seared any scrutiny leveled against her with the indelible brand of blasphemy. To say the least, the fear of Godly reprisal which this brand was sure to summon up only served to make the prospect of engaging in such measures as invasive Ontological Neurospelunkery seem both risky and wasteful. And thus, it was a nonstarter.
— Ashim Shanker, Only the Deplorable
Universal or quantum consciousness emphasizes that we are all interrelated, interconnected and interdependent.
— Gian Kumar
It may be that DMT makes us able to perceive what the physicist call "dark matter" - the 95 per cent of the universe's mass that is known to exist but that at present remains invisible to our senses and instruments.
— Graham Hancock
Like any organic entity, a system of consciousness manifests itself through the orderly, differentiated development of a certain unifying reality.
— Kitarō Nishida
Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise.
— George Orwell, 1984
We are beasts, you know, beasts risen from the savannas and jungles and forests. We have come down from the trees and up out of the water, but you can never, ever fully remove the feral nature from our psyches.
— Yasmine Galenorn, Totem Magic: Dance of the Shape-Shifter