We’re all the same as clouds and butterflies. We just pretend to be something different.
Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction
I’ve heard about people without souls,” Dean Thomas said gloomily. “They have to dress all in black, and they write awful poetry, and nothing ever makes them happy. They’re all angsty.” “I don’t want to be angsty!” cried Pansy.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, hpmor
I also wanted psychic powers and super-strength and adamantium-reinforced bones and my own flying castle and sometimes I felt sad that I might have to settle for just being a famous scientist and an astronaut.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, hpmor
There is no name for what I’m going to be when I get big, she answered.
Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction
Dreaming was easier than screaming, and screaming was easier than worrying, and worrying was easier than crying, which was what she knew she would be reduced to if she didn’t keep a hard eye on herself.
Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead
Maybe there were currents of luck, good and bad, that ran through the world, and sometimes we found ourselves in one current, sometimes in the other, but the water itself was never truly a part of us, we were just trying to stay afloat in it.
Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead
Sham felt sure there was something he fervently wanted to do & to which he was exactly suited. Which made the more frustrating that he could not say what it was.
China Miéville, Railsea
He puts his shoes on, stomping into them, like he does everything, like he is hoping all the time he really can’t do it and can quit trying to.
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
The world is full of power and energy and a person can go far by just skimming off a tiny bit of it.
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
Alas, dream as he did of golden achievement, he could not seem to take it seriously, neither the dreaming nor the doing. That is, he could take it seriously only up to a point, or he could take it seriously one week and the next week he could not.
Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction
Step 1: Form a hypothesis. Step 2: Do an experiment to test your hypothesis. Step 3: Measure the results. Step 4: Make a cardboard poster.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
