One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
George R. R. MartinRead
Once a man has seen a dragon in flight, let him stay home and tend his garden in content, someone had written once, for this wide world has no greater wonder." Tyrion scratched at his scar and tried to recall the author's name.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that experiencing something extraordinary makes everyday life seem more fulfilling and sufficient.
This quote reflects a philosophical perspective on the nature of wonder and satisfaction in life. It implies that once one has witnessed something as magnificent as a dragon in flight, the mundane aspects of daily life, like tending to a garden, become not just tolerable but enriching. The idea evokes the notion that extraordinary experiences amplify our appreciation for the simple joys and beauty of life.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to inspire people to appreciate the beauty in their daily lives.
One of the great things about books is you can afford to do anything.
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: “Not today.
I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.’ He turned to face the hall, that sea of pale faces. ‘I wish I had enough poison for you all. You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, yet there it is. I am innocent, but I will get no justice here.
But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.
I write from this tight third-person viewpoint, where each chapter is seen through the eyes of one individual character. When I'm writing that character, I become that character and identify with that character.
Zionism itself has paradoxically come to adopt some antisemitic logic in its hatred of Jews who do not fully identify with the politics of the state of Israel. Their target, the figure of the Jew who doubts the Zionist project, is constructed in the same way as the European antisemites constructed the figures of the Jew – he is dangerous because he lives among us, but is not really one of us.
Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
The light that Yoga sheds on life is something special. It is transformative. It does not just change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.
In our leisure we reveal what kind of people we are.
The fancies of wine are authentic events.
Patriotic feelings will surely swell, prompting proud proclamations of the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice shared by the Framers and reflected in a written document now yellowed with age . . . [F]or many Americans the bicentennial celebration will be little more than a blind pilgrimage to the shrine of the original document now stored in a vault in the National Archives. [Progressive]
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