c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
A 22-caliber bullet can travel as fast as 1,022 mph. I learned that at Quantico. However, the bullet that hit him probably traveled at 818 mph. Sound travels at 761 mph. I hear the bullet after I see the shot enter his head. But in my mind it all goes so fast that it’s just a single message.
— Francis Barel, Saving Kennedy
All experienced murderers seek cover. By putting the Agency’s fingerprints on [Mafia] operations, the mob could anticipate that the CIA would [be forced to] cooperate in the cover-up of crucial information related to JFK's assassination
— Lamar Waldron, The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination: the definitive account of the most controversial crime of the twentieth century
Poirot said "you will find,M.le docteur,if you have much to do with cases of this kind,that they all resemble each other in one thing.""what is that?" I asked curiously"everyone concerned in them has something to hide
— Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Murder on the Orient Express / Ten Little Niggers / At Bertram's Hotel / Pieces
After the second world warin 1948they founded the UN,the United Nationsso that a crime like the mass-murder ofthe Jewscould never happen again.Now the UN is a flourishing organizationa honourable institution,the only thing is that it doesn't do the thing they founded it for:prevention of mass-murder.
— Ad De Bont, Mirad, A Boy From Bosnia
Here commences a new dominion acquired with a title by divine right.   Ships are sent with the first opportunity; the natives driven out or destroyed; their princes tortured to discover their gold; a free license given to all acts of inhumanity and lust, the earth reeking with the blood of its inhabitants: and this execrable crew of butchers, employed in so pious an expedition, is a modern colony, sent to convert and civilize an idolatrous and barbarous people!
— Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
Afterwards Smiley always thought of that interview as a fan dance; a calculated progression of disclosures, each revealing different parts of a mysterious entity. Finally Steed-Asprey, who seemed to be Chairman, removed the last veil, and the truth stood before him in all its dazzling nakedness. He was being offered a post in what, for want of a better name, Steed-Asprey blushingly described as the Secret Service.
— John le Carré, Call for the Dead
He runs his eye along the row of knives in their racks, the cleavers for splitting bones. He picks one up, looks at its edge, decides it needs sharpening and says, "Do you think I look like a murderer? In your good opinion?"A silence. After a while, Thurston proffers, "At this moment, master, I would have to say...
— Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
Because his killing is not a passion of the moment but a compelling urge that has been growing within him sometimes for years, he has completely amalgamated this practice into his lifestyle.
— Joel Norris, Serial Killers
...but it was just her mind playing cruel tricks, and she tried to push away the irrational thought that Richard was still in there, waiting for someone to save his life.
— Paul Pilkington, The One You Love
Mr. Lecky could see well enough to eat. He brought his chair over and sat down gratefully while he consumed, but with appetite now, the ham and biscuits which he had disdained in the morning. Even the fact that he was using to cut his ham the knife which had cut a human throat did not disturb him. He had taken care to see that the blade was wiped clean.
— James Gould Cozzens, Castaway
Do you belong to the religion that whip, stone and murder people; because they wanted to enjoy their life.
— M.F. Moonzajer
Obsessed with Christine to the end, his last statement as he left his cell was, 'to kill is the final possession'. But Muldowney was wrong. He had never possessed Christine; the resistance burning within her was too great.
— Clare Mulley, The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville
I turn off my cell phone and reluctantly slide it down my pocket. My hands are shaking. A large knife appears in his hand.”William Wilson in the short story 'Metro' by Steen Langstrup
— Steen Langstrup, Metro
Do you really think I’ve been murdered?” Michael’s voice was soft, but I still heard it from across the bedroom. He stood in the doorway with a rather solemn expression. Words failed me. Would he really want to hear the answer? If it were me, would I want to know if someone killed me? Maybe. I took a deep breath. “I’ll be honest with you. It doesn’t look good. The fact that no one knows you’re dead yet makes me worry that your death might have been intentional.”I stepped closer to him, staring all the way up into his face. “But if you want the truth, I don’t think the reason you died was your fault. You’re a pain in the ass, but you’re a good guy. I’m sorry this happened to you.”He gazed at me for a handful of seconds before nodding and his hair slid forward into his eyes. For some reason, it was the first time Michael seemed human. He was always so amiable and confident that seeing him be vulnerable felt odd. “Thank you.”“Come on. Let’s go find some answers.
— Kyoko M., The Black Parade
Mr. Lecky had proceeded quickly for several moments before he drew up, shocked. A few more steps and he might have stumbled on his idiot, for the stairs he had been approaching were the front stairs to the silverware department, which he wished to avoid. Shaken by this unpleasant mistake, he re-directed himself, turning back down the center of the dark floor. Certainly he did not want to see the corpse; the corpse could not very well want to see him.
— James Gould Cozzens, Castaway
California has legislatively barred alimony payments to a dependent spouse who has attempted to murder the supporting spouse. Cal. Fam. Code § 4324.
— D. Kelly Weisberg, Modern Family Law: Cases and Materials
I've been known to be contrary. When something pushes me, I shove back. Even if the one doing the pushing is me. It would have been easy to gut him then and there. Satisfying. But the need was too urgent. I felt pushed.
— Mark  Lawrence, Prince of Thorns
A murderer is a killer without a uniform.
— Mokokoma Mokhonoana
I could think of no better place to secretly murder someone than inside a fridge. Well, actually there were probably several better ones, but none came to mind at the time.
— Yahtzee Croshaw, Jam
This murdered girl troubles me. After the first shock, nobody at school says much about her. Even Cordelia does not want to talk about her. It’s as if this girl has done something shameful, herself, by being murdered.
— Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
I killed little Esmerelda because I felt I owed it to myself and to the world in general. I had, after all, accounted for two male children and thus done womankind something of a statistical favour. If I really had the courage of my convictions, I reasoned, I ought to redress the balance at least slightly. My cousin was simply the easiest and most obvious target.
— Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory
The woman had gasped beneath his heavy body. He rubbed against her, lubricated by the warm, sticky liquid, but as her body gradually grew cold, he felt as though they'd been glued together. She seemed to be see-sawing between agony and ecstasy, but finally Satake pressed his lips over hers to quiet the groans-of pain or pleasure-that were leaking from her mouth. He found the hole that he had made in her side and worked his finger deep into the opening. Blood was pumping from the wound, staining their sex a gruesome crimson. He wanted to get further inside, to melt into her. As he was about to come, he pulled his lips from her and she whispered in his ear: "I'm finished . . . finished." "I know," he'd said, and he could still hear the exact sound of his own voice.
— Natsuo Kirino, Out
The attendance of that brother was now become like the attendance of a demon on some devoted being that had sold himself to destruction
— James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
But it was just luck really if the girls survived. You're like a man firing a machine gun into a supermarket who happens not to become a murderer.
— Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea
As for the sanctimony of people who seem blind to the fact that mass murder is still an annual event, look at Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Tibet, Burma and elsewhere-the truer shout is not "Never again" but "Again and again.
— Paul Theroux, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
It should make you shake and sweat,nightmare you, strand you in the desertof irrevocable desolation, the consequencesseared into the vein, no matter what adrenalinefeeds the muscle its courage, no matterwhat god shines down on you, no matterwhat crackling pain and angeryou carry in your fists, my friend,it should break your heart to kill.
— Brian Turner
Working simultaneously, though seemingly without a conscience, was Dr. Ewen Cameron, whose base was a laboratory in Canada's McGill University, in Montreal. Since his death in 1967, the history of his work for both himself and the CIA has become known. He was interested in 'terminal' experiments and regularly received relatively small stipends (never more than $20,000) from the American CIA order to conduct his work. He explored electroshock in ways that offered such high risk of permanent brain damage that other researchers would not try them. He immersed subjects in sensory deprivation tanks for weeks at a time, though often claiming that they were immersed for only a matter of hours. He seemed to fancy himself a pure scientist, a man who would do anything to learn the outcome. The fact that some people died as a result of his research, while others went insane and still others, including the wife of a member of Canada's Parliament, had psychological problems for many years afterwards, was not a concern to the doctor or those who employed him. What mattered was that by the time Cheryl and Lynn Hersha were placed in the programme, the intelligence community had learned how to use electroshock techniques to control the mind. And so, like her sister, Lynn was strapped to a chair and wired for electric shock. The experience was different for Lynn, though the sexual component remained present to lesser degree...
— Cheryl Hersha, Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Brainwashed To Kill For Their Country
With other women he had not been able to touch their flesh without experiencing the desire to devour it, as though ravenous with an abominable hunger to butcher them. But this one, could he then love her, and not kill her?
— Émile Zola, La Bête humaine
Ah. And then you kill him.""No," Arkwright replied patiently. "We are British. We avoid murder if we can help it.{...}
— Rick Yancey, The Isle of Blood
As if one killed by calculation! A person kills only from an impulse that springs from his blood and sinews, from the vestiges of ancient struggles, from the need to live and the joy of being strong.
— Émile Zola, La Bête humaine
I switched the light out again. The room was totally dark, not even the starlight showing while my eyes adjusted. Perhaps I would ask for one of those LED alarm radios, though I’m very fond of my old brass alarm clock. Once I tied a wasp tot the striking-surface of each of the copper-coloured bells on top, where the little hammer would hit them in the morning when the alarm went off. I always wake up before the alarm goes, so I got to watch.
— Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory
In his imagination, he grabbed his dad by the throat and squeezed until an old mans face turned purple. No pleading, no begging, simply... nothing.
— Stephen   Craig, Cream Of Volition
Sometimes I feel that the wars in my country ended so early, we are still thirsty of bloodshed, murder and killing. We lost too many but not enough, the transformation from barbarian society to a human didn’t complete yet.
— M.F. Moonzajer
But Anja. I hear Anja's voice. Maybe I am insane. I hear her crying. I see her alone in the trees. I remember being alone and humiliated. I remember, too, the fat little boy hiding in the bathroom. And I see this man, Ariane. I see this evil man, Ariane. He laughs everyday still. He has had years of laughter. He has triumphed over the screams of others, he has triumphed with blood on his hands. And he laughs still. God has cursed us! He has either cursed us or He was never here to begin with. We've pretended God was here for our own sanity! That's the truth! We've pretended evil is punished and good is rewarded. A perfect scheme!
— Sergio Troncoso, The Nature of Truth
You see, in their last moments people show you who they really are.
— The Joker Heath Ledger
He was deciding whether to cut her throat or love her forever.
— Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
I'll stop eating steak when you stop killing spiders." Absurdity: comparing cows to spiders. Arachnids are pure evil. They're like a cigarette manufacturer or a terrorist. They're organized religion on eight legs.
— Davey Havok, Pop Kids
There was no black or white. Someone who had been good her entire life could, in fact, do something evil. People were just as capable of committing murder, under the right circumstances, as any monster.
— Jodi Picoult, The Storyteller
They needed a reason why a little kid would commit murder, someone or something to point the finger at, and I think they were relieved when they hit upon horror movies as the culprit. But there's no reason a child commits murder, just as there's no reason a child gets lost. What would it be - because his parents weren't watching him? That's not a reason, it's just a step in the process.
— Ryū Murakami, In the Miso Soup
Property damage is so much easier to live with than murder.
— Peter Watts, Blindsight
Vomit began to spill out of me like pea soup, splattering the road with champagne and caviar, long island iced teas, of bacon appetizers and croissants, and a perfectly grilled filet mignonette. It had gone down easy, among the kiss ups of the lawyer world, but spewed out nastily and hard, in the company of a cheater.
— Keira D. Skye, Dead Lullabyes in the Lake
She had golden blazing sun kissed hair, which hung down in loose, lazy spirals, a heart shaped pouted mouth, which was pink tinged with violet blushing, wide, spangled blue eyes that glimmered sparks to flicker and ember in the vivid intelligence of the moon’s love, and a yielding body, that seem to tangle in loose rhythm as I walked near to her.
— Keira D. Skye, Dead Lullabyes in the Lake
An unhappy woman with access to weed killer had to be watched carefully.
— James Ruddick, Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England
That's a demon for you. Wants me dead but wants to be sure that he is the one who does me in.
— Daniel Xiao Wang, Lucid Nightmares
If they will only hold their hands until the season is over, he promises them a royal carnival, when all grudges can he settled and the survivors may toss the non-survivors overboard and arrange a story as to how the missing men were lost at sea.
— Jack London, The Sea Wolf
It was bewildering, the way that reality could be overtaken, wrestled down, and murdered by the sheer weight of possibility.
— Jennifer duBois
The police, finding a corpse with twenty-eight stab wounds in a bathtub, suspected foul play.
— Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing
The defendant removed his gloves and started toward the victim. Mr. Farley, still teasing, said: “Ooo, he's taking his gloves off.” The defendant then pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed the victim in the neck. He also stabbed Mr. Farley in the arm as he fell to the floor. Mr. Farley looked up and cried: “Man, I was just kidding around.” The defendant responded: “Well, man, you should have never hit me in my face.
— Franklin Cleckley
He was a strong and noble lord with piercing eyes of grey. He sat upon his noble throne shining like the dawn. His sword flashed like the brightest star. He led our people well. Yet here and now he lays in blood pierced with arrows. He was the friend of many knights. He loved the warrior games. His heart was won by a lady fair for marriage they did wait. A kindly prince, his duty carried him to another's bed. And on her death true love returned, finally they wed. He felt the grief of children lost to murder and to pain. I was the youngest of his blood. I'll never be the same. Here lays my father and my lord. I know not what to say. Except my father and my lord was slain here on this day. Here lays my father and my lord. I know not what to say. Except my father and my lord was slain here on this day….
— Laurel A. Rockefeller, The Ghosts of the Past
I am not yet come of age, my lord. How can I be queen?” asked Constance fearfully.
— Laurel A. Rockefeller, The Ghosts of the Past
Experiment or not, the government is always watching. - Felix
— Donna Galanti, The Dark Inside
He expects us to kill him," Palomides said to Dinadan."Some people are so demanding," Dinadan replied. "Considering we've only just met, I mean.
— Gerald Morris, The Ballad of Sir Dinadan
My hands are of your colour
—  but I shame To wear a heart so white.
We ask our brain to stop worrying, stop obsessing, stop dreaming the same scary dreams again and again. But our brain rarely takes requests.
— Dan Poblocki, The Ghost of Graylock
The police have asked for my help. There's been a murder.""A murder! Oh, my. Let me just change my shoes," Evie said excitedly. "It won't be a minute.
— Libba Bray, The Diviners
I should fancy, however, that murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
You took a life and the theft went unpunished. God didn't strike you down. The sky didn't fall. The morning after, you turned on the faucet and water still came out... It was still good when you raised your arm for a cab and one came towards you out of the flow like magic. You did things that were supposed to end you and found they were only things that changed you. It was a disappointment and a revelation and a bereavement and a new thrilling nudity. It was the basic prosaic obscenity: You kept going.
— Glen Duncan, Talulla Rising
History does seem to be just one long succession of murders, doesn't it?
— Jeanne M. Dams, The Corpse of St James's
What careful planning, what painstaking attention to detail, goes into extinguishing a man's life! Far more than the hit-or-miss, haphazard circumstances of igniting it.("New York Blues")
— Cornell Woolrich, Night and Fear: A Centenary Collection of Stories by Cornell Woolrich
The Proclaimers thunder through my head.Imagine it.Imagine killing someone to the tune of two Scottish nerds wearing glasses and flattop haircuts. How will I ever listen to that song again? What will I do if it comes on the radio? I'll think of the night I murdered another man and stole his life with my own hands.
— Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger
On hands and knees the figure comes pacing along beside the wall that flanks the patio, lithe, sinuous, knife in mouth perpendicular to its course. In moonlight and out of it, as each successive archway of the portico circles high above it, comes down to join its support, and is gone again to the rear.The moon is a caress on supple skin. The moon of Anahuac understands, the moon is in league, the moon will not betray. ("The Moon of Montezuma")
— Cornell Woolrich, The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich
To spare Cloyce's victims further indignities to their memory, I must be a scourge. To prevent others from perhaps being infected by Cloyce's depravity by watching him at work, I must be a scourge. To prevent time management technology from falling into the hands of authorities who, if not already corrupt, would be corrupted by it, I must be a scourge.Scourges aren't heroes.I had never imagined myself to be a hero, but never had I imagined I would be this.Scourges transgress against social and sacred order.A scourge went into darker territory than that. A scourge was not compelled to kill by mental imbalance or emotional confusion or selfish desire. A scourge made a carefully reasoned decision to kill in numbers that exceeded what was absolutely necessary to ensure self-preservation and the defense of the innocent. Even if he killed for the right reason, he was in rebellion against social order and commanding authority.Who scourges will be scourged. In fulfilling this dark role in Roseland, I would bring about my own death.Yet I knew I would not retreat from my decision.
— Dean Koontz, Odd Apocalypse
He did not recognize himself either. He was a totally new being, bald, covered with grease and blood, pink and blue eyed: he was his own baby...He was a great fat chuckling baby, and he shat and peed in his filthy trousers and kept driving.
— Peter Straub, Mrs. God
What is it that makes a seemingly rational man set out on a perilous journey knowing full well that the odds of success are quite remote and the consequences of failure are likely to be devastating? Is it pride, stubbornness, a yearning for adventure, or just a reckless disregard of reality?
— Stan Turner
The shears found his throat this time. He fell down on top of them and was silent.Something dark like mucilage glistened where he lay.She had jumped back - not in remorse, but to keep the bottom of her skirt clear of his blood. ("I'm Dangerous Tonight")
— Cornell Woolrich, The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich
And the blood remembers what the heart has never learned. The approach to kill. ("The Moon Of Montezuma")
— Cornell Woolrich, The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich
How simple death without weapons was. How safe for the killer.("Mind Over Murder")
— Cornell Woolrich, Angels of Darkness
The severing of his limbs and subsequent cauterizing of the wounds was not the most pleasurable part, no." His mad grin stretched, it seemed, from ear to ear.
— Benjamin M. Strozykowski, Psychic Skin Volume 2
But I rather thought--I mean, I heard you'd killed Balder the Fair.""I never did," snapped Loki crossly. "Well, no one ever proved I did. What happened to the presumption of innocence? Besides, he was supposed to be invulnerable. Was it my fault that he wasn't?
— Joanne Harris, Runemarks
Blood is thicker than water,"The young man saidAs he knifed his friendFor a drooling old bitchAnd a house full of lies.
— Ernest Hemingway, 88 Poems
Not according to this," Jazz said, taking the report. "No evidence of sexual activity or anything like it.""Well, there's that," Howie said, sounding relieved. Jazz wondered at that - was it really so much better to be unmolested, but still murdered in a horrible fashion? To die in pain and terror, stripped, left in a field, your fingers cut off? But as long as you weren't raped, well, that was alright, then? Did it really matter at that point?
— Barry Lyga, I Hunt Killers
Perhaps this is the purpose of all art, all writing, on the murders, fiction and non-fiction: Simply to participate.
— Alan Moore, From Hell
Surgeons are a singular brotherhood, Adam. To us, people aren't sacred beings crafted in the Almighty's image, no, people are joints of meat; diseased, leathery meat, yes, but meat ready for the skewer & the spit." He mimicked my usual voice, very well. "'But why *me*, Henry, are we not friends?' Well, Adam, even friends are made out of meat.
— David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
[Prince Humperdinck] was seventy-five minutes away from his first female murder, and he wondered if he could get his fingers to her throat before even the start of a scream. He had been practicing on giant sausages all the afternoon and had the movements down pretty pat, but then, giant sausages weren’t necks and all the wishing in the world wouldn’t make them so.
— William Goldman, The Princess Bride
It could have been a thief or a murderer. I considered crying out. A thief would run away, but a murderer would murder me. On the other hand, the murderer would probably murder me if I didn't too. That was his whole thing.
— Yahtzee Croshaw, Jam
No...he lives to create art, but he loves to murder.
— Mo'Dayvia La'Beija
Now I recall my emotions at that moment, children seem to me a remarkable race. They want so much to murder so many people, and they so rarely murder anybody at all.
— Rebecca West
One of the reasons I love Murder is that victims are, as a general rule, dead... I don't make a habit of sharing this, in case people take me fore a sicko or- worse-a wimp, but give me a dead child, any day, over a child sobbing his heart out while you make him tell you what the bad man did next. Dead victims don't show up outside HQ to beg for answers, you never have to nudge them into reliving every hideous moment, and you never have to worry, and you never have to worry about what it'll do to their lives if you fuck up. They stay put in the morgue, light-years beyond anything I can do right or wrong, and leave me free to focus on the people who sent them there.
— Tana French, Broken Harbour
It felt odd to have interrupted the life of someone she knew nothing about, to kill someone she had only just met, as though killing needed intimacy, deep knowledge of the other, to make it all right.
— Pamela Freeman, Blood Ties
A guy with no will to live isn't worth killing.
— Yukako Kabei, Kieli, Volume 7: As the Deep Ravine's Wind Howls
The desire to know the future gnaws at our bones. That is where it started, and might have ended, years ago.I had cast the stones, seeing their faces flicker and fall: Death, Love, Murder, Treachery, Hope. We are a treacherous people - half of our stones show betrayal and violence and death from those close, death from those far away. It is not so with other peoples. I have seen other sets that show only natural disasters: death from sickness, from age, the pain of a broken heart, loss in childbirth. And those stones are more than half full with pleasure and joy and plain, solid warnings like "You reap what you sow" and "Victory is not the same as satisfaction."Of course, we live in a land taken by force, by battle and murder and invasion. It is not so surprising that our stones reflect our history.
— Pamela Freeman, Blood Ties
I was thinking of murder, mutilation and dessert like Ignacia Sandoval’s instructions for delectable empanadas made of minced mother-in-law’s tongue (said to induce peace and harmony in your household), or the gonads of your cheating husband (a savory dish to add spice to your lovemaking).
— Sandra Ramos O'Briant, The Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood
(A murderer about their victim:)"He was an expert in vicarious death. I should like to have been there to see how he enjoyed the real thing.
— P.D. James, Unnatural Causes
Scott could feel the contents of his stomach flip over and over on themselves. He turned to the side and retched, frothy yellow bile spilled out onto the newspaper covered floor, filling the room with the putrid stench of previously ingested alcohol.'Look's like someone can't hold their drink,' McBlane said, and Dominic and Shugg laughed.Scott was still staring at the steam rising from his evacuated stomach contents as he heard the hammer fall. The dull crack of bone splintering under its weight.
— R.D. Ronald, The Elephant Tree
How came she by her death? How came she there? Was she slain by accident, or had she met with violence? were the questions that pressed upon our thoughts. But we said little then and after a time left her where we found her. It mattered not to her that the bed was hard or the air cold.("A Night In An Old Castle")
— George Payne Rainsford James, Reign of Terror
Tell me what you’re looking for and i will become that for you. I can sacrifice my inner freedoms for you without looking twice at my old journals and solid promises I made to myself about such things. But you must be prepared to kill me when the smiles are no longer frequent. Do it while I sleep. While I hold your hand. Do it fast, baby. Do it fast.
— Darnell Lamont Walker
Assassination is murder with a touch more precision. Brother Sim is precise.
— Mark  Lawrence
I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.
— James M. Cain, Double Indemnity
I don't feel guilty for anything. I feel sorry for people who feel guilt.
— Ted Bundy
all men carry murder in their hearts, yet even so, the poisoner is beneath contempt.
— George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Out there was a man who had murdered his daughter. And another who had stepped on her heart. His hatred should be aimed at the one who killed her, but all he could picture was Yoshino being literally kicked out of that car.
— Shūichi Yoshida, Villain
from the Basement tapes Eric outdid Dylan with the apologies. To the untrained eye, he seemed sincere. The psychologists on the case found Eric less convincing. They saw a psychopath. Classic. He even pulled the stunt of self-diagnosing to dismiss it. "I wish I was a fucking sociopath so I didn't have any remorse," Eric said. "But I do."Watching that made Dr. Fuselier angry. Remorse meant a deep desire to correct a mistake. Eric hadn't done it yet. He excused his actions several times on the tapes. Fuselier was tough to rattle, but that got to him."Those are the most worthless apologies I've ever heard in my life," he said. It got more ludicrous later, when Eric willed some of his stuff to two buddies, "if you guys live.""If you live?" Fuselier repeated. "They are going to go in there and quite possibly kill their friends. If they were the least bit sorry they would not do it!
— Dave Cullen, Columbine
I should not yield to it, he told himself once again as he walked along carrying the briefcase. Compulsion-obsession-phobia. But he could not free himself. It in my grip, I in its, he thought.
— Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle
One of my favorite dialogue pieces from Black Creek Burning: “It was a polite, white lie,” Brie whispered. “I’ll have to remember you think that way,” Nathan said.
— R.T. Wolfe, Black Creek Burning
You know you’re dealing with a numpty when her saving grace is that she didn’t help to cover up a murder.
— Rosen Trevithick
Insecure or homicidal: the adjectives don't bother me one bit.
— William Giraldi
Black Creek Burning: “It was a polite, white lie,” Brie whispered. “I’ll have to remember you think that way,” Nathan said.
— R.T. Wolfe
Knowledge is justice
— Charlie Jane Anders, Margot and Rosalind
Hope is alive when u know your anchor
— Ikechukwu Joseph, Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom: the tripartite force in the pursuit of Divine Access
This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction. (...) Forever I shall be a stranger to myself.
— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
I fit perfectly within my vibration. I am wholly complete in the knowledge that I am who I am supposed to be!
— Debbie A. Anderson
If there's one thing every good novelist understands, it's that our inner world is unreliable and yet there's no getting beyond it. Every sense is subject to deception, including the moral sense. What seems at first like the hard surface of spiritual reality is really fathomless when you dive down into it. There is no bottom. We neve know anything for sure. (p. xvi)
— Andrew Klavan, The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ
Be the person you are, not the one others try to create.
— Jonathan Heatt
Be what you are, but be careful in what you're doing.
— Solitude's Friend
They say that to know oneself is to know all there is that is human. But of course no one can ever know himself. Nothing human is fully calculable
—  even to ourselves we are strange.
Stop saying that you have done it for someone, Because never in your life you do things for other's, which means every single thing you do in your life, you do it only and only for yourself, even loving your child, even feeding you dog, you do it because you get something out of it.
— Manish Kejriwal
A reputation is like a shadow; it hides when you go to sleep, but always returns with the sun…
— Nanette L. Avery
It was his knowledge of his own willful stupidity that had brought on his irritation
— Keigo Higashino
A genius in the wrong position could look like a fool.
— Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability
...the whole 'know thyself' thing isn’t a journey to a fixed destination. Learning about myself changes me, forcing me to learn more. 'Know thyself' isn’t a goal; it’s a road.
— Garon Whited, Nightlord: Shadows
Calm is good, passivity not to much. Calm is always a basic inner attitude that makes it possible to concentrate and act purposefully. But passivity suggest an element of denial. Passive people refuse to take initiatives and to exploit stimuli. They sit and wait - without strength, defiant or rigid from shock - in whatever their situation is and prefer to suffer considerably from their plight rather than trying to change something. This includes boredom and even bad relationships.
— Sylvia Loehken
..If not for the influence of Humans, I would not be Human. Shouldn't it be concerning that the quality of such examples continues to dwindle?
— J. Devau, Theory of the Atheist: Record One of the Alias Wars
There's no point in knowing without enlightenment, yet edified insights arouse movement.
— JT Sanz
If You Do Not Know, it is Useless to Explain, Because You Would Not Understand"__nickc
— nick catricala
We are a sum total of what we have learned from all who have taught us, both great and small.
— Myles Munroe, understanding your potential discovering the hidden you
If I believe the same things today I did yesterday I've learned nothing.
— A.E. van Vogt
We feel that if someone is bad, he should be burdened with the knowledge that he is bad. It seems to us the ultimate injustice that a person could be evil, by our assessment , and still feel fine about himself.
— Martha Stout
We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are.
— Harold Bloom
Once an individual shines bright walking in average light to some may appear as dim surroundings..
— Victoria Addino, Facets
It’s important to know that you're behind, to be able to convince yourself to make sacrifices that get you ahead.
— Shivanee Harshey
Knowledge is not discovery, but recognition.
— Raheel Farooq
Success means nothing if you don't know who you are. If you don't know who you are then you are not a success.
— Pasha Cook
Anyone can be a fool, but the one recognizes it and admits it is on the path to wisdom.
— Queen Of Spades
A silent tongue does not betray its owner
— sheik ahmed hassoun
Dedication and enthusiams are the greatest rewards for learning
— Isabel Ramos
True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His Promises.
— Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Worrying is arrogant because God knows what He's doing.
— Barbara Cameron, A Time to Heal
He said "Love...as I have loved you." We cannot love too much.
— Amy Carmichael
Satan is so much more in earnest than we are--he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.
— Amy Carmichael
His grace is cheapened when you think that He has only forgiven you of your sins up to the time you got saved, and after that point, you have to depend on your confession of sins to be forgiven. God's forgiveness is not given in installments.
— Joseph Prince, Unmerited Favor: Depending on Jesus for every success in your life
A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.
— C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Experience had quickly taught her that she could not survive the storms without the anchor of the constraining love of Christ and what she called the "Rock-counsciousness" of the promise given her, "He goeth before.
— Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael
I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.
— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.
— John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life
[Amy Carmichael's] great longing was to have a "single eye" for the glory of God. Whatever might blur the vision God had give her of His work, whatever could distract or deceive or tempt other to seek anything but the Lord Jesus Himself she tried to eliminate.
— Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael
Are you letting culture, not scripture, determine your sexuality, how you date, how you present yourself, how you engage in certain relationships with members of the opposite sex? We need to be very clear that the way we do life is different than the rest of the world.
— Mark Driscoll
We fail in the work of grace and love when there is too much of us and not enough of God.
— Suzanne Woods Fisher, The Search
We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts
— A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.
— Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
When we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen
Strength of my heart, I need not fail,Not mind to fear but to obey,With such a Leader, who could quail?Thou art as Thou wert yesterday.Strength of my heart, I rest in Thee,Fulfil Thy purposes through me.
— Amy Carmichael
God wants the whole person and He will not rest till He gets us in entirety. No part of the man will do" (101) - "The Pursuit of God
— A.W. Tozer
Worry about tomorrow steals the joy from today.
— Barbara Cameron, A Time to Love
Always, everywhere God is present, and always He seeks to discover Himself to each one
— A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Remember as you go about your day that you may be the only Jesus some of your friends, neighbors, and family will ever see.
— Wanda E. Brunstetter, A Celebration of the Simple Life
Don't cohabitate. Don't fornicate. Don't look at pornography. Don't create a standard of beauty. Have your spouse be your standard of beauty. This is one of the great devastating effects of pornography: you lust after people and compare your spouse to them. It's impossible to be satisfied in your marriage if you don't have a standard that is biblical
—  that standard is always your spouse.
If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
— Amy Carmichael, If
One day you will wonder what was so important that you put off doing the most important things. 'Someday' can be a thief in the night.
— Deborah Brown
If you obey God with your whole heart, you'll usually scare off the folks who want you to obey them.
— Meg Moseley, When Sparrows Fall
I'm holding up, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.
— Sara Evans, Softly and Tenderly
As I stumble through this lifehelp me to create more laughter than tears, dispense more cheer than gloom, spread more joy than despair. Never let me become so indifferent that I will fail to see the wonder in the eyes of a child, or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged. Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people, make them happy, and forget momentarily all the unpleasantness in their lives. And in my final moment, may I hear You whisper, 'When you made My people smile, you made Me smile.
— Nancy Mehl, Blown Away
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers
—  for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
At least at times of loss, we are reminded of our priorities, of our many blessings. In times of gain, we can so often lose our way.
— Mindy Starns Clark, Secrets of Harmony Grove
The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His.
— Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals...The tragic results of this spirit all all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies...the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities....salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.
— A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Jesus first, others next, and yourself last spells J-O-Y.
— Linda Byler, Running Around (And Such)
I realized that all my life, my values were based upon typical middle-class American values: hard work, doing good, living well, owning things, following the rules & being the best I can be... but God clearly says, "those are not MY values. I value justice, mercy & humility.
— John Green
Love without truth and honor is licentious in nature. Love without commitment is promiscuous and fleeting. Love without virtue and understanding is savage and selfish. Love without respect is short-lived. Love without these conditions is without God.
— David W. Stevens
All of us, poor & rich alike, have been conditioned by our upbringings. Impoverished men & women may become lulled into a state of "learned helplessness" without hope to change their lives. Likewise, the wealthy can walk in a state of "learned blindness" ignoring the desperation of the local & global poor.
— John Green
The only expenditure, and all its outworkings, for which God can be held to be responsible is that which He directs.
— Amy Carmichael
The mere telling of how a need was met is often like telling of a need, which is asking crookedly instead of straight out. But this much I will say--with every fresh need has come a fresh supply.
— Amy Carmichael
It is more important that you should know about the reverses than about the successes of the war. We shall have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset in which to win them. We are not winning them as we should, because the fact of the reverses is so little realized, and the needed reinforcements are not forthcoming, as they would be in the position were thoroughly understood...So we have tried to tell you the truth the uninteresting, unromantic truth.
— Amy Carmichael
Millions call themselves by His name, it is true, and pay some token homage to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who or what is ABOVE, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choice he makes day after day throughout his life.
— A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Encourage others each and every day–nothing’s more important than our words.Did you know that, on average, each of us speaks about twenty-five thousand words daily? My last book didn’t have that many words. A lot of language is flowing out of our mouths every day and having an impact on those around us. But how much of that flow is fulfilling God’s intended purpose for our speech? How much of it reflects pride, rather than a gospel-motivated humility?
— C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness
Overcomers are not perfect. They fail just like the rest of us, but they keep on getting up, keep on repenting, and keep on being willing to surrender themselves to Christ and letting Him, who is the only perfect One, work through them.
— Nancy Missler, The Kingdom, Power, & Glory
And then, just as quickly, the clouds returned, leaving us to walk by faith, not by sight.
— Sibella Giorello, The Clouds Roll Away
If we were less of what seems like ease in our lives they would tell more for Christ and souls...We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.
— Amy Carmichael
What the world neglects, the Lord accepts.
— Deborah Brodie, The Path That Gets Brighter: A Devotional to Instruct, Illustrate, and Encourage Kingdom Principles
Our Saviour's meaning, when He said, He must be born again and become a little child that will enter in the Kingdom of Heaven is deeper far than is generally believed. It is only in a careless reliance upon Divine Providence, that we are to become little children, or in the feebleness and shortness of our anger and simplicity of our passions, but in the peace and purity of all our soul. Which purity also is a deeper thing than is commonly apprehended. For we must disrobe infant-like and clear; the powers of our soul free from the leaven of this world, and disentangled from men's conceits and customs. Grit in the eye or yellow jaundice will not let a man see those objects truly that are before it. And therefore it is requisite that we should be as very strangers to the thoughts, customs, and opinions of men in this world, as if we were but little children. So those things would appear to us only which do to children when they are first born. Ambitions, trades, luxuries, inordinate affections, casual and accidental riches invented since the fall, would be gone, and only those things appear, which did to Adam in Paradise, in the same light and in the same colours: God in His works, Glory in the light, Love in our parents, men, ourselves, and the face of Heaven: Every man naturally seeing those things, to the enjoyment of which he is naturally born.
— Thomas Traherne, Centuries Of Meditations
Part of our skittishness about Christian perfection is linguistic confusion. The English word "perfect" has absorbed the Greek notion of "teleos". When the Greeks looked at a building's blueprint, they pictured the building whole and complete. They envisioned the blueprint finished down to the bathroom tile and announced, "Ah, this is perfect." The problem is that "teleos" suggests that perfection is something we can build or achieve. The Hebrews looked at the same blueprint more practically. They envisioned the process of building from hard hats to hammers, from scaffolding to skylights. "Ah," the Hebrews said. "This is perfect." The Hebrews and the early Christians understood perfection as a process, not a product. Our identity as Christians depends upon life lived in relationship with God, not upon the quality of our achievements.
— Kenda Creasy Dean, The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry
Great things seem complex and cause the nations to rush towards the minor things that seem easy to reach, hence, they perish. And again my memory echoes…my people die for lack of knowledge.
— Blaise Tshibwabwa
Giving from the heart is supernatural, it manifests into blessings.
— D.A. McBride
If God would concede me His omnipotence for 24 hours, you would see how many changes I would make in the world. But if He gave me His wisdom too, I would leave things as they are.
— J.M.L. Monsabre
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (8:32)
— The Gospel According to John
GOD blesses you so that He can do for others through you
— it is not always about you.
Kindness begins in the heart of a willing mind.
— D.A. McBride, The Wind Chimes of Life
Fifty million people die every year, six thousand die every hour, and over one hundred people die every minute. But when thousands of people die in the same place and at the same time, we are more likely to wonder why God would allow such a thing to happen.
— Steve Farrar, God Built (Joseph) - Forged By God...In The Bad And Good Of Life
I have rightfully no other business each day but to do God's work as a servant, constantly regarding His pleasure. May I have grace to live above every human motive, simply with God and to God.
— Henry Martyn