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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August QUOTES

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August QUOTES

1 " And certainly I know I have the capacity within me to be all of that again, to feel all of that again, and know that, while the door may be currently locked, there is a black pit in the bottom of my soul that has no limit to its falling. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

2 " There is no loss, if you cannot remember what you have lost. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

3 " Dr August, there is no greater isolation a man may experience than to be lonely in a crowd. He may nod, and smile, and say the right thing, but even by this pretence his soul is pushed further away from the kinship of men. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

4 " The secret to being unafraid of the darkness is to challenge the darkness to fear you, to raise your eyes sharp to those few souls who stagger by, daring them to believe that you are not, in fact, more frightening than they are. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

5 " Is there innocence in ignorance? And if there is, do we tolerate other for their innocence's sake? "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

6 " Time, it transpires, is not so good at telling after all. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

7 " To regret your soul is to regret your past. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

8 " For a second, my hand touched yours, but that second is gone, and cannot be seen, heard or felt ever again. This second is gone, too, the moment in which I spoke by your side. It is dead. Let it die. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

9 " So each generation set out to find more of its kind, and within just a few cycles of birth and death, the Club had spread not only through space, but also time, propagating itself forwards into the twentieth century and back into the Middle Ages, the death of each member spreading the word of what it was to the very extremes of the times in which they lived. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

10 " The trick with a truly successful intimidation is not to rely on volume or obscenity, but to cultivate that quiet certainty which informs any listener that your people will do the shouting for you, should the moment come. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

11 " Mental health professionals of the 1960s make their 1990s counterparts look like Mozarts trampling upon Salieri’s lesser work. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

12 " The most it ever seems we know how to do with time, is to waste it. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

13 " Men must be decent first and brilliant later, otherwise you're not helping people, just servicing the machine. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

14 " I know now that there is something dead inside me though I cannot remember exactly when it died. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

15 " They say that the mind cannot remember pain; I say it barely matters, for even if the physical sensation is lost, our recollection of the terror that surrounds it is perfect. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

16 " Time was simple, is simple. We can divide it into simple parts, measure it, arrange dinner by it, drink whisky to its passage. We can mathematically deploy it, use it to express ideas about the observable universe, and yet if asked to explain it in simple language to a child–in simple language which is not deceit, of course–we are powerless. The most it ever seems we know how to do with time is to waste it. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

17 " This thing you carry inside you, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know where you got it. But Harry, the past is the past. You are alive today. That is all that matters. You must remember, because it is who you are, but as it is who you are, you must never, ever regret. To regret your past is to regret your soul. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

18 " When I am optimistic, I choose to believe that every life I lead, every choice I make, has consequence. That I am not one Harry August but many, a mind flicking from parallel life to parallel life, and that when I die, the world carries on without me, altered by my deeds, marked by my presence. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

19 " God, but he lied beautifully; it was a masterclass. If I hadn't been concentrating so hard on my own deceit, I would have stood up and applauded. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

20 " Complexity should be your excuse for inaction. "

― Claire North , The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August