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21 " And you never know when a meal will be your last . . . None of us do. "
― Matt Ruff , Lovecraft Country
22 " Ex-Confederate? What’s that, like an ex-Nazi? The man fought for slavery! You don’t get to put an ‘ex-’ in front of that! "
23 " ...people are most deeply offended by moral failings that mirror their own. "
― Matt Ruff , Bad Monkeys
24 " It never fails,” Montrose said. “No matter what they do to you, afterwards it’s like nothing happened. You’re supposed to just be grateful you’re still breathing. "
25 " Of course a certain number of scientists have to go mad, just to keep the tradition alive. "
― Matt Ruff , Fool on the Hill
26 " I’m saying people can be real creative when it comes to ducking responsibility. "
27 " White folks' belief that Negroes were magically gifted struck her as the most absurd form of superstition. Sorcery was in the Bible, which meant it was real, but to Momma it was self-evident that like every other kind of power it would be concentrated in the hands of the mighty. "
28 " April, she had died. April could still be a very cold month in Ithaca, though it was certainly not the best month for dying of exposure. A depressed person would have a better bet walking along the edge of one of the gorges and “accidentally” falling in. Of course the man Jessop had done neither; hand-making his daughter’s tombstone had probably kept him too occupied to even consider suicide. Yes. That was it; that was the key. An act of creation in the face of loss. "
29 " You made love to a dream. Have I ever lied to you, George? Then remember what I told you: Whoever you love will be just like me. Any woman seen through love’s eyes is as perfect as you thought me to be.” “No,” George said. “There’s no one like you.” “They’re all like me, George, if you see with your heart. But some of them stay. "
30 " The law’s not for colored people, not down there . "
31 " Something else that puzzles me about other people is that a lot of them don’t know their purpose in life. This usually does bother them—more than not being able to remember being born, anyway—but I can’t even imagine it. Part of knowing who I am is knowing why I am, and I’ve always known who I am, from the first moment. "
― Matt Ruff , Set This House in Order
32 " Are you the government?"He seemed surprised by the question. "Does the government fight evil?"I thought about it. For some reason, the first thing that came to mind wasn't the FBI or the justice system, but my last trip to the DMV. "Well," I said, "it can.""Lots of things can fight evil," True replied. "Cinderblocks, for example--if a Cinderblock had fallen in Josef Stalin's crib, the twentieth century might have been a bit more pleasant.(...) "
33 " You can’t buy goodwill with money that ain’t yours. It’s not a favor to pay what’s owed. "
34 " For those wishing to vacation abroad, the agency could recommend destinations that were relatively free of local race prejudice and, just as important, not overrun by white American tourists—for nothing was more frustrating than traveling thousands of miles only to encounter the same bigots you dealt with every day at home. "
35 " Montrose could have simply forbidden him to read such things. Atticus knew other sons whose fathers had done that, who’d thrown their comic books and Amazing Stories collections into the trash. But Montrose, with limited exceptions, didn’t believe in book-banning. He always insisted he just wanted Atticus to think about what he read, rather than imbibing it mindlessly, and Atticus, if he were being honest, had to admit that was a reasonable goal. "
36 " He recognized the perverse mix of anger and glee in his father’s voice and knew that something he enjoyed was about to be irrevocably spoiled. "
37 " Tja, angefangen hat das alles, als ich eines Tages darauf gekommen bin, dass der Hausmeister meiner Highschool der Würgengel war … "
38 " It was perfect. I mean . . . not that anything really happened.” “Oh, George, it’s not how much you do, it’s what you feel while you’re doing it. You know that. But do you know the real truth?” “No, What?” “The real truth is that whoever you love will be just like me, and not just in the fog. Understand?” “No.” “You will "
39 " For roughly the millionth time in his life he asked himself, Is there any way I can just ignore this and get on with my day? and he reflected that it was the minor slights that were the hardest to let pass. "
40 " You require me,” Atticus said. “To be your magic Negro? "