Home > Author > Nathan Harris
1 " ...perhaps that was the great ill of the world, that those prone to evil were left untouched by guilt to a degree so vast that they might sleep through a storm, while better men, conscience-stained men, lay awake as though that very storm persisted unyieldingly in the furthest reaches of their soul. "
― Nathan Harris , The Sweetness of Water
2 " Don't hide this pain either, I want you to carry what you've done. "
3 " ...each day of each year, a man might imagine a tree in his mind. The tree, upon doing good in the world, could grow strong and thick, but with each poor decision, rot would start to sprout -- gnarled roots at its base, limp branches that snapped with the lightest touch. At the end of any given period -- a month, a year -- it was wise to consider the growth of one's tree, and the decisions you had made that led it there. It was yours to let grow or die. "
4 " These were just inventions, of course, and she [Isabelle] lived knowing, quite well, that such things were not promised to her. She might hope for more but had long ago learned to live with whatever came to pass. Yet sometimes--just sometimes--hope was enough. "
5 " Maybe with time there were parts of the past that could be forgotten, their sway over him toppled, but there would always be certain memories that survived the fall and stood amid the rubble. Monuments of loss. "
6 " And alongside this decision there was some forfeiture in the thought he found unsettling: that for every pound of weight they’d carried across their backs, for every drop of sweat that had poured off, no inch of this land was theirs. As long as they stayed, they were no better than the others, kept on the borders of town, hidden among the trees just like their brothers and sisters. And it grew clear that the only path to a life worth living would be found elsewhere, where they might not have more but could not possibly have less. "
7 " Early on, this inactivity was a pulsing shame. She sensed her old self, the dutiful and productive self, knocking at her conscience, begging to be let back into her life. But this feeling passed, and what took its place was something akin to bliss. "
8 " Her beauty was secondary to the strength of her character, the fortitude in which she housed her beliefs, "
9 " You know,” George said, “when I look in the mirror in the morning I see a miserable old bastard looking back at me. Yet when I see you, I take great comfort, knowing how much progress I have left to make on that same path. "
10 " When they hugged, when he held the shape of her against him, he felt like a boy again, and wished he could draw upon that feeling on command for the rest of his time alive. "
11 " Many a thinker had devoted himself to questions of aging and death, yet the thinkers died at the same rate as the idiots, and "
12 " that all danger carried the faint trace of comfort, all wrongs the hint of what may be right. How else to explain a world of cruelty that had also carried in it the great joy of watching his mother at the mercy of Little James’s fiddle on a Sunday afternoon, the miracle of a fresh tick mattress, the sweetness of water after a day spent picking "
13 " that all danger carried the faint trace of comfort, all wrongs the hint of what may be right. How else to explain a world of cruelty that had also carried in it the great joy of watching his mother at the mercy of Little James’s fiddle on a Sunday afternoon, the miracle of a fresh tick mattress, the sweetness of water after a day spent picking in the fields? "
14 " I can carry him, I've carried him my whole life. "
15 " Clementine looked at Prentiss a final time, not in shame but as if to say, "This is what I will do for you. "
16 " Lee had surrendered only a week earlier, and the timing could not have been worse for a celebration; and yet if the hens were skilled at anything it was turning a blind eye to reality, "
17 " It’s rare for your father to find fellow travelers. Those two boys are outsiders. They understand him. And he them. "
18 " she lived knowing, quite well, that such things were not promised to her. She might hope for more but had long ago learned to live with whatever came to pass. Yet sometimes—just sometimes—hope was enough. "
19 " Society made exceptions in matters of great beauty. "
20 " to explain a world of cruelty that had also carried in it the great joy of watching his mother at the mercy of Little James’s fiddle on a Sunday afternoon, the miracle of a fresh tick mattress, the sweetness of water after a day spent picking in the fields? "
