Litera Scripta Manet

This post will be under construction constantly. It will be a gathering of all my favourite quotes and lyrics and those I pick up along the way. Enjoy

“Between the covers of the books that no one had ever read again, in the old parchments damaged by dampness, a livid flower had prospered, and in the air that had been the purest and brightest in the house an unbearable smell of rotten memories floated.”

“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”

“Ottilie was used to boldly smiling at men; but now her smile was fragmentary, it clung to her lips like cake crumbs.”

“It may be normal, darling; but I’d rather be natural.”

"She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy.I said, "Be careful, his bow tie is really a camera."

"But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall. Then I think we would see the beauty. Then we would stand staring in awe at our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges."

"In this heart lies for you
A lark born only for you
Who sings only to you
My love"

"It's useful being top banana in the shock department."

“I wanted to believe his words, to be the truth of the story he told.”

"O Earth, lie heavily upon her eyes;
Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, earth;
Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth
With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs
She hath no questions, she hath no replies."

"Enough. These words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.
This opening to the life we have refused
again and again
Until now
Until now."

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.

"I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"

"I see a repose that neither earth nor hell can break; and I feel an assurance of the endless and shadowless hereafter - the Eternity they have entered - where life is boundless in its duration, and love in its sympathy, and joy in its fulness."

“Wonderful a fistful of snow in the mouths
Of men suffering summer heat
Wonderful the spring winds
For mariners who long to set sail
And more wonderful still the single sheet
Over two lovers on a bed.”

“All those years, that ugliness hadn’t even touched them, hadn’t changed them, hadn’t hurt them, hadn’t even occurred to them until now. That’s th real surprise, one of the girls would say to the other if she could speak to her now, if she could call her best friend on the telephone from her bedroom, if she could lean over and turn the radio down as they drove together into the weedy green of June, and say something, anything. If she could glance at her friends’ reflection beside her in the girls-room mirror, put down her hairbrush and smile, she’d say; that’s the miracle... The real miracle... All the goodness all our lives."

“The truth was that I could not manage my soul, and I was becoming aware of old age because of my weakness in the face of love.”

“How wonderful, she said. I’ve always said jealousy knows more than truth does.”

“Humans have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”

“To hurt is as human as to breathe.”

“Hope springs eternal.”