Meiko Kaji
- Flower of Carnage
Following the twisting river, the path leads me far by the lamplight. The frozen cranes cannot move, weeping rain and wind. The frozen pond reflects the silhouette of a woman's hair. I can't even show my tears: a woman, treading the path of bitterness, who threw her heart away long ago. Honor, compassion, tears, and dreams. Yesterday, today - all without the hope of words. A woman, who surrendered her body to the river of bitterness, and threw herself away long ago.
Meiko Kaji
- Flower of Carnage
On a dead morning, a burial snow falls. The howling of a stray dog and the sound of wooden clogs break the silence. I walk with the weight of the heavens on my mind. Embracing the darkness of the night, with a patterned umbrella in hand, treading the path of a woman's life, tears falling to the ground throughout the journey.
Lord Tennyson
- Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars, and all thy heart lies open unto me. Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves a shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, and slips into the bosom of the lake: So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip into my bosom and be lost in me.
Susan Cain
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Anyone can be a great negotiator, I told them, and in fact it often pays to be quiet and gracious, to listen more than talk, and to have an instinct for harmony rather than conflict. With this style, you can take aggressive positions without inflaming your counterpart's ego. And by listening, you can learn what's truly motivating the person you're negotiating with and come up with creative solutions that satisfy both parties.
Susan Cain
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Gandhi was, according to his autobiography, a constitutionally shy and quiet man. As a child, he was afraid of everything: thieves, ghosts, snakes, the dark, and especially other people. He buried himself in books and ran home from school as soon as it was over, for fear of having to talk to anybody. Even as a young man, when he was elected to his first leadership position as a member of the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, he attended every meeting, but was too shy to speak.
Tulsidas
- Ramcharitmanas
When Lakshmana saw that the jewel of the house of Raghu had his eyes fixed upon Shiva's bow, he thrilled with excitement, and stamping on the earth, cried out: "Oh elephants of the quarters, Oh divine tortoise, Oh serpent-king, Oh divine boar, take courage and hold fast to the earth that it shake not! For Rama is about to break the great bow of Shiva; hearken my command and be alert!"
Tulsidas
- Ramcharitmanas
In her mouth her voice lay imprisoned as a bee in the lotus; it refused to stir out for fear of the night of modesty. Tears remained confined within the corner of her eyes like the gold of a miser, which remains buried in a hidden nook of his house.
Tulsidas
- Ramcharitmanas
The wise sage Vishvamitra, perceiving that the right moment had arrived, spoke in tones most endearing and soft: "Arise, oh Ram, and break the bow of mighty Shiva, and relieve Janak of his distress." On hearing the Guru's words, Ram bowed in reverence, neither joy nor sorrow in his tranquil heart. He rose in all his innate grace, so imperious his carriage, he put a young lion to shame. Like the morning sun climbing the eastern peaks, so did Rama ascend the dais.
Tulsidas
- Ramcharitmanas
Then came forth the two princes, the very abodes of beauty, both oceans of goodness, polished in manners, gallant heroes of exceeding grace, one charmingly dark, the other brightly fair. Resplendent amidst the galaxy of kings, they shone like two full moons amid a circle of stars.
Henry James
- Washington Square
He had not forgotten that in any event Catherine had her own ten thousand a year; he had devoted an abundance of meditation to this circumstance. But with his fine parts he rated himself high, and he had a perfectly definite appreciation of his value, which seemed to him inadequately represented by the sum I have mentioned.
Henry James
- Washinton Square
Catherine had never heard anyone - especially any young man - talk just like that. It was the way a young man might talk in a novel, or, better still, in a play, on the stage, close before the footlights, looking at the audience, and with everyone looking at him, so you wondered at his presence of mind. And yet Mr. Townsend was not like an actor; he seemed so sincere, so natural. This was very interesting.
Henry James
- Washington Square
What she could not know, of course, was that she disappointed him, though on three or four occasions the doctor had been almost frank about it... Doctor Sloper would have liked to be proud of his daughter; but there was nothing to be proud of in poor Catherine. There was nothing, of course, to be ashamed of; but this was not enough for the doctor, who was a proud man, and would have enjoyed being able to think of his daughter as an unusual girl.
Henry James
- Washinton Square
She was extremely fond of her father, and very much afraid of him; she thought him the cleverest and handsomest and most celebrated of men... Her deepest desire was to please him, and her conception of happiness was to know that she had succeeded in pleasing him. She had never succeeded beyond a certain point. Though, on the whole, he was very kind to her, she was perfectly aware of this, and to go beyond the point in question seemed to her really something to live for.
Henry James
- Washington Square
For a man whose trade was to keep people alive he had certainly done poorly in his own family; and a bright doctor who within three years loses his wife and his little boy should perhaps be prepared to see either his skill or his affection impugned. Our friend, however, escaped criticism; that is, he escaped all criticism but his own, which was much the most competent and most formidable.
Henry James
- Washington Square
Two years later Mrs. Sloper gave birth to a second infant - an infant of a sex which rendered the poor child, to the doctor's sense, an inadequate substitute for his lamented firstborn, or whom he had promised himself to make an admirable man. The little girl was a disappointment; but this was not the worst. A week after her birth the young mother, who, as the phrase is, had been doing well, suddenly betrayed alarming symptoms, and before another week had elapsed Austen Sloper was a widower.
Emily Bronte
- Wuthering Heights
Mr. Heathcliff was there - laid on his back. His eyes met mine so keen and fierce, I started; and then he seemed to smile. I could not think him dead: but his face and throat were washed with rain; the bed-clothes dripped, and he was perfectly still. The lattice, flapping to and fro, had grazed one hand that rested on the sill; no blood trickled from the broken skin, and when I put my fingers to it, I could doubt no more; he was dead and stark!
Emily Bronte
- Wuthering Heights
'Come in! Come in!' he sobbed. 'Cathy, do come. Oh do - once more! Oh! my heart's darling! Hear me this time, Catherine, at last!' The spectre showed a spectre's ordinary caprice; it gave no sign of being; but the snow and wind whirled wildly through, even reaching my station, and blowing out the light.
Oscar Wilde
- The Importance of Being Earnest
I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact.
Oscar Wilde
- The Importance of Being Earnest
To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.
