In quoting others, we cite ourselves.

A blog of quotes from books I've read and loved

[quotes-for-the-soul]

There is a vast chasm between a dish of tiny dry-fried slivers of beef, celery, and ginger, done in the Sichuan style, seasoned with chili-bean paste and Shaoxing wine in a careful balance of flavors; and a French steak, bloodied and whole, supplied at the table with a sharp knife for cutting and mustard to add flavor, according to the whim of the diner. The two represent diverse worldviews. It is the gulf between a culture of chopping and one of carving.

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Done by hand, griding, pounding, heating, and sieving are among the most laborious of all kitchen tasks. The really striking thing, therefore, is how little impetus there was--until very recently--to develop labor-saving devices; and how little change there was in the basic equipment used. For thousands of years, servants and slaves--or in lesser households, wives and daughters--were stuck with the same pestles and sieves, with few innovations. The technological stagnation reflects a harsh truth. There was very little interest in attempting to save labor when the labor in question was not your own.

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson

[quotes-for-the-soul]

As children we're taught to be afraid of tigers and lions. Nobody taught us what I know today. The most dangerous animal in the world is a man with wounded pride.

Honor by Thrity Umrigar

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Sometimes it seemed to Smita that the history of the world was written in female blood.

Honor by Thrity Umrigar

[quotes-for-the-soul]

A heart, sometimes, breaks slowly and without ceremony.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

With enough repetition, anything can become a religion.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

I love all manner of homecoming, all manner of coming home. I love whatever will send a people into the streets, or whatever will get someone to fire up a grill, even if they don't really know what to do after the fire arrives except stand over it, poke at something with a fork and throw their head back, laughing into the breeze when someone calls them on their inability to get food moving from the heat to the plate.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

What is real and not real is sometimes simply a matter of who is witnessing the miracle and who can be tricked into a suspension of disbelief at the altar of light.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

You get what I mean now about the things people believe you deserve to have. It isn't just about the car or the shoes or the platinum chain as objects, though it is a little about that, too. It's about a history of America selling dreams back to its people for so long that that they stopped knowing what to do when someone they wanted to keep at arm's length also got to buy into the fantasy.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

It is one thing to experience death and another to understand it to be possible on its own terms. To grasp the certainty of its arrival but still cling to a hope for that certainty to come in a very specific way, at a very specific time, after a life that has fulfilled all its promise. Death, ushering a person toward an upturned beam of light after they've thrown up their hands and said 'Thank you, my life has been good. I want to see the people I miss'.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

I propose, once again, that you are, in part, who loves you. Who might step outside of themselves to find whatever will heal you.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Tourists believe the hood is a monolith, not an ecosystem that can function differently from block to block, from corner to corner.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Lord, the gray won't stop coming, and for once, my arms are open to it. Lord, I have lived long enough to look like my father, though I might fight it.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

I come to you today with gratitude in knowing the fight cannot be won. Let the hair turn its drab colors and, perhaps, slowly begin to depart down the drain. Let the pain in the knee linger as a reminder that movement might one day come with a price, if I am lucky enough to make it that long. Yes, Lord, I am thankful today again for every reminder of how I have outlived my worst imagination. I will walk slowly through the garden of all that could have killed me but didn't.

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

[quotes-for-the-soul]

The sea, too, is very good at keeping secrets.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

[quotes-for-the-soul]

You can't fix someone who is determined to stay broken.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Being a parent is not for the faint of heart.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt