c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Push up some mountains. Cut them down. Drown the land under the sea. Push up some more mountains. Cut them down. Push up a third set of mountains, and let the river cut through them. “Unconformity” is the geologic term for an old, eroded land surface buried under younger rock layers. Put your outspread hand over the Carlin Canyon, Nevada unconformity and your fingers span roughly forty million years- the time that it took to bevel down the first set of mountains and deposit the younger layers on top. What is forty million years? Enough time for a small predatory dinosaur to evolve into a bird. Enough time for a four-legged, deer-like mammal to evolve into a whale. And far more than enough time to turn an ape-like creature in eastern Africa into a big-brained biped who can marvel at such things. The Grand Canyon’s Great Unconformity divides 1.7 billion-year-old rock from 550 million-year-old rock, a gap of more than one billion years. One billion years. I earn my salary studying the Earth and teaching its history, but I admit utter helplessness in comprehending such a span. A billion pages like those of this book would stack up more than forty miles. I had lived one bullion seconds a few days before my thirty-second birthday. A tape measure one billion inches long would stretch two-thirds of the way around the Earth. Such analogies hint at what deep time means- but they don’t get us there. “The human mind may not have evolved enough to be able to comprehend deep time," John McPhee once observed, “it may only be able to measure it.
— Keith Meldahl, Rough-Hewn Land: A Geologic Journey from California to the Rocky Mountains
I'm old, but I'm not good enough to be jaded.
— John Feinstein, Change-up: Mystery at the World Series
When you get right down to it, we don’t ever want to know one another too well. We want there to be that mystery. Where there’s mystery, there’s hope.
— Paul Russell, The Coming Storm
Some of us will admit to a simple fascination with the inner world for its own sake, a fascination with no further goal than the thrill of discovery, the pleasure of engaging the mysterious, dark ground of our own nature.
— Sandra Lee Dennis, Embrace of the Daimon: Healing Through the Subtle Energy Body/ Jungian Psychology & the Dark Feminine
It takes a certain kind of man willing to work long, grueling hours in a career offering few rewards.
— Jon Michaelsen, Pretty Boy Dead
He's not a safe safe or a tame God, securely lodged behind the bars of a distant Heaven; He has the most annoying manner of showing up when we least want Him; of confronting us in the strangest ways.
— Thomas Merton
Voters have soaked up a noggin full of negativity over the last twenty years, with an economy we had to bring back from collapse, plus terrorist attacks and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t want to belabor these points, but your listeners know what I’m talking about. I think the antidote is to appreciate what we have, enjoy where we live, and make a positive contribution to our communities. My Cracker Pride campaign is balanced by the spirit of Cincinnatus. He was a farmer and Roman general who was twice made dictator. And he had the forbearance to resign as dictator as soon as he had vanquished Rome’s enemies. He became a civic ideal for good leadership. That’s the spirit I want in my district and in my campaign. - Veda Rabadel, The Tea & Crackers Campaign.
— Peter Prasad
Hustling sex for cash ain’t dangerous if you learn the tricks quick, and that means puttin’ yourself in a different mindset. Always scout for an exit for when you need it. Act confident and tough and you won’t get hurt. Being scared or nervous will get you cut up and stuffed in a fuckin’ bag.
— Jon Michaelsen, Pretty Boy Dead
To speak a language that was as intimate and free as certain dreams, saying darkly, thrillingly, My cock inside of you. Your come in my mouth ... He focused on the boy’s slim, tight hips; with the tip of his tongue he tasted an asshole’s bitter, forbidden mystery.
— Paul Russell, The Coming Storm
I was drunk but not drunk enough to say what I wanted, that we don't live our lives so much as come to them, as different people and things collect mysteriously around us.
— Michael Byer
When you're writing a whodunit, the dead body is the most important character. It's the pivot point around which the plot spins.
— Adrianne Lee, You Don't Know Jack
Respect both what you need to know and what you don't need to know. Respect mystery, for mystery is still needed to run the universe.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
Life is nothing short of a phenomenon. In every sense life is mysterious and unfathomable.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
Death is really the mystery of life, isn't it?
— Nadine Gordimer, The Quotable Gordimer; or, The Wit and Wisdom of Nadine Gordimer
Lucille,” Norma Jean whispered loud enough for me to hear from my foliage hideout. She leaned over her walker and adjusted her glasses. “Is that Willis Harvey up front by Elsa?”“Well, pinch my pooch, I believe it is,” Lucille said. “I barely recognize him with his clothes on.
— Ann Charles, Dead Case in Deadwood
Violet Lynn Parker, you’d better spill or I’ll start bellowing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you in my Bobcat Goldthwait voice.
— Ann Charles, Optical Delusions in Deadwood
I’m not ‘stubborn.’”“Oh, really?”Lifting my chin, I said, “I’m determined.” (Violet to Doc)
— Ann Charles, Dead Case in Deadwood
I knew that kind of thinking was paranoid, but after the wacky crap that had happened to me over the last couple of months, these days I’d be suspicious of a jolly white-bearded man in a red suit carrying a bag over his shoulder.(Violet Parker)
— Ann Charles, Dead Case in Deadwood
She was always demanding of herself, Do I dare? Do I dare disturb the universe?
— Night Film
How love works: Proximity leads to intimacy, and intimacy leads to a relationship. In other words, people who are around each other a lot, get close, and end up hooking up. So it's no great mystery why bosses and secretaries or co-workers or classmates end up dating each other.
— Oliver Gaspirtz
Next time she’d have to ask him to keep the light on while he did it, so she could watch his face. That was the best part of the whole thing as far as she was concerned, the way a guy’s face contorted so violently and then relaxed, as if some terrible mystery had just been solved.
— Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers
I had a feeling that Harvey wore his shotgun around the house like a pair of holey underwear.
— Ann Charles, Nearly Departed in Deadwood
It's not compromise if it doesn't sting just a little bit on both sides, now is it?
— Alexi Lawless, Complicated Creatures: Part One
Gino refilled my glass. “What a night. Booze, broads, and a barroom brawl.
— Michael  Murphy, The Yankee Club
Life has its enigmatic events, that can make it a mystery, or my misery. It all depends on how I view it.
— Anthony Liccione
You are a unique and beautiful expression of the mysterious gift of life and creation.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
Alice will always be a beautiful mystery. It is one I am content not to solve.I can love her now in her lovely darkness." -Amalia Milthorpe
— Michelle Zink, Circle of Fire
Oh, I can't explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I daresay, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one's life.
— Oscar Wilde
What is aesthetically beautiful, should not be able to be understood fully: by its mysterious character it should leave behind a vaguely pleasant feeling.
— Nicola Lecca, Ritratto notturno
A puzzle is not a dead-end.
— Lewis N. Roe, From A To Theta: Taking The Tricky Subject Of Religion And Explaining Why It Makes Sense In A Way We Can All Understand
The reality and what it meant was slowly dawning: the betrayal, deception, and omission. Clandestine meetings. Evasion under questioning. In hindsight, Dana and Evan picked out the clues they’d missed, reevaluated the moments they’d been led astray, and tiptoed over possible theories as to how they’d been duped.
— V.S. Kemanis, Homicide Chart
Alas, God's poor ministers are just as much in the dark as we are. You must believe like old women believe, the ones that look like witches, who mumble to themselves in churches under the nose of cheap, plaster saints. As soon as you start to use your reason, to look for a rainbow, you always run up against the great excuse, mystery. You will be advised to light some candles, put coins in the box, say a few rosaries, and make yourself stupid.
— Gabriel Chevallier, Fear: A Novel of World War I
The waitress came by with a pot of black coffee. She was a smallish woman, about forty, still had some of her looks left, but she had a hardness to her face. Money and bad men were the only things that left that much stone in a woman. I nudged my cup in her direction, and she served her purpose in life.
— L. Joseph Shosty, Herbie's Diner
Life is more than we get and possess. It is a mystery!
— Dr. Vivencio Ballano
Mom, you know what? I just realized you have a knack for making people disappear. [Lella's son catches on!]
— Maria Grazia Swan, Death Under the Venice Moon
Lella York, the self-proclaimed queen of passive-aggressive behavior. [Lella's perceptive view of herself]
— Maria Grazia Swan, Death Under the Venice Moon
Your mother is holding your hand too tightly. You whimper and cling to her dress, because you know what will happen next. She stares at you, as if she's forgotten how to blink. There's one last glimpse of her face before she bundles you into the cupboard under the stairs. 'Don't make a sound,' she hisses, 'don't even breathe.' Darkness smothers you as the key twists in the lock. There's a chance that he won't find you, cowering on the floor, between the broom and floor mops, a stack of wellington boots.
— Kate Rhodes, Crossbones Yard
he night beyond the window was still, mordant white snow, punctuated only by the eerie dark of the trees, gumshoeing their way along the edge of the path outside. Their skeletal fingers clawed up at the stars, held down by an insidious, weightless lacing of snowflakes. I gazed idly at the moon and wondered if it truly had the power to sway the will of men.
— Hazel Butler, Chasing Azrael
The night beyond the window was still, mordant white snow, punctuated only by the eerie dark of the trees, gumshoeing their way along the edge of the path outside. Their skeletal fingers clawed up at the stars, held down by an insidious, weightless lacing of snowflakes. I gazed idly at the moon and wondered if it truly had the power to sway the will of men.
— Hazel Butler, Chasing Azrael
Perhaps real wisdom lies in not seeking answers at all. Any answer we find will not be true for long. An answer is a place where we can fall asleep as life moves past us to its next question. After all these years I have begun to wonder if the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.
— Rachel Naomi Remen, My Grandfather's Blessings : Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging
She wouldn't have died if I hadn't taught her how to fall.
— Jane Casey, How to Fall
And when the veil lifts, we can see the world as it really is, just for those few seconds before it settles down again. We see all the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love.
— Rebecca Stead, When You Reach Me
Disembodied spirits,” said his partner, “are not known to use telephones. Neither are spooks, phantoms, or werewolves.” “That was in the old days. Why shouldn’t they change with the times and be modern, too?
— Robert Arthur, The Secret of Terror Castle
She killed to get the dream she wanted, then found out it didn't want her back.
— Robyn Hugo McIntyre, Vampire's Dilemma
There are considerable mysteries surrounding the strange values that Nature's actual particles have for their mass and charge. For example, there is the unexplained 'fine structure constant' ... governing the strength of electromagnetic interactions, ....
— Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
I closed the door and sank into my desk chair. My heart was pounding even harder. I felt like someone who had just staggered out of her car after an accident on a freeway. This was different from the cockroach and the books and the Barbie. I’d been injured. Someone had tried to physically harm me.
— Kate White, Eyes on You
It all began with a bucket of eggs.
— H.L.  Stephens, The Case of Jack the Nipper
The name Mary Jo Quinn was written neatly in faded blue marker on the front of the scrapbook, its gray edges frayed with age and wear, as though it had been handled often. Such a memento was a strange thing to find in a used bookstore, especially when one considered its contents. I’d discovered the handmade tome buried on the bottom shelf on the back wall of a little musty-smelling shop in the tiny resort town of Copper Harbor. This picturesque community is the gateway to Isle Royale National Park, an island in the western quarter of Lake Superior that beckoned to hikers, kayakers and canoers. Copper Harbor is the northern-most bastion of civilization in Michigan on a crooked finger of land called the Keweenaw Peninsula. Its remote, pristine shoreline provided an excellent respite from a hellacious year for my best friend from high school and me on a late September weekend.
— Nancy Barr, Page One: Vanished
I knew your plan before you made it,” Eldora proclaimed, tossing her Wert from hand to hand… “You are somewhat of a mystery, one of Shakespeare’s cryptic sonnets, I reckon, but some lines are rather…obvious. You would be a terrible king.
— Mary-Jean Harris, Aizai the Forgotten
Well, be careful,” she said, her words deliberate. She quickly twisted her head, as if making certain no one was behind her. When she turned back around, her green eyes were hard and filled with hate. “Because wouldn’t it be terrible if you slipped and hurt yourself?
— Kate White, Eyes on You
Every man will tell you little boys should not play with dolls but ask any mother and they will tell you, every little boy has gone to sleep cuddled into one at one time in there life.
— Peter  Fryer, The Demon Inside: Lost Souls
She had her sonar continually set for excuses to entertain, to bring together influential and powerful people in a mix that hummed, sizzled, throbbed, and sometimes burst into flames. But I was delighted to be her excuse tonight.
— Kate White, Eyes on You
I studied his face, and as I did, I realized that he was studying me, our thoughts tangling in mid-air for a moment.
— Kate White, Eyes on You
At night in the town's countryside, you could just about feel and hear everything, but without using lamps, it was impossible to see anything other than shadows
— Peter  Fryer, The Demon Inside: Lost Souls
A demon, who serves to a warlock, begins tormenting his master, if he has not enough work. Talent is the demon.
— Lara Biyuts, Through The Baltic Looking-Glass
Mitch Montgomery had been dead for nearly nine months.Those well-meaning souls who’d offered advice after my fiancé’s murder had said that, in time, I would move on with my life. Right now, all I could fathom for my future was joining him.
— Nancy Barr, Page One: Whiteout
Simon's brain tried to comprehend the situation. 'Was an international supermodel really holding Doc Gutson, leader of the infamous Bloodworth Gang, captive?
— Clare Havens, Doc Gutson's Revenge
Ah ha!" the Doc screeched suddenly, wheeling around. "The salicylic acid! Maybe it SHOULD have been heated first!
— Clare Havens, The Secret Formula
Jackson couldn't bear to see Allie like this. He pulled her to him and, dropping his mouth to hers, kissed her. She leaned into him, letting him draw her even closer as the kiss deepened. Fireworks lit the night, booming in a blaze of glittering light before going dark again. Desire ignited his blood. He wanted Allie like he'd never wanted anyone or anything before.
— B.J. Daniels, Wedding at Cardwell Ranch
To find the books end,cross the ancient wood to the mystic isle.Until then, prepare yourselffor the coming battle. . .AND TRUST NO ONE.
— Michelle Zink, Prophecy of the Sisters
Just making the cement now, only takes five minutes.""I did it in four once," Pauly whispered boastfully to Johnny, "but if I'm honest, I was never completely happy that it set properly.""Who was it for?""Big Joe the Hammer.""Oh, yeah," Johnny nodded. "Didn't I hear he was spotted in Vegas a few weeks back?"Pauly nodded morosely."Yeah, like I said, I didn't think it had set properly.
— Clare Havens, The Secret Formula
Actually, I was beginning to think that even I should be able to solve .153847 mysteries. It was the 38 part, I suspected, that would be the problem.
— Lauren Baratz-Logsted, How Nancy Drew Saved My Life
Here,there,every where
— mary dohning hahn
New mysteries. New day. Fresh doughnuts.
— David Lynch
Paoletta turned to him with a dark face. Chase had never seen her look so foreboding.“You’d better watch out, Chase. He’s passed over to the evil side.
— Stefania Mattana, Cutting Right to the Chase Vol.2,
I'm interested. It's like you've got all these weird barriers set up, like you only want me to have access to this tiny part of you…
— Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park
Mr Benz, the parapet of an Italian bridge doesn’t look like the proper place for you,” said Chase.
— Stefania Mattana, Cutting Right to the Chase Vol.2,
But then again, impossible never became rumour, did it?
— Todd Strasser, Wish You Were Dead
The mysterious is always attractive. People will always follow a vail.
— Bede Jarrett
The most amazing mechanism in the known universe is the human brain; it takes in information all the time then uses it, all of which is happening, of course, without human knowledge. Typical…
— Amanda Dubin, Assassins Wall
The biggest question, transcending physics and the realm of how he was able to do the extraordinary things he did, remained firmly rooted in the realm of metaphysics and begged an answer to why he could do these things.
— Sol Luckman, Snooze: A Story of Awakening
Uncouth thoughts can come take possession of the sweetest mind. That happens to you, you got to keep yourself alone a long time to heal of it. Mostly so you don’t pass it on. Thoughts, you see, or things, or folks that touch, go right on rubbing on each other, long after the actual touching is done and gone. That’s the Law Of Contagion.”-- Banjo Bartell
— Penelope Kahler Swan, Sunny Kincaid
A mystery." He smiled, his teeth a white gleam in the shadowed face. "I like mysteries.""Don't you have enough to do without going looking for trouble?""I especially like mysteries that involve trouble.
— M.J. Scott, Fire Kin
Don’t you believe any man who makes you feel like you were just a one-time thing.” His arms tighten around me and his words tickle my ear, “You could never be any man’s forgettable moment.” He holds me away from him and I feel ridiculously like I could melt in the dark pools of his eyes. “You are a force to be remembered, Dacie Mae.
— Gwenn Wright, Midnight Under the Magnolia: Episode One
On a Wednesday morning in mid-June, Eli Sharpe was sitting at his desk treating jetlag with strong coffee when he heard a knock on his apartment door. After a second, more insistent knock, he added a dash of George Dickel to his Folgers and hid the pint in a desk drawer. “It’s open,” he said loudly and stood up to receive his visitor. In walked a tall blonde, her high heels stabbing the scuffed- up hardwoods, her perfume battling the smell of coffee and dust permeating Eli’s six-hundred square foot studio apartment that doubled as a working office. Her perfume won the battle: Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. Same scent his third fiancée used to wear.
— Max Everhart, Go Go Gato
People only value things in their life when it is taken away from them.
— Bushra Satkhed
And when the sun sets...then the night magic spreads out above your head; worlds and universes a-borning and a-dying—stars and planets and galaxies. And the bigger the telescope they can make, and the farther into the beyond they are able to penetrate, the greater grows the mystery.
— Paul Gallico, The Man Who Was Magic
And you were always nothing but slime, Henry Wallace. Fancy trash
— Gwenn Wright, Midnight Under the Magnolia: Episode One
So, we eat again. Well, perhaps the relationship wouldn’t go anywhere, but I would certainly put on a few pounds.
— Max  Gordon
The beauty is in the mystery, don't you agree?- Hayden
— Natalie Baker
There are high places that don’t invite us, sharp shapes, glacier-scraped faces, whole ranges whose given names slip off. Any such relation as we try to make refuses to take…I’m giddy with thinking where thinking can’t stick.No Names
— Kay Ryan, The Niagara River
I want you, too, Hayes Cardwell, and that isn't the beer talking."They were so close she could see the shine of his dark eyes in the starlight. Without another word, he swept her up in his arms and carried her into the cabin.
— B.J. Daniels, Rescue At Cardwell Ranch
I know what you're up to.""I doubt that." Hayes leaned toward her, his hand looping around the back of McKenzie's neck as he gently drew her to him. "Because if you could see what I was up to, then you'd know I was about to kiss you.
— B.J. Daniels, Rescue At Cardwell Ranch
You don't have to treat me as if I'm made out of glass and might break," she said. "I'm a lot stronger than I look.""Is that right?" He looped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him right there in the street between their vehicles. Her full lips parted in surprise. Her sweet, warm breath commingled with his own. She let out a soft moan as he tasted her. Drawing her even closer, he deepened the kiss, demanding more.
— B.J. Daniels, Rescue At Cardwell Ranch
No one wants to take the risk.They just have to...
— Bushra Satkhed
Once she had thought that she might discover some key to her mother if only she could get her likeness right, but she has since learned that the mysteries of another person only deepen, the longer one looks.
— Debra Dean
And I suppose you know who Magnus’ father is?” Luke said.“I paid a lot of money once to find it out,” Raphael said.
— Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire
There was a brown substance inside and Chase had no doubt: it was heroin. Only a tiny amount, but very pure." - Cutting Right to the Chase Vol.2
— Stefania Mattana
Have you ever been in jail, mate? Whatever you did in your life, nothing can be compared to a single day in jail.
— Stefania Mattana, Cutting Right to the Chase Vol.2,
Paoletta turned to him with a dark face.“You’d better watch out, Chase. He’s passed over to the evil side.
— Stefania Mattana, Cutting Right to the Chase Vol.2,
The wheel turns for all, caro Chase. It’s the karma effect,” Giulia cried, aping Ilenia. She could have never imagined that her words would become prophetic so soon.
— Stefania Mattana, Cutting Right to the Chase Vol.2,
from Pearls and Poison… “In two minutes the cops are going to come barreling though that door,” I whispered to Auntie KiKi hoping to get her mind off the body in the back room. “Any suggestions how we tell these workers out here their candidate just croaked?” “Yell The jackass bit the big one, hip-hip hooray Gloria wins, then run like the dickens before someone recognizes us.
— Duffy Brown, Pearls and Poison
It was Chase who had obtained the information from the girl’s boyfriend during a party in an Irish pub, simply by using his British friendliness and charm.
— Stefania Mattana, Cutting Right to the Chase
One thing, however, did become clear to him—why so many perfect works of art did not please him at all, why they were almost hateful and boring to him, in spite of a certain undeniable beauty. Workshops, churches, and palaces were full of these fatal works of art; he had even helped with a few himself. They were deeply disappointing because they aroused the desire for the highest and did not fulfill it. They lacked the most essential thing—mystery. That was what dreams and truly great works of art had in common: mystery.
— Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund
Always listen to your heart and listen to your gut. Neither of them will ever lie to you.
— Michael Houbrick, inTWINition of murder
The problem with the so-called bloody surveillance state is that it’s hard work trying to track someone’s movements using CCTV – especially if they’re on foot. Part of the problem is that the cameras all belong to different people for different reasons. Westminster Council has a network for traffic violations, the Oxford Street Trading Association has a huge network aimed at shop-lifters and pickpockets, individual shops have their own systems, as do pubs, clubs and buses. When you walk around London it is important to remember that Big Brother may be watching you, or he could be having a piss, or reading the paper or helping redirect traffic around a car accident or maybe he’s just forgotten to turn the bloody thing on.
— Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes
February is the cruelest month in western Oregon.
— Judy Nedry, The Difficult Sister
She never imagined that at twenty years old she'd already be a widow in black. On the bright side, she was no longer married to Dario, but her future still looked grim.
— Elizabeth McKenna, Venice in the Moonlight
At the witching hour, the city was totally silent. Only the wind of portent blew through the gathered council of whispering brick chimneys on the rooftops, delivering the hand that would write upon the wall.
— Wyatt Michael, Revenge of the Wolf
I am incognito
—  running away from scenes of the tested truths that I have so meticulously exacted before I am found guilty of the very things I have written.
The most serious drawback to the telling-nothing approach is that it made that much more of a mystery of what had happened, and the nature of gossip abhors a vacuum of the unexplained.
— Robin McKinley, Sunshine
When you see me in a scarf you may think “Oh, she went to some trouble there.” But no, when I wear a scarf it means” this grey blouse was unwrinkled and those mocha pants make my behind look fine and voila I have a vivid grey,brown and white silk scarf which means I have transformed self from bone lazy to coordinated accessory maven.--Bridget Allison (Gretchen Gallen in my book#3, "Maid in Waiting" publish date June 2014)
— Bridget Allison, Maid in the Shade
Idrith didn’t want to go back to his cold lonely room, with all its unanswered questions. He took the glass and sat down.
— Michelle Frost, First Light
When you see me in a scarf you may think “Oh, she went to some trouble there.” But no, when I wear a scarf it means "this grey blouse was unwrinkled and those mocha pants make my behind look fine and voila I have a vivid grey and brown silk scarf which means I have transformed self from bone lazy to coordinated accessory maven.(Maid in Waiting publish date June 2014)
— Bridget Allison, Maid in the Shade
The arms, legs, and torso with head were dragged away in sections as the children were captivated by the drama, zealously chewing their candies with sticky teeth.
— Wyatt Michael, Revenge of the Wolf
Awoke to find three vultures sitting on the fence. Realizing they were a portent of impending death I shot them.
— Bridget Allison, Maid for Mayhem
Finally, the water level topped off, leaving him with no more air to breathe. He drew his last breath and slipped down deep into the darkness that claimed his soul.
— Wyatt Michael, Revenge of the Wolf
He threw himself to his knees at the stone and tore his damning testimony from the pages of its testament. He held the only evidence of his identity in his hand and in one motion of forfeit and justice he cast it into the fire.
— Wyatt Michael, Revenge of the Wolf
Knowledge is so comforting, but so is mystery.
— Deb Caletti, The Last Forever
I think it's better to not know certain things. It gives the world an extra bit of mystery, which is important to us as human beings.
— B.J. Novak, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
All forests are one... They are all echoes of the first forest that gave birth to Mystery when the world began.
— Charles de Lint, Spiritwalk
A mask you ask? Optional I find!Masks lend appeal of a mysterious kind.
— E.A. Bucchianeri, Phantom Phantasia: Poetry for the Phantom of the Opera Phan
It was a two-gallon Styrofoam cooler - one of the cheap ones that you can pick up at any service station in the summer season and then listen to it squeak to the point of homicidal dementia.
— Craig Johnson
The first rule of marriage: solve the mystery, end the love.
— Matt Haig, The Humans
I always liked the unknown. Ironically I familiarized myself with the uncertainty of life. Life can change in any minute of the day. God can turn anything around in a speck of a moment. I know for a fact that everything changes. Nothing stays the same. This too shall pass.
— Diana Rose Morcilla
What if I don't believe in magic, Finn?That's stupid, how can you not believe in magic, Coop? It's everywhere.
— J.R. Richardson, Cursed be the Wicked
When men were ready to marry, look out. Their evolution busted out all over. They nabbed the closest female hanging out near their caves, anyone who looked like she would clean his woolly mammoth tunics down by the creek, keep his fires burning, bear his children, and tote his brood around on a fur-clad hip.
— Gale Martin
We lie to protect our children, and in lying we expose them to the greatest of harms
— John Connolly, Nocturnes
You did say something I found offensive yesterday.What was that?I believe the word you used was friends.
— J.R. Richardson, Cursed be the Wicked
I smile, she blushes.I smirk, she slaps me on the arm, softly.I breathe, because it's easy around her.
— J.R. Richardson, Cursed be the Wicked
What does myself now say to me?"Open the door of Mystery.
— May Sarton, Selected Poems
I am a kind of joke, but the question is: which kind? My job is to keep everyone guessing.
— Gary Shteyngart, Little Failure
I pointed, still unable to utter a word. Tim looked down at the spectacle behind the shed, his face swiftly draining of color. He gripped my arm with a clammy hand. And then he did something I'd been waiting half my life to see: he dropped into a dead swoon at my feet.
— Rosie Genova, Murder and Marinara
Love is always the right decision.
— J.R. Richardson, Cursed be the Wicked
What did he say? He is in love? My brain stops, my heart stops, my blood ceases to flow. My appendages go weak and cold, and there is a suspension of all space and time as the universe comes into perfect alignment.
— Julie Sarff, Sweet Delicious Madness and the Many Mysterious Deaths of Silvio Berlusconi
When men were ready to marry, look out. Their evolution busted out all over. They nabbed the closest female hanging out near their caves, anyone who looked like she would clean his wooly mammoth tunics down by the creek, keep his fires burning, bear his children, and tote his brood around on a fur-clad hip.--Ellie Overton
— Gale Martin, Who Killed 'Tom Jones'?
There are more hidden spaces in a city, more hidden lives and hidden emptinesses, and more darkened windows where shadow people pass fleetingly in and out of sight.
— Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader
Do you know the story?No, Finn, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me.
— J.R. Richardson, Cursed be the Wicked
You don't smile enough, Coop.I smile, I tell her defensively. She puts a hand on my shoulder and squares off with me.But not like you mean it.
— J.R. Richardson, Cursed be the Wicked
Stop being a mystery, discover yourself!
— Stephen Richards
Drama does not just walk into our lives. Either we create it, invite it, or associate with it.
— Brandi L. Bates, Remains To Be Seen
You can make a text mean anything, especially if it’s old and full of ambiguities.
— Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Club Dumas
Maybe this is what it feels like for civilians when they see cops doing some of the dirty work. A lot of times they don’t understand what’s happening. They see something they don’t like and it upsets them—because they don’t have the full story, aren’t personally facing the problem, and don’t know how much worse the alternative could be.
— Jim Butcher, Proven Guilty
Don't wanna ever take your shoes off in coconut land. Never know when you're gonna have to run.
— Dianne Harman, Coyote in Provence
Ah,steeds,steeds,what is steeds! Has the whirlwind a home in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear, alert as a flame, in your every fiber? Hearing the familiar song from above, all in one accord you strain your bronze chests and, hooves barely touching the ground, turn into straight lines cleaving the air, and all inspired by God it rushes on!
— Nikolai Gogol
Do you think the Goblin King really did it?" asked Cordelia hesitantly. All the sheep knew she was talking about George's death. Mopple quickly pulled up a tuft of grass."Or Satan?" added Lane."Nonsense," Rameses snorted nervously. "Satan would never do a thing like that."several of the sheep bleated in agreement. None of them thought Satan capable of such an act. Satan was an elderly donkey who sometimes grazed in the meadow next to theirs, and uttered blood-curdling cries. his voice was truly dreadful, but otherwise he'd always struck them as harmless.
— Leonie Swann, Three Bags Full
When my son speaks of playing sports, I've always told him: playing on the team is great, but aspire to be the guy who owns the team. I've always told my son: most of the guys on the team will end up bankrupt with bum knees, but not the guy who owns that franchise.
— Brandi L. Bates
It was the freedom to experiment that made this experiment called Freedom possible.
— Justin Sirois, So Say the Waiters book 1
If I’m going down, I’m going down with lipstick on.
— Beth Yarnall, Wake Up Maggie
Adventure is my middle name.
— Scott Conrad, Track Down Africa
You're the love of my life, and the bane of my existence." Sera stopped midstride and wrinkled her brow."What's bane?" Jack opened his mouth. Mary Jane cut him off. "It's a piece of candy," she said. "Yeah,” said Jack, “a little sour and tough to swallow.
— Randall Kenneth Drake, Saving The Innocents
What was that for?”“Fingerprints. I’m not wastin’ time explainin’ to cops why six inches of steel went into a dumbass.
— Randall Kenneth Drake, Saving The Innocents
She took the bottom of her shirt and wiped the handles of the blades. He made a face.“What was that for?”“Fingerprints. I’m not wastin’ time explainin’ to cops why six inches of steel went into a dumbass.
— Randall Kenneth Drake
At that exact moment, 6-0-0, the sun climbed over the skyline of oaks, revealing its full summer angry-god self. Its reﬂection ﬂared across the river toward our house, a long, blaring ﬁnger aimed at me through our frail bedroom curtains. Accusing: You have been seen. You will be seen.
— Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
So many doors around here, I'm surprised your name isn't Monty Hall.
— Randall Kenneth Drake, Saving The Innocents
I spent most summers in Italy as a child either in Tuscany or at the Amalfi coast.
— Celia Conrad, Murder in Hand
Across the rectory's east lawn, through a blizzard of flying leaves, something long and thin was flapping in the wind. A ragged figure in a white nightgown hanging lifelessly from the trees.
— Cash Peters, Horror at Horsfield Lodge
I need a God who is bigger and more nimble and mysterious than what I could understand and contrive. Otherwise it can feel like I am worshipping nothing more than my own ability to understand the divine.
— Nadia Bolz-Weber, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint
And the supreme mystery was simply this: here was one room; there another. Did religion solve that, or love?
— Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Her hair was pulled back so severely, it would have won approval from the Spanish Inquisition as a method of torture.
— Will Thomas, Some Danger Involved
I believe in the goddess of mystery. And she’s always pregnant!
— Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies
After a duration of a thousand years, the power of astrology broke down when, with Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, the progress of astronomy overthrew the false hypothesis upon which the entire structure rested, namely the geocentric system of the universe. The fact that the earth revolves in space intervened to upset the complicated play of planetary influences, and the silent stars, related to the unfathomable depths of the sky, no longer made their prophetic voices audible to mankind. Celestial mechanics and spectrum analysis finally robbed them of their mysterious prestige.
— Franz Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans
The world is only as small as your mind makes it.
— Katie St. Claire, Second Hand Stops
Though everyone in the bar knew who he was, no one asked him about the death, though one old man did rustle his newspaper suggestively.
— Donna Leon, Death at La Fenice
There are no secrets, there is no mystery. We make that all up. In fact, it's all right there in front of us. You have to have enough food to get through winter and spring. That's what it all comes down to. You have to live in a way that will gather enough food each fall to get through winter.
— Kim Stanley Robinson, Shaman
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true science. He who knows it not, and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead. We all had this priceless talent when we were young. But as time goes by, many of us lose it. The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement. It is the essence of his being.
— Hans Selye
It is in our nature to enjoy atrocity so long as it continues to shock and remains comfortably removed from our own lives.
— Paula Marantz Cohen, What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James & Jack the Ripper
That's how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you're invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. A writing desk lies open and you cannot help but read a paper. Then you find something, something you should not have found...
— Martine Bailey, An Appetite for Violets
Emotional speculation is to deductive reasoning what weeds are to a garden – at first sight they appear to belong, but eventually they obscure that which one hopes will come into bud.
— Lord Patterson Coats
There must always be a secret to be unwrapped at Christmas—that’s the rule
— John Geddes
Until all the files are released, former officials and CIA personnel will continue to say or imply that Fidel killed JFK, thus perpetuating the fifty-plus-year Cold War with Cuba
— Lamar Waldron, The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination: the definitive account of the most controversial crime of the twentieth century
Never ask questions you don't want the answer to.
— Pantea Konn
The man breathed deeply with his eyes shut and his speech trailed off. Nick approached the patient with the syringe in hand, nodding. He turned the machine up now, almost all the way, and then proceeded with the injection."I think you're about ready.
— Jackie Sonnenberg, All That Glitters
He sidestepped down the alley and into another one connected to a small garage, where a raccoon with matching black eyes just like his own halted in mid-step next to a trash can.They stared at each other, not moving or making a sound.'There there, friend. I am not here to interrupt your nightly activity just as you are not here to interrupt mine.'They continued their separate ways, who would be caught and who would not remained a mystery.
— Jackie Sonnenberg, All That Glitters
Blessed are those who encounter a mystery in their lives because they obtain a big opportunity to live the great joy of solving puzzles!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
I started out a human being. But pretty much had all the humanity wrung out of me after passing the Bar and practicing law for ten years. Not sure what I am now.
— Jeffrey Rasley, False Prophet: A Legal Thriller
Then take it as it is. It’s a gift. How or why is irrelevant, but if we don’t enjoy it, we are ungrateful,” he said and brought his face very close to mine. His eyes seemed to sparkle in the moonlight, mesmerizing me.
— Rubianne Wood, Life In Paradise
How do you solve a case without a face?
— Winston J Knowlton
Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence—love of truth displaying itself in the constant endeavor to arrive at a more exact knowledge of the world of mind and matter around us, and reverence, because every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the mystery of our own being.
— Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
If I learned anything about her it was that she lived with a vehemence most of us never have the courage for." Banks tells me. "But there was something about her that precluded an ordinary existence. In some ways, I'm not surprised she's dead. A job, husband, kids, a beach house? That wasn't her. I can't explain why, except she was more like a force that whipped through life, defying logic, scaring you, even hurting you because she was everything you wanted to be, but you knew you'd never have the guts - and then she was gone. That was my experience with Ashley Cordova.
— Marisha Pessl, Night Film
They had just digested a recent meal of prepositions and were happily farting out apostrophes and ampersands
—  the air was heav'y with th'em&.
If you want the best evidence of just how strong our democracy is, come into the courtroom.
— Michael Ponsor, The Hanging Judge
Under the mystichood ofNameless Bride, we grope in Her Sacred Darkness for plasmatic encounter, the fifth ionized state of matter. Our mundane sight of differentation and separation recedes into the magickal Abyss of Blackness where all is touch. We feel each other as tactile presences whose extended dimension stretches to the stars only to coalesce beyond galactic expanses in the white and worm-holes of Her ever spiraling Gown of Worlds beyond Worlds. Let us feel Her concrescence as we stroke each unique form in the unfathomable dimensions of Her perfect formfulness - ever-changing, ever-new, ever-variable in the rainbow myriads of infinite spasms of delight.
— Lady Svetlana
It may be appropriate to quote a statement of Poincare, who said (partly in jest no doubt) that there must be something mysterious about the normal law since mathematicians think it is a law of nature whereas physicists are convinced that it is a mathematical theorem.
— Mark Kac, Statistical Independence in Probability Analysis and Number Theory
Apparently, we're all in the frame," I heard Harry murmur somewhere behind me. And I whirled back to him. Innate, irrational anger surged. Then stopped, dead - as I suddenly took in Handsome, Robert and Doc. They were all staring at me. They were concentrating, all resolute, all a tad furrow-browed… upon my face.Self-consciousness burgeoned. I gingerly fingered my and lips and my chin,"Am I drooling?""Your arse is hanging out," said Harry, not looking up from the forensics he was scanning.And so it was.Handsome, Robert and Doc averted their eyes as I, wishing I'd merely been dribbling, grabbed the back flaps of my breezy hospital gown, fully placed my back against the wall. Then, thinking better of it, dived hurriedly, carefully, back into bed.If Chinese Lady'd been here, she could've, would've, told me.I missed her already.
— Morana Blue, Gatsby's Smile
...her gaze settling on Bush International Airport. What is it with politicians anyway, always rushing to put their name on everything? She couldn't think of a single politician who deserved his name on a sewage treatment facility, much less an airport where everyone had to look at it all the time.
— D.B. Reynolds, Jabril
SWAT? For me?" Still trembling, one hand clung to the ambulance gurney, the other held a massive sterilised cotton wool wad under my nose."Tactical Support was busy. You got Dennis and Arlo," said Harry, speed-reading the papers he'd snatched from inside my jacket.Closest his hands had been to my chest in a long time."Which one broke my nose?""That'd be Dennis.
— Morana Blue, Gatsby's Smile
Question marks are shaped like hooks for a reason: they will hook the reader and drag them deeper into the story
— Chuck Wendig
...women have done strange things; they are a far greater puzzle to the student of human nature than the sterner, less complex sex has ever been.
— Emmuska Orczy, The Old Man in the Corner
Alarmed and bordering on terrified, Frankie reached for the closest thing she could find that might work as a weapon – which in Louise’s house was a curling iron – and tiptoed downstairs to confront the intruder - Chapter One
— Kerri Thomson, The Chocolate Is The Life
The silver car had been closing in, but just then, it took a sharp turn to the left. Where are they going? Leor wondered. But he decided to keep it to himself. The cabby nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “Alright. Well, we’re here anyways.”Leor saw the winery a few blocks down. “I thought you said it’d take ten minutes?”“You made me nervous,” Claude retorted. “I drive fast when I’m nervous.”“You should get that checked,” Leor replied. “It can’t be good for your kids. Or your wife.
— Zechariah Barrett, Trial by Firefight
Everyone has their secrets, and there are shadows following us all.
— Chrystal Vaughan
Not every secret must be solved
—  some must be left as a mystery because we cannot bear a universe without mysteries!
Jean smirked, and delicately swirled the mic in his hands, careful not to make a sound. “Oui. C’est normal. C'est pas spécial. I will give you something worthy of Holmes.” Jean set down the mic and proceeded toward the couple. As he approached them, he fiddled with his mustache for a moment, and then pulled it sharply. He winced at the sensation. “I have it,” he declared confidently. “You sir, are a thief.
— Zechariah Barrett
On the other side of that big-ass mirror, a video camera was watching us. In about ten seconds, it was going to start spitting static at itself, and everything it saw was going to break up into a fuzzy, gray-white wash, rolling up and down, that wouldn’t be admissible as evidence on Judge Judy. Those missing frames would last a little less than a quarter of a minute, consolidate themselves backinto a semblance of reality, and then I would theoretically go walking right back out of here.Between now and that moment, there stretched an infinite ocean of potentialtime. Time enough to walk around the world. Time enough to fall in love, getmarried on a white beach under purple stars, write a book of poems abouttruest passion, have a few good and bloody screaming matches, get divorced in a court of autumn elves and gypsy moths, then set the ink-stained, tear-streaked pages of your text ablaze.
— Clinton Boomer, The Hole Behind Midnight
Stupid dire warnings of imminent doom.They always put me in a bad mood.
— Clinton Boomer, The Hole Behind Midnight
Three guys and a girl were leaning against a black raised pickup ... I had to do a double take as this group was nothing like I had ever seen before.
— Meredith T. Taylor, Churning Waters
And I wasn’t playing a role – I was trying to be myself.But the harder I was striving, the more I was realizing that I had probably lost that ‘myself’ somewhere between two perfectly performed roles...
— Simona Panova, Nightmarish Sacrifice
No matterwhat he did to make Claire’s life better or show her he’d changed, these memories would always linger in the recesses of his mind. For the rest of his life, he’d know what he’d done. Tony hated himself for all of it—hell, he always had the end justifies the means argument, but even he didn’t believe that anymore. Not now. Not now that he knew Claire and loved Claire.
— Aleatha Romig, Convicted
Gray.The overcast skies had the colour of deadened stones, and seemed closer than usually, as though they were phlegmatically observing my every movement with their apathetic emptily blue-less eyes; each tiny drop of hazy rain drifting around resembled transparent molten steel, the pavement looked like it was about to burst into disconsolate tears, even the air itself was gray, so ultimate and ubiquitous that colour was everywhere around me.Gray...
— Simona Panova, Nightmarish Sacrifice