To what extent does anybody control his destiny? Life is very much like falling of the edge of a cliff. You have complete freedom to make all the choices you want to take on your way down. My characters choose to yearn and not lose hope even when the...
The decision to be positive is not one that disregards or belittles the sadness that exists. It is rather a conscious choice to focus on the good and to cultivate happiness--genuine happiness. Happiness is not a limited resource. And when we devote o...
This is the picture of a woman cast in the role of a learner, a pupil, even a rabbinic student. Quite obviously this is a prohibited role for women in those days and in that culture. Yet Jesus affirms Mary in that role. Martha, however, rebukes her. ...
But as in the degrees of sickness thou art to submit to God, so in the kind of it (supposing equal degrees) thou art to be altogether indifferent whether God call thee by a consumption or an asthma, by a dropsy or palsy, by a fever in thy humours, or...
Later, in my adulthood, I will read the book again, even watch the movie, and understand that I wasn’t equipped, as a child, to make room for arguments that would undermine every single choice made for me, that would shatter the foundations of my v...
Is it possible that our world still knows better how to deal with a bandit, a murderer, and insurrectionist than it knows what to do with the Prince of Peace? There is a sense in which an assassin's attempt on the pope's life is less shocking to our ...
Wooderson: Man, it's the same bullshit they tried to pull in my day. If it ain't that piece of paper, there's some other choice they're gonna try and make for you. You gotta do what Randall Pink Floyd wants to do man. Let me tell you this, the older ...
Gill: You see that filter? Nemo: Yeah. Gill: You're the only one small enough to get in and out of that thing. All you have to do swim inside, jam a pebble in the fan, and swim out. Once you do that, this tank is going to get filthier and filthier, a...
Harry Potter: I have to go back, haven't I? Professor Albus Dumbledore: Oh, that's up to you. Harry Potter: I have a choice? Professor Albus Dumbledore: Oh, yes. We're in King's Cross, you say? I think, if you so desired, you'd be able to board a tra...
[a Gronkle is let out into the training ring] Gobber: Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need? Hiccup: A doctor? Fishlegs: Plus five speed? Astrid: A shield! Gobber: Shield! Go! [th...
Dolores Umbridge: [after Snape leaves] Very well. You give me no choice, Potter. As this is an issue of Ministry security, you leave me with no alternative. The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue. Hermione Granger: [glaring at Umbridge] That...
Col. Milt: [gesturing towards a pile of books] You read them all? Marco: Yeah, they also make great insulation against an enemy attack! But the, uh, truth of the matter is that I'm just interested, you know, in, uh, Principles of Modern Banking and, ...
Blofeld: Three men were found dead on the Orient Express train at Trieste. One of them was Grant. What have you got to say about that Number Five? Kronsteen: It was Klebb's choice. Her people failed. Rosa Klebb: It was your plan they followed implici...
Herman Blume: [on Max's offering a small box] What's this? [Herman opens it and looks] Max Fischer: That's the Perfect Attendance Award and the Punctuality Award. I got those at Rushmore. I thought you could choose which one you like more, and you co...
Lisa: What's he doing? Cleaning house? Jeff: He's washing and scrubbing down the bathroom walls. Stella: Must've splattered a lot. [both Jeff and Lisa look at Stella with disgust] Stella: Come on, that's what were all thinkin'. He killed her in there...
Nathan Landau: On this bridge on which so many great Americans writers stood and reached out for words to give America its voice... looking toward the land that gave them Whitman... from its Eastern edge dreamt his country's future and gave it words....
Stingo: [groping interrupted] What is going on! Leslie Lapidus: You don't understand. I can't go all the way. I've reached a plateau in my analysis. Before I reached this plateau of vocalization, I could never have said any of those words. Those Angl...
[last lines] Stingo: And so ended my voyage of discovery in a place as strange as Brooklyn. I let go the rage and sorrow for Sophie and Nathan, and the many others who were but a few of the butchered and betrayed and martyred children of the earth. W...
Bones: You were barely dead, it was the transfusion that really took its toll. You were in a coma for two weeks. James T. Kirk: Transfusion? Bones: Your cells were heavily irradiated. We had no choice. James T. Kirk: Khan? Bones: We synthesized a ser...
Little Bonaparte: [thick Italian accent] Thank you, fellow opera-lovers. It's been ten years since I elected myself president of dis organization... an' if I say so myself, you made duh right choice. Let's look at duh record: In duh lass fissel year ...
Elinor Dashwood: You talk of feeling idle and useless. Imagine how that is compounded when one has no hope and no choice of any occupation whatsoever. Edward Ferrars: Our circumstances are therefore precisely the same. Elinor Dashwood: Except that yo...