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21 " For no real reason – well, perhaps because of the seriousness under the trees or Nader’s hair, which was very messy and covered in little grass seeds – Katie began to giggle. She knew it was wrong, yet it was also natural. She covered her mouth with both hands, but Nader was already pale with revulsion. He turned and marched away into unwanted sunlight, leaving her to wonder why bad things happened and why no good person prevented them. "
― Carla H. Krueger , Even the Young Can be Warriors
22 " Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. "
― Heraclitus
23 " We knew she [Sylvia] was unusual, because of the seriousness with which she was treated, the lofty importance of her job as guest managing editor, and because she was kept fast at her desk when the rest of us were allowed to fool around….I remember we discussed how the editors treater her differently from the rest of us, as if she had been pre-recognized as someone they were expecting great things of. "
― Elizabeth Winder , Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953
24 " It still would be years before I understood the seriousness of my change of view. Much later, I recognized it in " Revolution," the essay of Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, who describes the moment when a man on the edge of a crowd looks back defiantly at a policeman — and when that policeman senses a sudden refusal to accept his defining gaze — as the imperceptible moment in which rebellion is born. " All books about all revolutions begin with a chapter that describes the decay of tottering authority or the misery and sufferings of the people," Kapuscinski writes. " They should begin with a psychological chapter — one that shows how a harassed, terrified man suddenly breaks his terror, stops being afraid. This unusual process — sometimes accomplished in an instant, like a shock — demands to be illustrated. Man gets rid of fear and feel free. Without that, there would be no revolution. "
25 " It was nearly lunch-time before Blackie had finished and went in search of T. Chaos had advanced. The kitchen was a shambles of broken glass and china, the dining-room was stripped of parquet, the skirting was up, the door had been taken off its hinges, and the destroyers had moved up a floor. Streaks of light came in through the closed shutters where they worked with the seriousness of creators - and destruction after all is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become. (" The Destructors" ) "
26 " I don’t want you involved in any of that.”“Because you care about me?”“Of course.” I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t want to worry about you getting hurt.”He stepped in and his other hand settled just above my hip. “Because you want to be with me?”“Yes.” That word was easy to speak.Rider smiled then and the right dimple appeared. “You want to be my girlfriend.”I opened my mouth and then I laughed. It sounded strange after the seriousness of our conversation, but the statement was sweet and silly.His cheeks pinked. “Not sure how I feel about that laugh,” he teased. “But I do love the sound of it.”My breath caught at the word. Love. Oh, gosh, was that what was happening here?“So do you? Want to be my girlfriend?” he asked, and then chuckled. “Probably should’ve brought this up before I kissed you, but I want...I want to see where this goes, Mallory. I feel like we got a second chance, you know? I’ve been thinking that since I sat down in speech and saw you sitting there. We have a second chance. And who gets second chances?”I searched his gaze, feeling a rightness deep in my chest. I had thought the same thing before, about second chances.“I don’t want to pass that up. "
― Jennifer L. Armentrout , The Problem with Forever
27 " As the incidence and fear of rape on college campuses have increased, the term rape has been generalized to mean 'misuse; diminish the effects of; steal; defeat': " I just went to the mall and raped my VISA." " My dad phoned this morning and raped my buzz." " She raped my coat." " Michigan got raped by Carolina in the NCAA final." The extension of the term rape to such contexts ameliorates the word and appears a denial on the part of college students of the seriousness of the crime. "
28 " You're trying to write about something that's sacred. You're trying to bring the seriousness of life and death to it, and you're trying to find a way to dramatize it, and you're trying to give language to it, which is inadequate. But it's important to try. "
29 " Playing and fun are not the same thing, though when we grow up we may forget that and find ourselves mixing up playing with happiness. There can be a kind of amnesia about the seriousness of playing, especially when we played by ourselves. "
