between the world and me quotations (other)

ta-nehisi coates - between the world and me

"Marriage was presented to us as a shield against other women, other men, or the corrosive monotony of dirty socks and dishwashing." (65-66)

"She said to me, 'You take care of my daughter.' When she got out of the car, my world had shifted. I felt that I had crossed some threshold, out of the foyer of my life and into the living room. Everything that was the past seemed to be another life. There was before you, and then there was after, and in this after you were the God I'd never had. I submitted before your needs, and I knew then that I must survive for something more than survival's sake. I must survive for you." (66)

"Perhaps struggle is all we have because the god of history is an atheist, and nothing about his world is meant to be. So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope." (71)

"The robbery of time is not measured in lifespans but in moments. It is the last bottle of wine that you have just uncorked but do not have time to drink. It is the kiss that you do not have the time to share, before she walks out of your life. It is the raft of second chances for them, and twenty-three-hour days for us." (91) [my bold]

Solzhenitsyn - To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. (98)