Colleen McCullough Quotes

His sudden and utterly overwhelming panic was over almost before it began; but not quickly enough. In the midst of his brief yet total terror, the King of Pontus shat himself. It went everywhere, solid faeces mixed with what seemed an incredible amount of more liquid bowel contents, a stinking brown mess all over the gold-encrusted purple cloth of his cushion, trickling down the legs of his throne, running down his own legs into the manes of the golden lions upon the flaps of his boots, pooling and plopping on the deck around his feet when he jumped up. And there was nowhere to go! He could not conceal it from the amazed eyes of his attendants and officers, he could not conceal it from the sailors below amidships who had looked up instinctively to make sure their King was safe.

And gradually his memory slipped a little, as memories do, even those with so much love attached to them; as if there is an unconscious healing process within the mind which mends us in spite of our desperate determination never to forget.

It’s Fortune,” he said. “I was given the hardest consulship a man has ever had. Just as I was given the hardest life a man has ever had. I’m not the kind to surrender, and I’m not the kind to care how I win. There are plenty of eggs in the cups and plenty of dolphins down. But the race won’t be over until I’m dead.

There is something terribly reassuring about being in politics to enrich oneself. It’s normal. It’s human. It’s forgivable. It’s understandable. The ones to watch are the ones who are in politics to change the world. They do the real damage, the power-men and the altruists

Cerība ir visnežēlīgākā pavadone, un reizēm otram vislabāk var palīdzēt, nogalinot viņā bezcerīgu cerību.

she sat rocking his head back and forth, back and forth, until his grief expended itself in emptiness.

Có một truyền thuyết kể về con chim chỉ hót một lần trong đời, nhưng hót hay nhất thế gian.

Có lần nó rời tổ bay đi tìm bụi mận gai và tìm cho bằng được mới thôi. Giữa đám cành gai góc, nó cất tiếng hát bài ca của mình và lao ngực vào chiếc gai dài nhất, nhọn nhất. Vượt lên trên nỗi đau khôn tả, nó vừa hót vừa lịm dần và tiếng ca hân hoan ấy đáng cho cả sơn ca và họa mi phải ghen tị. Bài ca duy nhất có một không hai phải đổi bằng tính mạng mới có được. Nhưng cả thế gian đi lắng nghe và chính thượng đế trên thiên đình cũng mỉm cười.

Bởi vì tất cả những gì tốt đẹp nhất chỉ có thể có được khi ta chịu trả giá bằng nỗi đau khổ vĩ đại… — Tiếng chim hót trong bụi mận gai

The world achieved its ultimate contraction, turned in upon itself, and totally disappeared.

What could death be for him but the entrance into everlasting life? For the rest of us, the passage is not so easy.

Что толку томиться по человеку, если он все равно твоим никогда не будет?

Duty, the most indecent of all obsessions, was only another name for love.

Dr. Murray made it clear to me before I left that a woman who enhoys the Act is as loose as a harlot. God gives pleasure in it only to husbands. Women are the source of evil and temptation, therefore women are to blame when men fall into fleshly error. It was Eve who seduced Adam, Eve who entered into league with the serpent, who was the Devil in disguise. So the only pleasure women are allowed is in their children.

The lioness in Rome is quiet. I will not wake her to seek more money.

if you only shine lights on your flaws, all your perfects will dim

As separações são o que mais custa, Tim! É muito difícil aceitá-las, principalmente quando gostávamos dessa pessoa. A separação significa que depois disso nunca mais somos os mesmos, que perdemos qualquer coisa, uma parte de nós mesmo que nunca mais reencontramos nem pode ser substituída. Mas temos de passar por muitas separações, Tim, porque fazem parte da vida, tal e qual como conhecer pessoas novas.